In every Franchise Agreement, the franchisor and franchisee promise to fulfill obligations to the other. For some promises, whether or not they were performed can be a clear "yes" or "no." For example: either a franchisee paid the royalty to the franchisor on the specified date of the month, or it did not - there is usually no third option. However, other obligations - such as a franchisor's promise to provide the franchisee with "support" - may be vague. How much assistance and what kind of help a Franchisor must provide may not be clear. These are judgment calls that may ultimately be presented to a jury as questions to decide at trial.
In Anne Armstrong v. Curves International, Inc., franchisees owning 83 locations sued Curves International, the franchisor of 30-minute women's gyms, after suffering losses in their Curves businesses. The franchisees claimed their losses were due to Curves not giving them support promised in their franchise agreements. The agreements said Curves would "make available certain services," followed by a list of services that "may" be included, such as opening assistance, pre-opening training, periodic reviews of franchisee operations, periodic training, ongoing support, and advertising data and advice. The franchisees claimed they generally did not receive any of the promised assistance.
As evidence of their losses, the franchisees provided tax returns, and a statement by Curves' founder that Curves felt "a reasonable return on the franchise was probably $30,000 a year," though no level of profit was guaranteed by the agreements.
Curves moved to dismiss the claims, arguing that the agreements stated only that Curves "may" provide the listed services. Curves also argued that clauses allowing it to exercise "business judgment" gave it "unquestionable discretion" regarding support it provided, as long as its decisions were intended to or could benefit the entire Curves system. Curves presented evidence that it provided franchisees with local marketing materials, and informed franchisees of other advertising initiatives Curves was pursuing.
A jury found that Curves breached its contracts, and awarded the franchisees more than $1.5 million. This included individual plaintiff awards ranging from $0 to $143,928. Counsel for the franchisees stated that the franchisees were pleased with the award, which they calculated to have compensated them for approximately 80 percent of their losses. Curves stated that it strongly disagreed with the decision and plans to file post-trial motions and potentially appeal the verdict.
Had Curves been able to point to text in the agreements literally stating it had no obligation to provide certain services, or that it actually had "unquestionable discretion" to decide what support to provide to franchisees, the outcome may have been different. As it was, the jury had to decide if franchisees received the reasonable support they paid for.
Read: Armstrong v. Curves International, Inc. - 6:15-cv-00294-SDD, Order on Motion for Summary Judgment, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
