My question involves business law in the state of: Michigan
I run a home care agency. Recently, I had an employee who was working for an elderly client with dementia. This client was their own Power of Attorney, but clearly they were unable to handle their own personal affairs anymore. The clients health declined and they ended up going into the hospital. We stopped billing for our services and we no longer scheduled our employee to be with him.
We just became aware that when the client was in the hospital our employee was visiting the client often, without telling us. During this time the client wrote $1630 worth of checks made of to our employee. The employee cashed the checks and never said anything about it to us.
When we hired this employee we made them sign a non-compete agreement with us which reads as such:
I agree not to directly or indirectly solicit Clients of COMAPNY or accept employment from any COMPANY Client, Client’s family or other agency that provides similar services to any current or past COMPANY Clients within 12 months after my employment ends with COMPANY.
In the event that I breach this agreement, I recognize that the Company will suffer irreparable injury and that an adequate remedy at law will not exist. I agree and acknowledge that the Company is entitled to injunctive relief, in addition to any other remedy available to it and that the Company is entitled to liquidate damages in the amount of $9,500.00 plus attorney fees and costs.
The clients family just became aware that the client wrote the checks in question. The family questioned the client and of course the client doesn't even remember writing the checks. Once the family became aware of this they attempted to contact us and the employee, both us and the family were unable to contact the employee for several days. The family told me they were going to contact the authorities and I agreed with their decision. I called the employee one last time left them a voicemail stating what the family's intent was.
The employee obviously got the message because they almost immediately called me back. They were so upset that the family was going to call the police that the employee told me they had contacted their attorney. During our conversation the employee admitted they felt the client needed to pay them separately because the client was so difficult to work with and they felt they deserved it. The employee have a lot of strong negative feeling towards the client. The employee acknowledges they were in the wrong and has committed to pay back the monies on 12-22-17. The fact that the employee already contacted their attorney has me concerned because they wouldn't tell me why, even after admitting they were in the wrong by accepting monies directly from the client.
Given the employees actions up until this point I don't trust that they'll make good on their commitment to pay back. The family is looking at me to make good on everything so I'm not 100% sure what I should do here. Should I attempt to sue the employee for $9,500 in line with our non-compete agreement? Should I make a claim against my bond insurance? Should I tell the family it's their problem and they need to sort it out with the employee directly? Or should I just wait it out and see if the employee sticks with their commitment, and if they don't would I or the family have lost any legal edge by waiting?
The icing on the cake here is the employee obviously had malicious intent and the family is just now digging into everything. I'm worried they'll find other things my employee did that they'll blame me for.
I run a home care agency. Recently, I had an employee who was working for an elderly client with dementia. This client was their own Power of Attorney, but clearly they were unable to handle their own personal affairs anymore. The clients health declined and they ended up going into the hospital. We stopped billing for our services and we no longer scheduled our employee to be with him.
We just became aware that when the client was in the hospital our employee was visiting the client often, without telling us. During this time the client wrote $1630 worth of checks made of to our employee. The employee cashed the checks and never said anything about it to us.
When we hired this employee we made them sign a non-compete agreement with us which reads as such:
I agree not to directly or indirectly solicit Clients of COMAPNY or accept employment from any COMPANY Client, Client’s family or other agency that provides similar services to any current or past COMPANY Clients within 12 months after my employment ends with COMPANY.
In the event that I breach this agreement, I recognize that the Company will suffer irreparable injury and that an adequate remedy at law will not exist. I agree and acknowledge that the Company is entitled to injunctive relief, in addition to any other remedy available to it and that the Company is entitled to liquidate damages in the amount of $9,500.00 plus attorney fees and costs.
The clients family just became aware that the client wrote the checks in question. The family questioned the client and of course the client doesn't even remember writing the checks. Once the family became aware of this they attempted to contact us and the employee, both us and the family were unable to contact the employee for several days. The family told me they were going to contact the authorities and I agreed with their decision. I called the employee one last time left them a voicemail stating what the family's intent was.
The employee obviously got the message because they almost immediately called me back. They were so upset that the family was going to call the police that the employee told me they had contacted their attorney. During our conversation the employee admitted they felt the client needed to pay them separately because the client was so difficult to work with and they felt they deserved it. The employee have a lot of strong negative feeling towards the client. The employee acknowledges they were in the wrong and has committed to pay back the monies on 12-22-17. The fact that the employee already contacted their attorney has me concerned because they wouldn't tell me why, even after admitting they were in the wrong by accepting monies directly from the client.
Given the employees actions up until this point I don't trust that they'll make good on their commitment to pay back. The family is looking at me to make good on everything so I'm not 100% sure what I should do here. Should I attempt to sue the employee for $9,500 in line with our non-compete agreement? Should I make a claim against my bond insurance? Should I tell the family it's their problem and they need to sort it out with the employee directly? Or should I just wait it out and see if the employee sticks with their commitment, and if they don't would I or the family have lost any legal edge by waiting?
The icing on the cake here is the employee obviously had malicious intent and the family is just now digging into everything. I'm worried they'll find other things my employee did that they'll blame me for.
Business Disputes: Employee Wrongfully Taking Money from an Elderly Client
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