HILL MEDICAL CORPORATION, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. RUSSELL R. WYCOFF, Defendant and Appellant., 86 Cal. App. 4th 895

Summary

The trial court found that the noncompetition provision under the agreement was invalid under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 16600. Plaintiff claimed that the covenant fell within a narrow exception set forth in Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code § 16601. The appellate court concluded that the covenant not to compete was void and unenforceable. As defendant's professional practice consisted solely of providing radiology and associated medical imaging services, the noncompetition provision effectively excluded him from the practice of his profession and was void. Substantial evidence supported the trial court's finding that the covenant not to compete did not fall within the exception of § 16601. This was not a situation in which an otherwise valid covenant covered an unreasonably large geographical area or was unreasonably long in duration. Since there had been no compensation for goodwill, it was impossible to re-write this void covenant. To re-write the covenant would have undermined California's ...