Tortious Interference with Employment Contract

[atac1221]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?South Carolina

An employee with whom I had a noncompete Agreement (signed contract) got a job with a competitor. I will most likely win an injunction against the employee, but am also wondering about a claim for tortious interference of contract against the competitor, who is aware of my agreement with him. Could their continued employment of this person be considered interference?

Thanks for any insight.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?South Carolina

An employee with whom I had a noncompete Agreement (signed contract) got a job with a competitor. I will most likely win an injunction against the employee, but am also wondering about a claim for tortious interference of contract against the competitor, who is aware of my agreement with him. Could their continued employment of this person be considered interference?

Thanks for any insight.

My response:

You know, I've never liked non-compete agreements and, I'm sure glad they're abolished in California. How dare you take away a person's right to work! What the hell is the matter with you? These agreements are anti-competition and wrong - - especially for a person trying to pay their bills and put food on the table. Your former employee may not be able to move away, and may only be able to perform the type of work he was performing with you.

Apparently, you don't care about any of that. So, why should we care to help you?

IAAL

 

[atac1221]

Non compete agreements

Generally, I don't like them either. But my field is strange, in that it takes months to train an employee to an acceptable (insurable) level. No one worth training would take the job for a small amount of pay, so I overpay to get good people, then do the training. There are no college level or technical schools for my field (title abstracting), which would provide a pool of trained potential employees. I invest a great deal of time in training, and my competitors don't have to...they just hire my employees. If, and when, I hire previously trained employees, I never ask for a noncomp agreement... it wouldn't be fair to prevent them from switching. After all, in that case I wouldn't have invested months and months in training. I've had employees leave for $0.25 more per hour offered from a competitor.

Ultimately, it's not the employee I wish to punish, but my competitors who lured him away, so they could have an unfair advantage over me. I'm not taking away anyone's right to work, and am frustrated you can't see that. He is fully qualified to go back to whatever he was doing before I trained him. Their are many related jobs he would be qualified for now, with my training well received, which are not covered under the noncomp agreement, i.e. real estate paralegal, appraisal associate, real estate office administration. I'm just trying to protect my investment in that person's training. He wouldn't be able to work in this field without the training I gave him at a huge discount. But to have a disgruntled former employee "in my face" every day in the deed room does not promote a healthy work environment for me or my current employees.

I hope you understand, but if you don't, I would appreciate a reply from someone who can help.