Robinson

I. INTRODUCTION

Nearly 10 years ago, appellant U-Haul Company of California (UHC) sued respondent Leigh Robinson, one of UHC’s independent dealers, for breach of contract and unfair competition after he terminated their contract and began renting Budget trucks from what was formerly a UHC dealership (Robinson I). UHC alleged a covenant not to compete in the UHC dealer contract prohibited Robinson from offering the products of UHC’s competitors while a Yellow Pages ad, running at UHC’s expense, was still promoting Robinson’s business as a U-Haul dealership. Robinson filed a cross-complaint seeking to “avoid enforcement of the covenant not to compete by, among other things, seeking a judicial declaration that it was void due to fraud in the inducement.

After UHC lost its request for a preliminary injunction and dismissed its complaint, Robinson filed a separate action alleging malicious prosecution by UHC in the prior lawsuit and violation by U-Haul of Business and Professions Code section 17200 et seq., also known as the unfair competition law (UCL) (Robinson II). He based his UCL cause of action on UHC’s inclusion of the covenant not to compete in its dealer contracts,…