North Dakota has one of the fastest-growing workforces in the country as the result of recent advances in extracting natural gas and oil. As more employers seek to hire in or transfer employees to the Peace Garden State, many are surprised to discover that North Dakota law prohibits non-compete agreements. North Dakota Century Code Section … Continue Reading
In the latest chapter of an ongoing dispute between Aon Risk Services and Alliant Insurance Services (stemming from Alliant’s hiring of dozens of Aon employees and accepting millions in annual revenue from former Aon clients), on January 10, 2013, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department issued a decision upholding key rulings of the … Continue Reading
A U.S. District Judge in Connecticut recently issued an injunction against a former employee of Amphenol Corp and his new employer, TE Connectivity, Ltd, despite the lack of any evidence of competition in breach of his non-compete agreement. The decision in Amphenol v Paul, Civ. No. 3:12cv543 (D. Conn. Nov. 9, 2012), involved a former business unit director of Amphenol who had been … Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against eBay, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit, filed on November 16, 2012, claims that eBay violated antitrust laws by entering into an agreement not to hire or recruit the employees of a competitor, Intuit, Inc. The … Continue Reading
Tolling clauses in non-compete agreements extend the period of noncompetition by a period of time usually equal to the time an employee is in violation. Appellate courts in some states, including Illinois and Massachusetts, have affirmed injunctions based on contractual extension clauses. For example, in Prairie Eye Center v. Butler, No. 4-01-0005 (Ill. Ct. App. … Continue Reading
Reconsidering and reversing its own decision, the Ohio Supreme Court now has decided an acquiring company in a merger could enforce employee non-compete agreements as if it had stepped into the shoes of the acquired company despite the absence of clear contract language to that effect. The Court, on May 24, 2012, in Acordia of … Continue Reading
Calculating lost profits for breach of a non-compete agreement can be a challenging task, and different courts have adopted different approaches. In Preferred Systems Solutions v. GP Consulting, Nos. 111906, 11907 (Sept. 14, 2012), the Virginia high court affirmed a verdict of $172,395 in compensatory damages in favor of Preferred Systems Solutions (“PSS”), a government … Continue Reading
