Geisinger Clinic v. Radziewicz – April 2015 (Summary)
RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS
Geisinger Clinic v. Radziewicz, No. 505 MDA 2014 (Pa. Super. Ct. Apr. 24, 2015)
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania reversed a lower court’s ruling and imposed a preliminary injunction on a physician that prevented him from practicing medicine for six months and three weeks within a 15-mile radius of the medical clinic where he had previously been employed. Plaintiff, a medical clinic, hired defendant, a physician, to practice medicine for its family medicine group. The parties’ employment contract contained a non-compete clause that stated that the physician will not practice medicine for two years within a 15-mile radius of the clinic if he terminated the agreement. The physician left the clinic and obtained employment outside of the restricted area for 18 months. The physician’s new employer then transferred him to a location that was within the 15-mile radius. The clinic sued the physician, seeking a preliminary injunction to enforce the non-compete clause until the two years had been satisfied or until the issue had gone to trial. The court denied the clinic’s request, ruling that the clinic could be adequately compensated by monetary damages, that the clinic would not likely prevail at trial, and that a greater injury – the loss of the physician’s livelihood – would occur if it imposed the injunction.
On appeal, the trial court decision was reversed and the preliminary injunction was imposed. The court stated that the clinic would not be adequately compensated through monetary damages because the non-compete clause was entered into to prevent a potential loss, rather than an actual loss, and this intent must be complied with by enforcing the agreement. Next, the court explained that there was a valid agreement between the parties, and the physician clearly breached that agreement, thus the clinic would likely prevail at trial. Lastly, the court held that no greater harm would result if it imposed the injunction because the physician had already worked outside the area for a year and a half, and failed to show why that arrangement could not continue.