Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9412220057
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Dwight E. Hodges also has agreed that for the next year he will not sell coffee, tea or other beverage supplies in the Roanoke Valley, the Allegheny Highlands or the eastern edge of West Virginia.
Hodges was the Western Virginia sales representative for S&D Coffee Inc. from 1986 until this July, when he was fired after company officials suspected he was misappropriating company funds and inventory for his own use.
In August, according to court records, Hodges opened Supreme Coffee Inc. of Virginia, which competed with S&D for customers.
S&D filed suit shortly after his new company started, saying Hodges was "in flagrant violation" of a contract he signed agreeing not to work for a competing distributor for at least a year after leaving S&D.
According to the suit filed in U.S. District Court, Hodges solicited business from his former S&D clients, including New Yorker Deli, Williamson Road Pancake House and Catawba Grocery.
S&D attorney John Fishwick Jr. said S&D thinks the settlement, filed with the court last week, sends a strong message that non-competition agreements must be honored. Fishwick said Hodges has repaid S&D.
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