What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon
Ok, this situation is a bit convoluted, a little complicated, more than a little sad, and highly frustrating.
Here is the shortened version (I know it's still long, but this is a complicated situation): my former girlfriend of 18 months and I went into business together back in September. She is a Chiropractor. We founded the company as an S-Corp with both of us as employees who are payed monthly salaries. She did the Chiro work and I worked as her office manager in charge of everything as well as her CA (Chiropractic Assistant) doing deep tissue massage on select patients (mostly to save her hands). We signed a six month contract of employment effective from Sept 15th, 2008 - March 15th, 2009. I helped with the initial investment in several thousand dollars of start-up costs, equipment, and time even before we created this contract. In all, I invested at least $5000 of my own money as well as 2 weeks of my time to set up the new office location. In this contract we included several addendums, one of which indicates my employment was "guaranteed" in the form of a severance package equal to the remaining salary of the contract if I should be terminated. There was also an addendum about requiring a 30 day notice for termination in order to give me time to find new work should we dissolve our working relationship.
Our relationship fell apart due to some external factors that resulted in some not-so-good arguments. One argument resulted in the neighbors calling the police and despite the fact that there was no physical contact on either side, I went to jail for a night (this was quite the experience to go through considering all we had was a shouting match). She asked the police not to take me to jail and did not press charges, so the "DV - Menacing" charge was thrown out at the arraingment. A week later, despite absolutely no contact from me aside from trying to fulfill her wishes for exchanging items, she filed a restraining order against me. During this time we had no face-to-face contact and I dropped off items for her one time at the place we shared together when she was at work. Two days later, she claimed someone put "mud" in the middle console of her Honda civic. Apparently, she blamed this on me in order to secure the RO. I never went near her car and was with others at all times following the initial arrest and have an air-tight alibi with more than one person on the nights/days in question. Still, now I fear I may be served an RO for equally unfounded reasons. I am also afraid that if she (or her dad) are capable of lying to get the RO, then she/he is capable of lying to inflict further harm upon me if/when the RO is served.
Key points: The RO has not yet been "served" as I do not have a permanent address yet. I was never actually issued a formal dismissal or "firing" in writing or even verbally. So, technically, do I still "work" for our clinic? The contract in question does not pay much, only $1600 a month (we figured this by a basic 40 hours x $10/hour). Still, I was only paid for my work from September 15th through November 30th (5 pay cycles at $800/per) which means I should have roughly 3.5 months left of guaranteed work/pay (December, January, February, and through March 15th). Or, barring that, then I should have 3.5 months of severance coming. How enforcable is this type of contract? Does the initial arrest, DV - Menacing charge that was dropped, and/or the following attempt by her to get a restraining order in any way invalidate the contract? Also, when I left she reimbursed me for $3250 worth of office equipment and home furnishings she wanted to keep, but there is another 2 or 3 thousand worth of stuff at least that I have yet to be reimbursed for.
This has been a tremendously traumatic experience since not only did I lose my relationship but also my shared home with her (in which we split the rent and I was not given any time to vacate) as well as my current livelihood and career path enabler. I am doing fine because I have a good family support system, but honestly this has really thrown my life for a loop in the short term and I really don't feel I have been treated fairly here at all. At the very least, do I have any recourse with this contract?
Ok, this situation is a bit convoluted, a little complicated, more than a little sad, and highly frustrating.
Here is the shortened version (I know it's still long, but this is a complicated situation): my former girlfriend of 18 months and I went into business together back in September. She is a Chiropractor. We founded the company as an S-Corp with both of us as employees who are payed monthly salaries. She did the Chiro work and I worked as her office manager in charge of everything as well as her CA (Chiropractic Assistant) doing deep tissue massage on select patients (mostly to save her hands). We signed a six month contract of employment effective from Sept 15th, 2008 - March 15th, 2009. I helped with the initial investment in several thousand dollars of start-up costs, equipment, and time even before we created this contract. In all, I invested at least $5000 of my own money as well as 2 weeks of my time to set up the new office location. In this contract we included several addendums, one of which indicates my employment was "guaranteed" in the form of a severance package equal to the remaining salary of the contract if I should be terminated. There was also an addendum about requiring a 30 day notice for termination in order to give me time to find new work should we dissolve our working relationship.
Our relationship fell apart due to some external factors that resulted in some not-so-good arguments. One argument resulted in the neighbors calling the police and despite the fact that there was no physical contact on either side, I went to jail for a night (this was quite the experience to go through considering all we had was a shouting match). She asked the police not to take me to jail and did not press charges, so the "DV - Menacing" charge was thrown out at the arraingment. A week later, despite absolutely no contact from me aside from trying to fulfill her wishes for exchanging items, she filed a restraining order against me. During this time we had no face-to-face contact and I dropped off items for her one time at the place we shared together when she was at work. Two days later, she claimed someone put "mud" in the middle console of her Honda civic. Apparently, she blamed this on me in order to secure the RO. I never went near her car and was with others at all times following the initial arrest and have an air-tight alibi with more than one person on the nights/days in question. Still, now I fear I may be served an RO for equally unfounded reasons. I am also afraid that if she (or her dad) are capable of lying to get the RO, then she/he is capable of lying to inflict further harm upon me if/when the RO is served.
Key points: The RO has not yet been "served" as I do not have a permanent address yet. I was never actually issued a formal dismissal or "firing" in writing or even verbally. So, technically, do I still "work" for our clinic? The contract in question does not pay much, only $1600 a month (we figured this by a basic 40 hours x $10/hour). Still, I was only paid for my work from September 15th through November 30th (5 pay cycles at $800/per) which means I should have roughly 3.5 months left of guaranteed work/pay (December, January, February, and through March 15th). Or, barring that, then I should have 3.5 months of severance coming. How enforcable is this type of contract? Does the initial arrest, DV - Menacing charge that was dropped, and/or the following attempt by her to get a restraining order in any way invalidate the contract? Also, when I left she reimbursed me for $3250 worth of office equipment and home furnishings she wanted to keep, but there is another 2 or 3 thousand worth of stuff at least that I have yet to be reimbursed for.
This has been a tremendously traumatic experience since not only did I lose my relationship but also my shared home with her (in which we split the rent and I was not given any time to vacate) as well as my current livelihood and career path enabler. I am doing fine because I have a good family support system, but honestly this has really thrown my life for a loop in the short term and I really don't feel I have been treated fairly here at all. At the very least, do I have any recourse with this contract?
