The court considered a covenant said to be in restraint of trade. The employee was a 25 year old computer programmer who had worked entirely upon a computerised booking system for the travel industry.
Held: The employer had failed to identify just which parts of the substantial software range was confidential. The court set out ‘well settled legal propositions affecting restrictive covenants in an employment contract’, beginning with the propositions that the court will never uphold a covenant from an employer merely to protect himself from competition by a former employee, and that there must be some subject matter which an employer can legitimately protect by a restrictive covenant.
Judges:
Mummery LJ
Citations:
[1997] EWCA Civ 2759, [1999] FSR 235, [1999] ITCLR 218, [1998] IRLR 382
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Office 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:
Cited – Thomas v Farr Plc and Another CA 20-Feb-2007
The employee, the former chairman of the company, appealed a finding that his contract which restricted his being employed for one year in the same field after termination, was valid and enforceable. The company had provided insurance services to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 10 November 2022; Ref: scu.143158