Grand Rapids - The ruling is in for a case involving Quixtar, a branch of the Alticor Corporation. Kent County Judge Paul Sullivan ruled largely in favor of Quixtar. The Judge issued three separate opinions this morning.
In one case, Judge Sullivan ordered a preliminary injunction in favor of Quixtar against Independent Business Owners (IBO) Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady. Woodward and Brady are the founders of TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) a group that was formerly associated with Quixtar and sold motivational materials like books and tapes. This order prevents the IBO's, who have been terminated by Quixtar, from using their Line of Sponsorship information to sell or promote competing products. It also orders them not to recruit others to compete with Quixtar, and bans them from disparaging Quixtar.
In a second case, involving the Independent Business Owners Association International, Judge Sullivan ordered Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady, and other IBO's to stop using or distributing confidential information they learned while they were a part of the IBOAI. He also ordered these confidential materials be returned to the IBOAI by Tuesday, August 28, 2007.
In a third case, involving a group of IBO's who did not want to sign an allegiance document to Quixtar, the judge refused to grant them a preliminary injunction. The IBO's involved in the Mossner v. Quixtar case were not terminated by the company, but were asked to disassociate themselves from TEAM and its leaders Woodward and Brady. The judge wrote that the IBO's have the choice of signing the Quixtar materials or going through a dispute resolution process if they disagree with the company. The decision brought smiles at Alticor headquarters in Ada. Alticor Director of Corporate Communication Rob Zeiger says, ?We think it was a common sense decision. We think that all we asked was people honor their contracts, abide by agreements, play by the rules as they understood them and had agreed to them." But Chris De Witt, a spokesperson for the IBO's says quote, "Big bad Quixtar won one court challenge over the little guy at home in Kent County. When Quixtar goes on the road they have lost ten times with four pending." Other judges around the country have granted ten temporary restraining orders against Quixtar, and four others are pending. However, those cases have not made it to the same stage as the Grand Rapids case.
In Kent County court Thursday, IBO attorney John Anding admitted his clients faced an uphill battle. He said, ?Here we are, we're standing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We've got DeVos and Van Andel all over this town. Our clients understand that they're swimming upstream here." But, Rob Zeiger of Alticor thinks Judge Sullivan's decision is only the first. He says, ?I think the people that brought that suit are 0 for 3 so far. They don't have the facts on their side. They don't have the law on their side. I think that trend is going to continue." The biggest court battle left between Quixtar and some of its IBO's will be in a California courtroom on September 12th. The IBO's are accusing Quixtar of being an illegal pyramid scheme.
Amy FoxIn your voice
