Q: Was offered partnership to create new division of company. After a year he fired me. He kept everything. Is that legal?
I created new division separate from existing company to engage in an area of the industry he wasn't . Only shared name and license numbers. Everything else, I made. Forms, branding, procedures, had my own employees, payroll, books even had to pay him rent for offices. I would become a partner after a year of working for less than minimum wage. My fiance used to manage my previous company doing this same job. She also worked, for an incredibly low wage amount. We were told to take only what we needed to pay our personal bills each month. The rest of what we would have been paid in normal wage amounts and all profit would be kept in it's own account so after the first year, that money could be used to start a break off company that we would be equal partners in. First all my employees got fired (one because she was a girl)my fiance gets fired and then I got let go. He says he couldn't fire because I'm a partner but in either case it's over. He kept the $340.4K and we have nothing.
A: You have a good claim for breach of contract, where the contract was an agreement that you perform services to set up the business in return for an ownership share. You completed your end of the agreement, but the other party failed to compensate you as agreed. The agreement may have been oral or written, or a combination. If you are able to prove the terms of agreement by witnesses and/or documents, you should be entitled to monetary damages. Consult an attorney qualified to litigate the matter in state court.
Yelena Gurevich agrees with this answer
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