Mike Smith has owned and operated a restaurant for the last 10 years

Subject:BusinessPrice:3.87 Bought7

Share With

Mike Smith has owned and operated a restaurant for the last 10 years. After the outbreak of Covid 19, he is no longer able to open his dining room to serve food to his customers for an indeterminate amount of time. Customers of his restaurant have always been able to order takeout food over the phone or online. To date, Mike has never bothered to incorporate his restaurant (named "Super Delicious Diner"). Mike has 10 employees that work for him (i.e. Cooks, waiter/waitress, door greeter, etc.). He has three years left on his lease for the restaurant, which he personally signed for. The rent is $3,000 a month. Mike is not sure what to do. He is thinking about closing his restaurant for good, but is also contemplating carrying on with his takeout business hoping the pandemic will end soon and he can go back to running his restaurant in a normal way with his dining room full of customers. He is also aware that once Toronto adopts Phase 3, he will be able to partially open his dining room.Mike has also noticed that last month another restaurant just opened with the name "Delicious Dinner" and Mike feels that the restaurant is stealing his customers using a similar name.

Discuss the legal issues of both staying open and closing the restaurant permanently.  Discuss Mike's personal liability with respect to both opening and closing the restaurant.  Also address any legal issues regarding the restaurant located down the street with the similar name.