Rudd-Melikian, Inc. v. Henry T. Merritt, Doing Business as Coffee Service Co.

I cannot agree that appellee Merritt had an exclusive distributorship under his contract with appellant. Such an exclusive contract or franchise was essential to appellee’s recovery. The trial judge ruled as a matter of law that the contract in question did provide plaintiff with an exclusive franchise and so charged the jury. Nowhere in the contract is it provided that Merritt’s distributorship was to be an exclusive one. The needed attribute of exclusiveness, if it is to be found, must, therefore, be implied from the language employed in the contract or from the conduct of the parties. In…