HEARTLAND SECURITIES CORPORATION, Plaintiff, -against- JARED GERSTENBLATT, ADAM MESH, AMAR AMANAT, and CRAIG SCHLIFSTEIN, Defendants. HEARTLAND SECURITIES CORPORATION, Plaintiff, -against- ADRIAN AU, EDWARD CHEN, JONAH GREEN, CHARLES SALVADOR, NEIL SETH, DAVID WHEELER, CLOVIS YOUNG, AMAR AMANAT, CRAIG SCHLIFSTEIN, and LANDMARK SECURITIES CORPORATION, Defendants., 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3496

Summary

Defendants, employees of securities trading firm, filed motions to dismiss certain of plaintiff employer's claims pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Defendants argued that the respective provisions in their employment contracts were unenforceable because they were overly broad in scope and served no legitimate purpose. Plaintiff claimed that the "Competitive Activities" provision was a valid and enforceable restrictive covenant, and that the "Refund of Training Cost" provision was merely intended to recoup training costs, not to restrict an employee's post-employment activities. The court found the provisions unenforceable because of the unreasonableness of the time and geographic limitations in the provisions; the lack of legitimate employer interests, such as the protection of trade secrets, supporting the provisions; and the undue burden enforcement of the provisions would cause the employees. Additionally, the plaintiff failed to demonstrate that it did not overreach or use ...