It is a common practice for an employer to require an employee to sign an agreement preventing the employee from competing with the employer for a certain period of time and in a designated geographic area. For many years, interpretation and enforcement of these noncompetition agreements or covenants not to compete, as they sometimes are called, have led to lawsuits. When an ex-employer attempts to enforce an agreement in another state, which happens more often in today’s economy, special issues arise because of the variations in how receptive or hostile the different states are to the anticompetitive effects of these agreements.
Dueling Lawsuits
When Mark was hired in Minnesota to work for a manufacturer of medical devices, he signed an agreement not to compete with the employer, for two years after leaving, and in any area where the employer marketed its products. In a typical “choice-of-law” clause, the agreement also said that it was governed by the laws of the state where the employee last worked for the employer.
After five years, Mark resigned and moved to California to take a job with a company that was competing head-to-head with his ex-employer. Correctly anticipating a fight, and wanting to reach the courthouse first, Mark and his new employer sued his former employer in a California court on the same day he started his new job. Except in limited circumstances, California law prohibits anticompetition agreements, so Mark asked for a declaration that the agreement he had signed was void and unenforceable against him in California. More than that, he also asked the court to prohibit the ex-employer from taking any action outside of the California court to enforce the agreement. At about the same time, the former employer did, in fact, sue in a Minnesota court, which issued a preliminary order to enforce the terms of the agreement.
A stalemate ensued, with each side having obtained a ruling in its favor, and purporting to prevent pursuit of the litigation in the other state. When the California case was appealed to that state’s highest court, it ruled against any interference with the pending litigation in Minnesota. At the same time, the court recognized California’s aversion to noncompetition agreements and allowed Mark’s California case to proceed unless and until any Minnesota judgment became binding on the parties. In short, the race to a favorable judgment continued.
Georgia on His Mind
In another similar case, James signed a noncompetition agreement with a company in Ohio that gave computer support services to providers of wireless communications. Later, he left and relocated to Georgia, which does not prohibit noncompetition clauses outright but does subject them to close scrutiny. The agreement had provided that Ohio law was controlling.
Like Mark in the California case, James went to work for a competitor in his new state and sued there to invalidate the covenant not to compete. Unlike the California case, however, there were no dueling lawsuits in different states because James had misrepresented to his first employer that he was leaving to become a stockbroker.
James’s lawsuit in Georgia to rid himself of the agreement was partially successful. The agreement was too broad and restrictive to pass muster under Georgia law, so it could not be enforced there, even though the agreement itself referred to Ohio law. James was relieved of the agreement, but only while working in Georgia, because, as the court put it, “the public policy of Georgia is not that way everywhere.”