DEUTSCHE POST GLOBAL MAIL, LTD. v. GERARD CONRAD, et. al., 292 F. Supp. 2d 748

Summary

When the former employees began their employment as sales managers with the corporation, they executed employment contracts, each of which contained a section 5 entitled "Restriction and Covenant Not to Compete." The former employees left the corporation to form their own company. Within days the company was providing services to the corporation's customers. The corporation sought to enforce that part of section 5(a)(ii) that prohibited the direct or indirect solicitation or diversion of the corporation's customers, as well as attempted solicitation or diversion. The court found that the portion of the restrictive covenants that prohibited solicitation of all customers of the corporation was overly broad and could not be saved by "blue penciling." The strict divisibility approach permitted the court to strike section 5(a)(iii) of the restrictive covenants and the overbroad portions of section 5(a)(ii). However, it did not allow the court to add words limiting the solicitation provision...