08/07/2022
Non-compete agreement? It's forcing a former employee in the Corpus Christi towing business to stop working for competing business.
Aaron Ayala, 30, was a former employees of Apollo Towing and now travels every single day, more than 100 miles, to Victoria, Texas. Ayala had to start his own towing business in agreement to not compete with Corpus Christi based company, Apollo Towing.
AAA Asset Recovery is owned by Aaron Ayala and has been in operation for more than 2 years, but now that several years have passed, Ayala feels the non-compete he signed was far reaching. In the non-compete and non-solicit agreements, Ayala agreed not to compete with Apollo Towing until after 8 years and also agreed no to go work for any towing business within 100 miles of Corpus Christi. Ayala says "these clauses are unreasonable and have stopped me from practicing my trade where I lived my whole life".
Apollo Towing trained Aaron Ayala to tow vehicles and to sell services to businesses, none of which are trade secrets or was he given any impropriety information. Can a Wal-Mart employee who was trained to use a cash register not be allowed to work at a nearby Target for 8 years? Some attorneys feel that this non-compete agreement by Apollo Towing shall be void and unenforceable due to being a burden on Ayala's rights, profession, and ability to compete.
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order, in which he described the nation’s antitrust laws as the “first line of defense against the monopolization of the American economy” and encouraged the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to “curtail the unfair use of non-compete clauses and other clauses or agreements that may unfairly limit worker mobility.”
Ayala is a respectable man in the towing industry and has always shown to go above and beyond when servicing Corpus Christi and Victoria when intergrity and honesty matter the most.
Certainly, this case is worth watching in the interest of promoting competition in the local towing market that has been under scrutiny for several years. Stay tuned.
