Tag: TRO

Federal TRO Practice – The Legitimate Interest, Near-Permanence and Balance of Harms Test: Cumulus v. Olson – Part II of III

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Cumulus Radio v. Olson, 2015 WL 643345 also discusses the legitimate business interest test, what constitutes an adequate remedy at law and the balance of harm elements of injunctive relief under Illinois law.

To determine whether a given restrictive covenant is reasonable, the court examines whether (1) the plaintiff has shown a legitimate business interest, (2) the restrictive covenant imposes an undue hardship on the employee; (3) the restriction injures the public, and (4) the time (how long?) and territory (how far?) limits of the restriction.  Illinois courts recognize that radio stations have a valid business interest in its customers given the highly competitive nature of broadcasting.  *7.

In assessing prong (1) – a legitimate business interest – the court considers whether a business has a “near permanent” relationship with its customers and advertisers who fund the broadcast by buying radio ads.  

The near-permanence inquiry distills to seven factors: (1) permanence of the relationship, (2) the amount of money invested to acquire clients, (3) the degree of difficulty in acquiring clients, (4) the extent of personal customer contacts by the employee, (5) the extent of the employer’s knowledge of its clients, (6) the duration of the customer’s activities with the employer; and (7) the intent to retain the employer-customer relationship.

The court examined these factors and found that the plaintiff radio station showed a near permanent relationship with its customers.  Illinois law recognizes that radio stations have a protectable interest in the near permanence of their customers as the plaintiff offered evidence that showed how time-consuming, expensive and arduous it is to cultivate clients.  

The plaintiff’s testimony that the radio industry is largely relationship-driven and that many of plaintiff’s clients were long-time customers also swayed the court.

The plaintiff also showed an inadequate remedy at law; meaning, money damages wouldn’t fix the defendant’s mon-compete breach.  Where a plaintiff can pinpoint specific lost accounts, money damages are the proper remedy; or “adequate.”  Here, though, plaintiff had difficulty identifying which contracts the plaintiff lost to the competing station.  This made it impossible to quantify plaintiff’s damages.

The closest call was the balance of harm element – the harm resulting from the injunction weighed against its benefit.  The harm here to the defendants was palpable and severe.  The sales executive was enjoined from working for the competing station in his chosen profession for a period of six months (from the entry of the injunction) and within a 60 mile radius.  He was also forbidden from soliciting any of plaintiff’s customers with whom he had contact for a 12 month period.  

The radio station defendant suffered harm, too.  It lost the benefit of a $250K/year salesman’s services for the duration of the non-compete term.

But the court found the benefit to the plaintiff outweighed the harm to the individual defendant.  It noted that if it denied plaintiff’s injunction request, the employment contract signed by the defendant would be meaningless and the plaintiff would face the prospect of untold lost clients due to the defendant’s clear breach of the non-compete provision.

Takeaways:

– The more time, effort and money a plaintiff can show goes into developing clients, the better his chances of showing near permanence and getting injunctive relief;

– money damages won’t properly compensate a plaintiff who can’t specify lost accounts flowing from a non-compete violation;

– upholding the clear language of a contract can trump an employee’s right to earn a living if the violation is blatant and the restrictions are reasonable. 

 

“Will It Play in Peoria?!”: Fed. Court Casts Doubt on Continued Vitality of ‘Two – Year Rule’ to Enforce Non-Compete

Peoria

Fifield v. Premier 2013 IL App (1st) 120327 is (was?) an important case in employment law circles for cementing the “two year rule”: two years of continuous employment is the bare minimum length of at-will employment required for an employer to enforce a restrictive covenant.

From the employer’s vantage point, the rule was troubling since it gave the employee all the leverage: he could leave a job at any time before he reached the two-year mark regardless of whether he signed a non-compete.

About two years later, Prairie Rheumatology Assocs. v. Francis, 2014 IL App (3d) 140338 followed Fifield but with a twist: it considered whether an employer could elude the two-year rule if by offering am employee an additional benefit (e.g., training, marketing support, bonus payments, etc.) beyond continued employment.  Still, the court in that case nullified the non-compete since the doctor defendant decamped less than two years  of her hire date.

Enter Cumulus Radio Corporation v. Olson, 2015 WL 643345 (C.D.Ill. 2015), a Federal case that examines whether the two-year rule is inexorable in the context of a radio station’s injunction suit against a competitor in the Peoria, Illinois market.

The plaintiff sued its former account executive and his new employer, a competing station, for violating restrictive covenants contained in an employment contract signed by the executive.  The contract contained a six-month/sixty mile non-compete term and a 12 month non-solicitation and non-disclosure term.  The non-solicitation clause barred the executive from contacting certain of plaintiff’s customers (radio advertisers) for 12 months after he leaves.

The plaintiff resigned 21 months into his tenure with plaintiff and began working for the competitor just two days later.  The plaintiff sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the executive from working for the competitor for the duration of the non-compete term.  The Southern District granted in part and denied in part the plaintiff’s TRO request.

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65, a TRO plaintiff must show that (1) he will suffer immediate, irreparable injury; (2) a likelihood of success on the merits; and (3) lack of an adequate remedy at law.  If the plaintiff makes the required showing on elements (1)-(3), the court then balances the relative harms to the parties and the public if the TRO is granted.  *2.

On the breach of contract count – alleging the executive breached all the restrictive covenants – the court found that the executive’s 21-month tenure with the plaintiff was sufficient consideration to support the non-compete.

The court refused to rigidly apply Fifield and “predicted” that Illinois’ Supreme Court would apply a more flexible test than the dogmatic two year rule.

For support, the court pointed to two  recent Northern District decisions that rejected the two-year rule in favor of a more fact-specific and flexible test.  The reason, according to the court, was that if the two-year test is formulaically applied, restrictive covenants would be rendered illusory and voided at the “whim of the employee.” (**4-5).

In finding that employing the executive’s for a 21-month term was adequate consideration to support the restrictive covenants, the court found that the plaintiff showed a likelihood of success on the merits on its TRO claim that the executive breached the employment contract.

Takeaways

Significant in that it’s another Federal court casting doubt on the continued vitality of the two-year rule.  Practitioners who are seeking to enforce restrictive covenants where the underlying employment length didn’t reach two years, now have three District court cases – two from the Northern, one from the Southern – that show a willingness to depart from the two-year rule.