{"id":590,"date":"2010-08-12T17:47:24","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T17:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/georgia-court-of-appeals-nixes-physician-non-compete-because-it-covered-territory-in-which-referral-sources-were-located-but-where-physician-had-not-worked\/"},"modified":"2010-08-12T17:47:24","modified_gmt":"2010-08-12T17:47:24","slug":"georgia-court-of-appeals-nixes-physician-non-compete-because-it-covered-territory-in-which-referral-sources-were-located-but-where-physician-had-not-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/georgia-court-of-appeals-nixes-physician-non-compete-because-it-covered-territory-in-which-referral-sources-were-located-but-where-physician-had-not-worked\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Court of Appeals\u2019 Nixes Physician Non-Compete Because It Covered Territory in Which Referral Sources Were Located but Where Physician Had Not Worked"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent decision, the Georgia Court of Appeals held that an employer cannot try to protect referral sources by prohibiting a former employee from working in an area where those sources are located, if the employee never worked in that area and the employee was not shown to have developed any contacts there.\u00a0 Peachtree Fayette Women\u2019s Specialists, LLC vs. Turner<\/em> 10 FCDR 2448 (July 30, 2010).<\/p>\n

In the case, the physician filed a declaratory judgment action asking the Court to declare her non-compete with her former practice unenforceable.\u00a0 Specifically, the physician objected to the portion of the non-compete which restricted her from practicing at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta because she had never worked there, was never asked to work there and the medical practice never maintained an office there.\u00a0 The physician testified that she was not told when she was hired that she would be performing services at Piedmont Hospital and that she was never asked to work at Piedmont Hospital during her employment.\u00a0 The owner of the medical practice admitted that the physician had never worked at Piedmont Hospital during her employment with the practice. \u00a0The evidence also showed that the practice never maintained an office at or near Piedmont Hospital.<\/p>\n

The physician\u2019s employment agreement did provide that her duties would include practicing medicine at offices located at Piedmont Hospital, and that she would provide services at Piedmont Hospital; however, that never did occur.\u00a0 The practice had even completed an application on the physician\u2019s behalf to obtain staff privileges at the hospital, but they were courtesy staff privileges only and the physician never actually saw any patients or provided any medical services at the hospital.<\/p>\n

The owner of the practice testified that he brought referrals from Piedmont Hospital to the practice located in Fayette County because he had previously practiced at Piedmont Hospital for seventeen years.\u00a0 He also testified he had a number of referral sources there whom he introduced to the physician.<\/p>\n

The Court found the non-compete unenforceable because the restriction covered not only a hospital where the physician never worked, but where the medical practice had abandoned all intention of working.\u00a0 The Court found that the practice had not established a sufficient justification for the restriction because the practice failed to show that the physician established relationships with anyone at Piedmont Hospital during her employment so as to generate her own referrals.<\/p>\n

The decision is not particularly surprising given the strict scrutiny which is applied to employment agreements, even employment agreement signed by physicians, and the fact that the territory of the non-compete must be commensurate with the territory in which the employee (or in this case the physician) works for or represents the employer.\u00a0 Since the physician did not work for or represent the employer at Piedmont Hospital, the Court\u2019s finding that the territory was overbroad was not unexpected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent decision, the Georgia Court of Appeals held that an employer cannot try to protect referral sources by prohibiting a former employee from working in an area where those sources are located, if the employee never worked in that area and the employee was not shown to have developed any contacts there.\u00a0 Peachtree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[20,25,65,16,22],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeorgia Court of Appeals\u2019 Nixes Physician Non-Compete Because It Covered Territory in Which Referral Sources Were Located but Where Physician Had Not Worked - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/georgia-court-of-appeals-nixes-physician-non-compete-because-it-covered-territory-in-which-referral-sources-were-located-but-where-physician-had-not-worked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Georgia Court of Appeals\u2019 Nixes Physician Non-Compete Because It Covered Territory in Which Referral Sources Were Located but Where Physician Had Not Worked - 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