Little Rock's Weedman made UPS 'Bully' surrender in 2006; looks forward to coming trial
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Weedman faced every former franchise owner's worst nightmare in March, 2006 when 'Big Brown' United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) alleging violation of trademark rules after they forced him to go independent. Weedman challenged UPS' attempt to close his store and risked his financial future by telling a Federal District Court he was prepared to face UPS immediately in a trial 30 days after they had shut him down.
"In about 45 minutes, UPS' attorneys phoned the judge and said they were withdrawing their request for a TRO and would not go to trial," Weedman recalled. "That was easily the most frightening period in my life, but it gave me the personal satisfaction of not letting a huge corporation bully me into closing my store." Today, Weedman and his 130 fellow members of the Platinum Shield Association (PSA) look forward to a trial in their now five-year-plus legal battle with UPS, following a California appellate court's decision last month. That unanimous decision overturned a lower court's granting of motions for summary judgment to UPS in the long-standing confrontation between the Atlanta-based shipping giant and franchisees like Weedman who were part of the Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) system UPS acquired in 2001.
Weedman said his initial relationship with MBE was excellent, and from the time he purchased his first store in 1993 until the UPS acquisition of MBE in 2001, he found the business demanding, but rewarding. "You spend six days with the store open and all of the customer needs, and then the seventh day you try to catch up," he noted. "But I saw a real future in the MBE system and opened my second store in Jacksonville in 1995; when that store's franchise agreement with UPS expired in 2006, we were pressured to convert to a UPS Store. We rejected that, and were hit immediately with the TRO." A native Arkansan, Weedman graduated from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, in 1970 with a degree in mathematics; while living in the Chicago area and working for Baxter International, he earned an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1988. He has taught business courses at the University of Arkansas since returning to Little Rock in 1992.
"This whole situation with UPS has been tough on me, my wife, Candice, and everyone in the Platinum Shield organization," Weedman added. "There are more than 130 others in the group, and we are located literally from coast to coast," he said, "and the TRO attempt was not just in Arkansas; there were a dozen more across the country." Weedman said there are many issues that he hopes the trial will bring out, including UPS' lack of support for MBE franchisees who did not convert to UPS. "We paid a fee, a royalty really, each month to UPS, and part of that goes to our Area Franchisee, who in theory is our representative to UPS," he explained. "The last time he visited either of my stores was in 2003." The lawsuit in which Weedman is a plaintiff alleges among other charges UPS' intentional destruction of the Mail Boxes Etc. franchise brand and system, violation of the MBE franchise agreements, fraud and anti-competitive actions by UPS in its creation of the UPS Store franchise system. At present there are numerous lawsuits filed against UPS by various store owner groups and individuals across the country, based on the forced conversion of the successful MBE business model to the failed UPS Store model.
Last month's California appellate court reversal of the lower court was the third time that a California appeals court had overturned a lower court and upheld the case of the UPS/MBE franchisees. The previous decision by the Court of Appeals was to grant certification of a national class action against UPS on behalf of the UPS Store franchisees. DATASOURCE: Platinum Shield Association CONTACT: Joe Wightman of Platinum Shield Association, New York, +1-917-880-9609; or Killeen Furtney Group, Public Relations, +1-310-476-6941, for Platinum Shield Association
|