Dentmaster (UK) Limited v Kent: CA 2 May 1997

The court was asked as to whether a post-employment non-solicitation restrictive covenant was reasonable.
Held: The covenant was upheld. It extended for a period of twelve months to customers within the last six months with whom the employee had dealt at any time as an employee.
Lord Justice Waite said: ‘given the brevity of the restraint period and the limitation of this restraint to customers within the previous six months, I find nothing illogical in the absence of a backward temporal limit on the employee ‘s dealings with such customers.’

Judges:

Waite LJ

Citations:

[1997] EWCA Civ 1610, [1997] IRLR 636

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedOffice Angels Ltd v Rainer-Thomas CA 1991
Reasonability Test of Post Employment Restriction
The court re-stated the principles applicable in testing whether an employee’s restrictive covenant was reasonable: ‘The court cannot say that a covenant in one form affords no more than adequate protection to a covenantee’s relevant legitimate . .

Cited by:

CitedAllan Janes Llp v Johal ChD 23-Feb-2006
The claimant sought to enforce a restrictive covenant against the defendant a former assistant solicitor as to non-competition within a certain distance of the practice for a period of three years. After leaving she had sought to set up partnership . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment

Updated: 12 September 2022; Ref: scu.142006