TRAILER LEASING CO., a Division of Keller Systems, Inc. a New York Corporation, Plaintiff, v. ASSOCIATES COMMERCIAL CORP. a Delaware corporation, ASSOCIATES RENTAL SYSTEMS, INC., a Delaware corporation, and GARY CHASE, Defendants., 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9654

Summary

An employer sought to enforce restrictive covenants it entered into with a former employee. The employee and his current employer claimed that the covenants were unenforceable as overly broad. The court first examined the covenant not to compete and found that it was written in terms too loosely defined to be reasonable. The court also found the language of the non-solicitation restriction too broad, in that it referred to not just customers of the employer, but also prospective customers. Finally, the court found that the non-disclosure covenant was also overly broad in that it did not seek to protect only confidential information and contained no geographical limitations. The restrictive covenants were unreasonable and unenforceable.