Employment Restrictive Covenant Held Enforceable and Proper

• Monday, May 5, 2014
• Category: Business & Corporate Law, Business Litigation

In the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Business Litigation Case of David H. Fleisher vs. Bergman, P.I.C.S. NO.14-0541, (PA. Super. March 31, 2014), The Honorable John L. Musmanno writing on behalf of the Appellate Court held that where a preliminary injunction to enforce a non-competition agreement between an employer and its terminated employee was reasonably limited to protecting the employer’s legitimate business interest by restricting solicitation of the employer’s clients, restored the parties to the status quo before the employee began soliciting the employer’s clients and was reasonably suited to abating a manifest wrong by barring the employee’s transition to part-time work during his employment. Employment Restrictive Covenant Held Enforceable and Proper.

Defendant Keith Bergman accepted employment with plaintiff David H. Fleisher, Inc., as a forensic engineer. As an express condition of his employment, Bergman executed a confidentiality and non-competition agreement that precluded disclosure of Fleisher’s trade secrets and barred Bergman, during his employment and for a period of five years after termination, from soliciting any client or prospect of Fleisher. After several years of employment, Fleisher discovered that Bergman had been using Fleisher’s confidential information to solicit its clients in order to set up his own forensic engineering practice. Fleisher terminated Bergman and filed this action, and motioned for and was granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting Bergman from soliciting Fleisher’s clients for a period of five years.

On appeal, Bergman challenged his restrictive covenant with Fleisher and the resulting preliminary injunction as unenforceable due to over breadth and as void due to changed circumstances during the course of his employment.

The Appellate Court in a lengthy fifteen (15) page decision discussed and rejected each of the defendant’s challenges and held that the injunction and restrictions were enforceable.

Reference: Digest of Recent Opinions, Pennsylvania Law Weekly (April 22, 2014)

Filed under: Business Litigation; Employment Restrictive Covenant; Preliminary Injunction: Labor and Employment

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