I've been uncharacteristically quiet about the subject of restrictive covenants, consumed (somewhat mercifully) by other cases in other areas of the law.
But the flow of non-compete decisions does not stop for those who venture astray, and so it appears I have some catchin' up to do.
I'll start with my home State (for now) of Illinois, where we have high taxes and a high output of non-compete cases. The federal district courts in Illinois churn out a lot of interesting non-compete cases. Those decisions, too, tend to be influential. For instance, most Illinois courts have decided to break from appellate case law on the employee at-will consideration rule that has generated some buzz (and some appellate work for yours truly).
Non-Competition Covenants and Motions to Dismiss
One example of this independence from the federal bench is the case of Medix Staffing Solutions Inc. v. Dumrauf. Judge Sara Ellis granted a motion to dismiss a non-compete claim that Medix brought again a former Director of Business Operations. The decision was notable - and fairly bold - since Illinois courts have suggested that enforceability and overbreadth questions generally are unsuitable for motions to dismiss. True, you see these teed up more often at summary judgment or even through preliminary injunction rulings. But infrequently, the propriety of a motion to dismiss in the context of non-competes appears in the case law.
The court in Dumrauf found that the employer's non-compete was extreme and facially unenforceable when it barred the employee from working within 50 miles of any Medix office for any business that competed with Medix or that offered a product or service in competition with Medix. Of central concern to the court was the non-compete's prohibition on Dumrauf's work in any capacity for a competing enterprise. The case demonstrates the importance of drafting non-competition agreements with a reasonable scope limitation that is roughly commensurate with the type of job the employee performed at the company (or perhaps one that, if not comparable, would threaten the same type of legitimate business interest).
Judge Ellis lastly declined to modify, or blue-pencil, the non-compete, as is typical of most (but not all) Illinois courts. The deciding factor is usually how close the employer came to being reasonable. But here, the non-compete failed terribly so Judge Ellis said no to rewriting it.
Non-Solicitation Covenants and Motions for Summary Judgment
The employer didn't fare a whole lot better in Call One, Inc. v. Anzine, but the case does show that blue-penciling is not always a pipe dream.
The non-solicitation covenant in Anzine had all the hallmarks of a crapshow. It was (a) not limited to the employee's particular accounts, and (b) included something called "prospective" customers, which unhelpfully covered accounts the company solicited or "had plans to solicit."
Judge Matthew Kennelly found the covenant unenforceable, noting along the way that Illinois precedents in the non-compete field are of "less than usual value." This could mean either that the cases are too fact-specific to be helpful in a subsequent case, or that Illinois state appellate courts are not helpful as a general proposition. Or both.
But Judge Kennelly looked to a reformation clause in the underlying agreement, which contemplated that a court could make an invalid clause valid. Many changes skim over that clause for reasons that are obvious. As a result, he fixed some (but in my opinion not all) of the problems in the non-solicitation clause, such that Anzine was still barred from soliciting company customers (and active prospects as of the date she was terminated) and customers for which she had sales responsibility.
One other observation on this case. Anzine sent a couple of work spreadsheets to her personal email account, but Judge Kennelly found that no jury could find that this rose to the level of "misappropriation" of a trade secret. The self-emailing phenomenon is not new, but in and of itself it is no panacea for a trade secrets claim. Here, Anzine appeared to have plausible reasons for what she did, and the e-mailing didn't occur under suspicious circumstances (like, for instance, a forwarding of documents after notice and before departure). The court's discussion of this is worth a read for practitioners who've dealt with this set of facts before.
Non-Competition Covenants, Non-Solicitation Covenants, and Motions to Dismiss (Redux)
And on the opposite end of the spectrum (somewhat), we have American Transport Group v. Power. There, the court denied the defendant's motion to dismiss a restrictive covenants claim even when problems with those covenants were clearly apparent. The theme running through this case was nearly the opposite of Dumrauf, as Judge Virginia Kendall repeatedly noted that the employer must have the opportunity to develop the record on the question of reasonableness.
The non-compete precluded a freight broker's salesman from working for any competitor for three months, regardless of geographic location. I have a lot to say about the freight brokerage business, but that's beyond the scope of this. It is true, however, that geography seems to matter very little for sales people who work the phones contacting shippers (that is, customers) and arranging carriers. So I wasn't terribly bothered by the three-month clause or the lack of a geographical limit, as much as I am bothered by the use of non-competes in this industry entirely.
The non-solicitation clause though was a problem, and I think Judge Kendall should have found it unenforceable. It barred Power, for one year, from soliciting or diverting any customer or carrier of his employer. The court provided little analysis here, but I am uncertain how ATG ever could restrict the employee's use of a carrier (in effect, a supplier) when freight brokers all deal with the same carriers. Seems gratuitous.
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So what lessons did we learn today? Judges reach different holdings on similar facts. Companies still have a lot to learn when drafting agreements. Lawyers will keep getting business because this stuff ain't going away. And your author can't take a month off again, because the cases keep piling up.
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