Non Compete

[black6]

What is the name of your state? Oregon

I made the mistake of signing a non-compete while employed by a company for six months. At the six month point I was terminated with no cause but they alluded to the fact that they thought that I "wasn't a good fit". The company is in the business of buying and "flipping" properties and I would like to be able to purchase a piece of commercial property to retain for an indefinite period of time. When I mentioned this to them, they verbally stated that this would be in violation of the non compete but the verbiage states "business similar in nature to that of Employer or any aspect thereof" and buying for the purpose of holding is not their procedure. Am I stuck for another year or does their non-compete allow a loophole?

"During the period of such employment, and for a period of 2 years after Employee's employment by Employer is terminated for any reason, irrespective of the time, manner or cause of such termination, neither Employee nor Employee’s spouse shall within Oregon directly or indirectly, own, manage, operate, control, be employed by, participate in or be connected in any manner with the ownership, management, operation or control of any business similar in nature to that of Employer or any aspect thereof."

Another question: In my six months with the company, they made numerous implied contracts of continued employment such as "we have big plans for you" and the position I was placed in was to be temporary until a new division opened at which time I would be placed in the GM position. I also was ordered to keep an investor off of a piece of property with an oil spill clean up in process which I can only assume was to conceal fraudulent information passed to the investor. If there is no loophole in the non-compete, could these items give me leverage?

 

[fairisfair]

generally speaking, most non compete clauses are only enforceable if there is an exchange of value. In other words, you agree to the non compete, and they offer employment. With that in mind, few non compete clauses continue to be enforceable when that exchange of value ceases to exist. In other words, they fire you, there is no longer an equitable exchange offered on their part.

you need to take your contract to an attorney who specializes in local employment law.

 

[las365]

Respectfully, fair, I don't know that your position on consideration for a non-compete is correct. Under that logic, if I understand it correctly, no non-compete would be enforceable post-employment unless an additional sum was paid for it, and a company would only be able to restrict an employee for working for a direct competitor during employment. Since the whole purpose of a non-compete as I understand it is to keep an former employee from using the knowledge and experience gained during employment with a company to then go to work for a direct competitor and possibly cost the original employer business and money, by its nature a non-compete is an agreement made by the employee to restrict his or her activities after the employment with the employer with whom the agreement was made comes to an end. The consideration was getting the job and wages in the first place, and I think that continues to be sufficient consideration after the employment is terminated.

I hope that makes sense.

The non-compete agreement, however, does have to be reasonable and not unduly restrictive in order to be enforceable.

I don't usually re-post, but here is the answer I posted last night in this OP's other (duplicate) thread:

Have a consult with an employment law attorney to find out whether the non-compete is enforceable. It may be overly broad as to geographical area and/or the type of activities it purports to prohibit.

If you know of wrongdoing by the company, you should report it to the proper authorities, not try to use it as a tool for extortion.