I read in a prominent businessman's autobio that his father once pulled off quite a "property acquisition" coup.
It went like this: X had a small manufacturing business making B2B products. The factory rented its premises on a long-term lease from an industrial property landlord. The landlord was getting on and wished to sell up his properties. So he offers to sell X the premises of both his own factory plus the neighboring factory (whose owner has refused the offer of premises purchase) on the estate for some consideration, say £50,000. X cannot in truth raise even £5,000. But he agrees to think it over for a month. In the meantime he approaches the manager of the neighboring factory - a salaried employee with no stake in the company he covets running and expanding - and offers him the chance to buy his employer's premises for £50,000. The factory manager agrees and, after an agreement to buy is drawn up and signed by the neighboring factory manager, has no problem raising the funds to buy both premises. So X has now effectively "bought" his own premises for little or nothing.
This acquisition of an employer's premises immediately seemed to me to be a breach of the factory manager's implied terms of his service contract.
It effectively gives him a negotiating tool in his relations with his employer that a subordinate could not possibly resist using and which an employer could not help fearing he would use.
But I am not a contract lawyer.
Opinions, anyone ?
It went like this: X had a small manufacturing business making B2B products. The factory rented its premises on a long-term lease from an industrial property landlord. The landlord was getting on and wished to sell up his properties. So he offers to sell X the premises of both his own factory plus the neighboring factory (whose owner has refused the offer of premises purchase) on the estate for some consideration, say £50,000. X cannot in truth raise even £5,000. But he agrees to think it over for a month. In the meantime he approaches the manager of the neighboring factory - a salaried employee with no stake in the company he covets running and expanding - and offers him the chance to buy his employer's premises for £50,000. The factory manager agrees and, after an agreement to buy is drawn up and signed by the neighboring factory manager, has no problem raising the funds to buy both premises. So X has now effectively "bought" his own premises for little or nothing.
This acquisition of an employer's premises immediately seemed to me to be a breach of the factory manager's implied terms of his service contract.
It effectively gives him a negotiating tool in his relations with his employer that a subordinate could not possibly resist using and which an employer could not help fearing he would use.
But I am not a contract lawyer.
Opinions, anyone ?