Springfield Tent & Awning Co. v. Rice

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harman, C.:

Plaintiff brought this action for damages against defendant Ruskin Rice for breach of a contract not to compete and against the remaining defendants for inducing and participating in that breach. Upon trial at the close of plaintiffs evidence the trial court directed a verdict in favor of defendants and plaintiff has appealed from that ruling.

The trial court based its ruling upon two grounds: The contract sued upon was invalid and unenforceable, and plaintiff’s evidence failed to establish that defendants had caused plaintiff to sustain any…