In a recent Louisiana case, the plaintiff, a national corporation that sells, installs and monitors residential security systems, entered into a contract whereby the defendant agreed to sell alarm monitoring accounts to the plaintiff, along with the right to receive monthly payments for monitoring services under the recurring monthly revenue (RMR) accounts. Under the terms of the agreement the plaintiff would buy the accounts if they met certain criterion. The contract made it clear that “one of the fundamental expectations of the plaintiff . . . is that the RMR accounts will be renewed by each customer after expiration of their current terms and . . . their RMR accounts customarily are so renewed.” The contract also included a provision entitled noninterference, non-competition and a confidentiality provision.
Subsequently, the plaintiff filed a complaint alleging that the defendant violated the non-solicitation provision. The defendant either “solicited those customers to cancel the contract between the customers and plaintiff” or “signed the name of the customers to a cancellation notice.”