Michael Cochrum v. National Bugmobiles, Inc.

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 11, 2018
Docket13-17-00196-CV
StatusPublished

This text of Michael Cochrum v. National Bugmobiles, Inc. (Michael Cochrum v. National Bugmobiles, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Cochrum v. National Bugmobiles, Inc., (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

NUMBER 13-17-00196-CV

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG

MICHAEL COCHRUM, Appellant,

v.

NATIONAL BUGMOBILES, INC., Appellee.

On appeal from the 24th District Court of Victoria County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Chief Justice Valdez and Justices Longoria and Hinojosa Memorandum Opinion by Justice Hinojosa

In the trial court, appellee National Bugmobiles, Inc., a pest control company, sued

appellant Michael Cochrum, a pest control technician, for breach of contract shortly after

Cochrum resigned from Bugmobiles and immediately joined Stout Pest Control, another

pest control company. Bugmobiles obtained a temporary injunction that Cochrum, by two issues, asks us to modify. First, Cochrum argues that the temporary injunction is

void under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 683 because it fails to define in reasonable

detail and without reference to the pleadings and documents the acts to be restrained.

Second, in what we classify as four sub-issues, Cochrum argues that the evidence is

legally and factually insufficient to support: (a) the geographic restrictions; (b) the

customer restrictions; (c) the trial court’s finding that Bugmobiles would suffer a probable,

imminent, and irreparable injury in the interim; and (d) the amount of the bond. We

modify the temporary injunction and affirm it as modified.

I. BACKGROUND 1

At the hearing on Bugmobiles’s application for a temporary injunction, the trial court

heard from James Kiening, the president of Bugmobiles, and Cochrum. Cochrum, who

lacks a college degree, started working at Bugmobiles after working for several years

selling life insurance at first, then Yamahas, and ultimately Fords. The record does not

specify whether Bugmobiles apprised Cochrum of the provisions in the employment

agreement before he accepted its job offer. Nevertheless, Cochrum signed an

employment agreement on March 22, 2004, before starting as an apprentice technician

at Bugmobiles. The employment agreement contains, among other things, non-

solicitation and non-competition provisions that provide:

10. Diversion of Business. The Employee shall not, during the period of employment by the Employer and following termination of employment (whether such termination be with or without cause) either for the Employee or on behalf of any person, firm, corporation, or any other operation or entity, directly or indirectly:

1 Because this is a memorandum opinion and the parties are familiar with the facts, we will not

recite them here except as necessary to advise the parties of the Court’s decision and the basic reasons for it. See TEX. R. APP. P. 47.4. 2 10.1 Divert or attempt to divert from the Employer any business whatsoever by influencing or attempting to influence, or soliciting or attempting to solicit any of the customers of the Employer with whom Employee may have dealt at any time or who were customers of the Employer on the date of termination of the Employee’s employment or had been customers of the Employer thereto; or

10.2 Divert or attempt to divert from the Employer any person employed by the Employer by influencing or attempting to influence such person to leave Employer’s employ.

11. Non-Compete Clause. For a period of two (2) years from the termination of employment, the Employee shall not, either for the Employee or on behalf of any other person, firm, corporation, or any other operation or entity, directly or indirectly own, control, or participate in the ownership or control of, or be employed by on [sic] behalf of, any business which is similar to and is competitive with the business of the Employer within a seventy- five (75) mile radius of Employer’s locations in, but not limited to, Bay City, Cuero, Edna, El Campo, Goliad, Karnes City, La Grange, Luling, Palacios, Port Lavaca, Rockport, Runge, Schulenburg, and Victoria—all locations in TEXAS.

The employment agreement, Cochrum’s resignation letter, one of Cochrum’s

paystubs from Bugmobiles, a list of Bugmobiles’s customers that Cochrum serviced, and

an employee handbook were admitted into evidence by the trial court during the hearing

on Bugmobiles’s application for a temporary injunction. Kiening testified as to

Bugmobiles’s employment agreement, business model, service area, training, and

investments in marketing and dissemination or protection of customer lists. Cochrum

discussed some of the same topics and his resignation and endeavors at Stout Pest

Control.

A. Employment Agreement

Kiening explained that Bugmobiles employs approximately twenty-five technicians,

3 and it requires that all employees, including non-technicians, sign an employment

agreement that contains non-solicitation and non-disclosure provisions similar to the one

Cochrum signed. Such employment agreements are, according to Kiening, common in

the pest control industry.

B. Business Model

Kiening characterized Bugmobiles’s business model as “unique” in that it

encourages employees to develop relationships with customers. Kiening posited that

other pest control companies purposefully rotate technicians to avoid the development of

such relationships. Cochrum echoed an emphasis on customer relationships. During

Cochrum’s approximately thirteen years at Bugmobiles, he helped customers by burying

dogs, “fixing beds,” answering their late-night phone calls, and giving one customer a TV.

C. Service Area

Bugmobiles’s service area extends around Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi,

and Houston. Cochrum’s service area for the approximately 300 Bugmobiles customers

consisted of Calhoun, Jackson, and Matagorda counties. According to Kiening, any

Bugmobiles technician may service any customer throughout Bugmobiles’s territory. In

accordance with this policy, Kiening recalled that Cochrum once provided service to a

customer as far away as Schulenburg.

D. Training

Kiening insisted that Bugmobiles’s technicians received specialized training that

consisted of two parts: formal education and access to experienced technicians. Each

technician receives eight hours of continuing education, the state minimum, and, in

4 Keining’s words, “a lot more than that.” Kiening highlighted Bugmobiles’s experienced

technicians, noting that Bugmobiles’s technicians may call him or one of their supervisors

and say, “I have a so-and-so. Can we do it?” In response, Keining or one of

Bugmobiles’s “experienced technicians” would generally answer, “Yes, we can. We’ll

get down there and take care of it. We will show you how to do it.”

Cochrum characterized Bugmobiles’s training as “basic” rather than “specialized”

because it primarily consisted of merely shadowing a different technician every day.

Cochrum noted that “it could be different from one tech—from one technician to another,

because one may do something his way. One may do it this way. One may use this.

The other may use this.” Cochrum commented that the continuing education programs

were presented by one of the four pesticide manufacturers that supplied Bugmobiles with

the pesticides that its technicians used. These pesticides are, in Cochrum’s estimation,

similar to but more potent than those available at retailers such as Home Depot or Lowe’s.

E. Business Investments

Kiening estimated that Bugmobiles has approximately 20,000 customers, and he

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