 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Community Hospital Group4/5/2005
of the restrictive covenant was to run from July 17, 2002, until July 17, 2004. That period has expired. Because restrictive covenants are not favored in the law, we find no justification to extend the agreement beyond that period. Plaintiff, of course, may press its claim for damages for the period prior to July 17, 2004.
VI.
In summary, we conclude that the test enunciated in Karlin, supra, is a fair, workable solution to the competing interests of the hospital and the physician. Although post-employment restrictive covenants are not viewed with favor, if under the circumstances a factual determination is made that the covenant protects the legitimate interests of the hospital, imposes no undue hardship on the physician and is not injurious to the public, it may be enforced as written or, if appropriate, as reduced in scope. Here, except for the geographic scope of coverage, the restrictive covenant was fair. Considerations of the potential adverse impact on the public dictate that the geographic scope must be reduced. Because the two-year period for the restrictive covenant has expired, JFK's request for injunctive relief is moot. JFK's claim is limited to damages, including but not limited to the loss of patients, as a result of Dr. More's departure.
The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed in part and reversed in part. We remand to the Chancery Division for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
CHIEF JUSTICE PORITZ and JUSTICES LONG, LaVECCHIA, ZAZZALI, and ALBIN join in JUSTICE WALLACE's opinion. JUSTICE RIVERA SOTO filed a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
JUSTICE RIVERA-SOTO, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Today we reaffirm Karlin v. Weinberg, 77 N.J. 408 (1978), and hold that "a restrictive covenant in an employment contract between a hospital and a physician is not per se unreasonable and unenforceable." Ante, ___ N.J. ___. I join the Court in so holding.
However, to the extent the Court also "blue pencils" the restrictive covenant at issue here in a manner that renders it meaningless, I must respectfully dissent. Circumscribing the geographic limits of the restrictive covenant so as to place the very conduct prohibited by the restrictive covenant tantalizingly outside the restrictive covenant's reach gives the party that successfully sought to enforce the restrictive covenant nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory. There can be no question that considerations of patient care are critically important in the judicial calculus of whether a restrictive covenant is injurious to the public. However, the conduct of the restricted physician here in singling out the one hospital most convenient to his personal preferences that also has a need for his medical specialty as his justification for violating a restrictive covenant he voluntarily signed three different times over a five-year period -- and ignoring all other alternatives that would not have violated the covenant he freely and voluntarily entered into with the hospital employer that allowed him to develop his expertise in the first instance -- is little more than rank bootstrapping. This is even more so because the employment agreement this physician voluntarily signed contained his representation that the terms of the restrictive covenant
(i)... are necessary and appropriate for the reasonable protection of [plaintiff's] interests; (ii) each and every covenant and restriction is reasonable in respect to its subject matter, length of time and geographical area; and (iii) [plaintiff] has been induced to enter into this Agreement with [defendant] and is relying upon the representation and covenant
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 New Jersey Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|