FIRST ALLMERICA FINANCIAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, ALLMERICA FINANCIAL LIFE INSURANCE AN ANNUITY COMPANY, and ALLMERICA INVESTMENTS, INC., Plaintiffs, v. CALVIN S. SUMNER, HAROLD D. WEST, and METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendants., 212 F. Supp. 2d 1235

Summary

The employees and the new employer claimed that the agreements entered into between the companies and the employee were void under Or. Rev. Stat. § 653.295, because they were not executed at the inception of employment or upon a bona fide advancement. The companies countered that the employment agreements signed by the employees were not non-competition agreements subject to the Oregon statute at all, and, even if they were, they were executed upon the employees' bona fide advancement. The court found that the contractual provisions in the employees' employment agreements that sought to restrain their ability to solicit former customers or to induce former coworkers to change employers fell within the definition of a noncompetition agreement. The term bona fide advancement necessarily required some alteration in the employee's job status or duties performed beyond a raise or an improved benefit package. Because the employees' job status and duties did not change, there was no bona fide...