Leaving to work for a competitor - can I be sued?

[ahenderson17]

(I reside in Indiana.)

On my first day of hire, I signed the "employee handbook policies and manual" -- I wasn't given an option to sign it or not sign it. It states on the front that the manual does not create a contract of employment and is "at will." Inside, there is a clause that states employees are not allowed to work for a competitor in the same service market within a 60 mile radius, or else legal action can be taken. That is all it says; it does not include anything about a time frame, etc.

I am wanting to leave this company and work for a competitor in the same town. I work for a behavioral therapy company, by the way; there is no reason at all for my employer to include this clause. There is nothing I could take from my current company to the other company. I have several just reasons for why I want to leave, and although the manual is "not a contract," I am sure I can find several agreements within that my employer has violated.

I want to know if I can indeed be sued if my employer were to find out I left for a competitor? Thanks!

 

[cbg]

Based on what you've provided, it is unlikely that you could be successfully sued.

Now, go show the agreement to an attorney in your state for confirmation.

 

[latigo]

(I reside in Indiana.)

On my first day of hire, I signed the "employee handbook policies and manual" -- I wasn't given an option to sign it or not sign it. It states on the front that the manual does not create a contract of employment and is "at will." Inside, there is a clause that states employees are not allowed to work for a competitor in the same service market within a 60 mile radius, or else legal action can be taken. That is all it says; it does not include anything about a time frame, etc.

I am wanting to leave this company and work for a competitor in the same town. I work for a behavioral therapy company, by the way; there is no reason at all for my employer to include this clause. There is nothing I could take from my current company to the other company. I have several just reasons for why I want to leave, and although the manual is "not a contract," I am sure I can find several agreements within that my employer has violated.

I want to know if I can indeed be sued if my employer were to find out I left for a competitor? Thanks!

Of course you could be sued by the employer should you take a similar position with a competitor. The concern is whether or not such a lawsuit could be sustained on grounds of your having breached an enforceable contract.

But we're are looking at to separate issues here. First, do the circumstances you describe even serve to form a covenant not to compete. Secondly, if so, is it of the sort that can be judicially enforced. And I think the answer is no to each.

In my opinion no such covenant came into being. That is, it was never made a condition or term of your employment contract. The principle of certainty of contract holds that in order to constitute an enforceable contract what the parties agreed upon must be capable of been ascertained objectively within a reasonable degree of certainty.

And here the only objective evidence available to the employer is the company policy handbook. Which you could either accept or reject at will and expressly states that it is not to be construed as a contract of employment.

I don't see how the employer could hang a lawsuit on breach of a covenant not to compete when the only evidence of it is document that is in itself patently ambiguous and uncertain. And certain only to the extent that is self-meaningless.

And even if a court were to somehow find the presence such a covenant, this one - as you have noted - lacks the requirement that the restriction on future employment be reasonable in duration. And again, "certain" as to its duration.

Like all Indiana courts don't like covenants not to compete as the are inherently in restraint of trade and circumscribe the individual's right to eke out a living. As such they are strictly construed by the courts. Nor are the permitted to rewrite them to make them reasonably restrictive and thus acceptable.

 

[ahenderson17]

Thanks for both the responses -- they were extremely helpful. Yes, it is indeed extremely vague and ambiguous, and I don't see how an "employee handbook" could seriously restrain me from ever doing similar work in a 60 mile radius for the rest of eternity.

I welcome any more opinions or advice; the more and more assuaged I'll feel.