Legal Question in Business Law in Utah

rights to restrict person from coming in business

We offer consignment to artists. We have an artist that kept calling multiple times to ask if his item sold, then he'd call to ask us how to run a business because he was starting his own. He became very annoying so we didn't return ALL of his calls. We put one of his items on lay away with a customer, being that he has it in our store to sell. When he found out about this, he gave his 30 days notice of consignment termination and said ''lay aways'' were not in the contract and wants his table back. When I asked where his behavior came from, he said it was because we didn't get back to him when he'd call and when he emailed, and I emailed him back, telling him his table is being sold on layaway, this was ''not in the contract''. We have since found another Company to make another table for the customer, and would like this artist to remove his table from our store. We will also ask for Police Supervision to oversee the peace. Our question is can we, either in a notice, or when the police is here, state that we do NOT want this man in our store or nearby our store front after he picks up his table AND he tried to threaten to take us to Small Claims if he doesn't get his table back. Could he have done that? Thanks!


Asked on 4/04/03, 9:30 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Alvin Lundgren Alvin R. Lundgren, L.C.

Re: rights to restrict person from coming in business

You should have a written agreement to govern the terms of consignment, including your rights to sell and the rights of the artist to reclaim property.

You can tell the man not to return, but the only way to enforce it is to obtain a restraining order - which requires a showing that he is harassing or threatening you.

Almost anyone can take you to small claims court. The question is whether they could win. In your case, it would depend on any written agreements. You could always buy the table from him and the take payments on layaway.

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Answered on 4/04/03, 9:43 am


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