Articles Tagged with Palm Beach Non Compete Attorney

Florida statutes on non-competition covenants allow courts to modify overbroad non-competition covenants.  For example, a non-competition covenant restricting an employee from competing against the employer in every county in Florida is likely overbroad if the employer conducts business only in Broward County.  Florida statutes, however, allow the court to modify such overbroad non-competition covenants and grant “reasonably necessary” relief, i.e., modify the covenant to apply only to Broward County.

Under Florida contract law, however, courts generally will not rewrite the terms of a contract.  Although Florida statutory law allows courts to modify overbroad non-competition covenants, Florida courts have otherwise refrained from rewriting non-competition covenants.

In Advantage Digital Sys. v. Digital Imaging Servs., 870 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003), two employees were bound by non-competition covenants that restricted them from “soliciting” the employer’s customers.  The trial court found the non-competition covenants enforceable and ordered that the employees were prohibited from “having any contact, whatsoever, with any customers of [the employer].”  Advantage Digital Sys., 870 So. 2d at 114-15.  On appeal, the appellate court disagreed with the trial court’s order.  The appellate court held that the trial court’s order went “far beyond prohibiting solicitation” and “essentially and impermissibly rewrites the parties’ agreements by disallowing any ‘contact’ with [the employer’s] customer.  …  Because the noncompetition agreements prohibit only solicitation, that is the only activity that can be the subject” of the court’s order.  Advantage Digital Sys., 870 So. 2d at 115.

Under Florida law, non-competition covenants are generally enforceable if they protect one or more legitimate business interest.  However, certain acts by the employer could defeat the enforceability of the non-competition covenant.  Under contract law, a party’s material breach of a contract will render the entire contract unenforceable against the other party.  In other words, if an employer materially breaches the employment contract—i.e., if the employer fails to pay wages or commissions in accordance with the employment contract—the employee will be released from the non-competition covenant.  There is an exception to that general rule: independent non-competition covenants.

If the non-competition provision of an employment contract is considered “independent,” then the employer’s breach of the employment contract will not affect the non-competition covenant’s enforceability.  Essentially, the independent non-competition covenant will be considered a separate contract.  A Florida district court recently shed some light on what contractual language would suffice to render a non-competition covenant “independent.”

In Richland Towers v. Denton, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 3472 (Fla. 2d DCA Mar. 12, 2014), an employer, Richland Towers, sued to enforce its non-competition covenants with two former employees who started a competing business.  Richland Towers, however, failed to pay those employees certain bonuses that were required under the employment contract.  The trial court found that Richland Towers’ failure to pay the contractually required bonuses constituted a prior material breach that essentially destroyed the entire employment contract and released the employees from the non-competition covenant.  The appellate court disagreed.