Managers and the Legal Environment 7th Edition by David Madsen, Constance Bagley

Exercise 4

CRST Van Expedited, Inc., a trucking company, sponsors a driver training program to help its new hires become certified truck drivers. At a certain point in the training program, the driver trainer must sign a one-year employment contract with CRST if he or she wants to continue employment with the company. The employment contract provides that CRST will pay the costs associated with the training and certification but it requires the employee to reimburse a portion of these costs if he or she is terminated for cause or voluntarily quits. After obtaining their truck driver certifications at CRST's expense, two CRST employees were solicited for employment by Werner, a competitor. CRST claimed that Werner had a pattern of waiting for CRST to train drivers and then luring them away. Does CRST have any legal basis for suing Werner or the employees? If so, on what basis? What damages would be available? Did Werner act ethically? [CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. Werner Enterprises, Inc., 479 F.3d 1099 (9th Cir. 2007).]