North Pacific Lumber Co. v. Oliver

596 P.2d 931, 286 Or. 639 (1979)

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North Pacific Lumber Co. v. Oliver

Oregon Supreme Court
596 P.2d 931, 286 Or. 639 (1979)

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  • Written by Josh Lee, JD
North Pacific Lumber Co. v. Oliver

Facts

North Pacific Lumber Company (North Pacific) (plaintiff), a wholesaler of lumber products, employed Les Oliver (defendant) as a lumber trader in its hardwood division. As part of Oliver’s employment contract, he agreed to refrain from competing with North Pacific for two years following the termination of his employment. In April 1976, Oliver quit and shortly thereafter went to work for Tree Products Company, a competitor of North Pacific. North Pacific brought suit against Oliver. At trial, Oliver produced considerable evidence of fraudulent or otherwise activities by North Pacific, the most serious of which was that departmental managers encouraged fraudulent misrepresentation of settlement amounts when lumber traders settled disputes between suppliers and customers. North Pacific would pocket the difference between the settlement amount paid by one party and the amount received by the other party as profit. On the basis of these practices, the trial court denied enforcement of the employment contract on the ground of unclean hands. North Pacific appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Holman, J.)

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Casebooks

Remedies

Key Terms

  • Equity1. Fairness; justice. 2. The value of a property minus any mortgages or liens on it. 3. A branch of jurisprudence that arose in England as an alternative to the harsh common law, in which courts tried to determine what would be fair in a given situation instead of strictly applying law and precedent. Today in the U.S., courts of law and equity have merged for the most part, but equity still applies in situations where appropriate relief would be an injunction or specific performance instead of monetary damages or there is otherwise no remedy available at law.
  • Employment ContractA contract between employer and employee setting forth the terms and conditions of the employment relationship.
  • Unclean HandsAn equitable defense that precludes a party's recovery in a litigation if the party engaged in inequitable conduct related to claims in the litigation.

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