Employment Contracts - Restrictive Covenants

Authors

Joseph B. Green

Abstract

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held, in a case of first impression, that a restrictive covenant limiting an employee from practicing optometry within a radius of six miles from the office of his employer for a period of three years from the termination of his employment would not be enforced by an injunction where the three-year period had long since expired and the employer had sold his practice.

Hayes v. Altman, 438 Pa. 451, 266 A.2d 269 (1970).

Dr. Theodore L. Altman, an optometrist, went to work under a written agreement, as an assistant to Dr. Thomas A. Hayes, the appellee, on January 1, 1959. The agreement contained a restrictive covenant under which appellant agreed not to compete with appellee by engaging in the practice of optometry in the Borough of Monroeville, or within a radius of six miles of Dr. Hayes' office for a period of three years from the termination of the contract. Dr. Altman, within a few months after he was discharged in 1964, opened an office for the practice of optometry in the Borough of Monroeville.

First Page

304

Recommended Citation

Joseph B. Green, Employment Contracts - Restrictive Covenants, 9 Duq. L. Rev. 304 (1970).
Available at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr/vol9/iss2/12