Robinson v. U-Haul Co. of California

Opinion

STREETER, J.—

I. INTRODUCTION

Nearly 10 years ago, appellant U-Haul Company of California (UHC) 1 sued respondent Leigh Robinson, one of UHC’s independent dealers, for breach of contract and unfair competition after he terminated their contract and began renting Budget trucks from what was formerly a UHC dealership (Robinson I). UHC alleged a covenant not to compete in the UHC dealer contract prohibited Robinson from offering the products of UHC’s competitors while a Yellow Pages ad, running at UHC’s expense, was still promoting Robinson’s business as a U-Haul dealership. Robinson filed…