EPT
Tonight I am writing a blog seeking advice.
My father co-owned a company with a bit of a douchebag guy whom we will call Charles Murphy*. Mr Murphy offered my dad a partnership in the company when we moved town, and they made Teak furniture (mostly, some Pine, some Rosewood) together.
When he joined it was on the premise that the company was failing with the awful economy at the time, and CM was going to retire soon. But upon my dad's joining, the company picked up - the workers were properly assigned and monitored, new machinery was bought to make the production process smoother and faster, paperwork was done, money was accounted for. CM decided to stay on, indefinitely. But he didn't bring in any new customers, he didn't work more than half the day, he didn't chase money or involve himself in the running of the factory. In fact, from what I have heard, he spent more time holidaying with his wife out on the lake and visiting their son in Brazil than in the factory.
For some unknown reason (probably his generation) he didn't want to create a website or Facebook page for their company. My mother set up a Facebook page on the quiet, and started promoting it. It picked up a surprising amount of business and my father used this argument in favour of creating a webpage. CM gave in and agreed, and the company paid my mother $400 to set up a web page of their furniture. My mother is by no means a professional web designer, but she took time out of her day to learn to create a free WYSIWYG type website in which she uploaded her own photos of the furniture. She maintained the website herself, updating the images and pricing and descriptions etc. She was never paid for the maintenance of the website.
Anyhow, relations continued to deteriorate between my father and CM and to cut a long story short, they eventually split, sharing the money and assets 50:50. This happened just over a month and a half ago, and my dad started work at his new company. Tonight at the dinner table we discussed the website, as apparently CM had messaged my dad asking for the login details for the website. My father feels that since the company paid for the website it should remain in possession of the company. My mother feels that she should retain control over it as all the work on it is hers and she was never paid a maintenance fee. I think I agree with my father on this, and if anything my mother should just create a watermark on my father's more prominent pieces of furniture, or remove them from the site completely.
At my work I manage the company website - but since ours was built from scratch and we pay a monthly fee to the developer and server host, I only have limited access to it. I am not sure where my mother stands here legally. I feel like it was a company decision to not pay her a maintenance fee and her own fault she lost out on agreeing to those terms. But since there was no legal contract drawn up and I don't want my mother to lose out, I can sympathize with her point of view.
So, dear TL friends. What do. What advice do I give my mother here?
*names have been changed, any resemblance to persons living or nuked is entirely accidental.
