Franchise and Dealership

Large franchisors typically enjoy enormous economic power and leverage over their franchisees. Abusing this power and unlawfully constraining and damaging franchisees, sometimes prove irresistible.

We've repeatedly gone to bat for franchisees when it counted the most. In Williams Wholesalers v. Anheuser-Busch, Anheuser-Busch prevented its Corpus Christi distributor from selling the business to a neighboring distributor for $60 million. Utilizing the Texas Beer Industry Fair Dealing Law, we brought suit on Williams Wholesale's behalf to hold Anheuser-Busch accountable for unreasonably withholding consent for the sale. After only a few months of pretrial discovery, the case was settled on confidential but extremely advantageous terms.

In B-C Equipment Sales, Inc. v. Link-Belt Construction Equipment Co., Link-Belt sought to wrongfully terminate its dealership and supply agreement to provide off-road construction and material handling equipment to B-C, posing a fatal threat to B-C's business. Our work ensured the continuation of the dealership agreement and B-C's business.

In Burns Motor, Inc. v. Payne Motor Group, we represented Burns in its suit against Payne for unlawfully delaying Burns' opening a new dealership near Payne's location. Acting in bad faith, after telling Burns it did not oppose the new location, Payne abused little-known administrative procedures in the Texas Transportation Code to oppose it for two years. The case settled favorably during trial.

In Flagler Automotive, Inc. v. Exxon Mobil and Dan Gill et al. v. Exxon Mobil, we represent Exxon service station dealers persuaded by Exxon to buy gas under a "volume incentive" purchase plan, only to find that Exxon hiked the price of gas to offset the promised rebates. These cases, brought as national and state class actions, are pending.

We look forward to working with you to protect your or your client's rights as a dealer or franchisee.