{"id":626,"date":"2012-01-06T15:59:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T15:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/middle-district-of-georgia-judge-strikes-down-in-term-restrictive-covenant-in-distributorship-agreement\/"},"modified":"2012-01-06T15:59:23","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T15:59:23","slug":"middle-district-of-georgia-judge-strikes-down-in-term-restrictive-covenant-in-distributorship-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/middle-district-of-georgia-judge-strikes-down-in-term-restrictive-covenant-in-distributorship-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle District of Georgia Judge Strikes Down In-Term Restrictive Covenant in Distributorship Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The facts and claims at issue in <span>B &amp; F System, Inc. v. Leblanc<\/span>, Civil Action No. 7:07-CV-192 (HL), 2011 WL 4103576 (M.D. Ga. Sept. 14, 2011), are very detailed and complex.\u00a0 One ruling in Judge Lawson\u2019s lengthy opinion is of particular interest to this blog.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the parties to the lawsuit had entered into a distributorship agreement for the sale of imported products, including electronics, cookware, cutlery, jewelry and cleaning apparel.\u00a0 When the parties\u2019 relationship disintegrated, the wholesale distributor filed suit against the retail distributor and others, bringing claims for breach of an in-term restriction against competition in the parties\u2019 distributorship agreement, among other claims.<\/p>\n<p>Relying on <span>Atlanta Bread Co. Int\u2019l., Inc. v. Lupton-Smith<\/span>, 285 Ga. 587, 589, 679 S.E.2d 722, 724 (2009), Judge Lawson of the Middle District of Georgia found that in order to be enforceable, the in-term non-competition covenant had to be reasonable as to time, territory and scope.\u00a0 Judge Lawson thus rejected the plaintiff\u2019s argument that the covenant should be subjected to a lesser scrutiny similar to the scrutiny applied in cases involving exclusivity provisions in commercial business leases.\u00a0 Judge Lawson found that the situation was more analogous to that in <span>Atlanta Bread<\/span>, which involved a franchise agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Applying <span>Atlanta Bread<\/span>, Judge Lawson found that the in-term non-competition covenant in the distributorship agreement was unenforceable because it lacked a territory.\u00a0 He therefore found that the defendants were entitled to summary judgment on the plaintiff\u2019s claim for breach of contract with respect to that covenant.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Lawson\u2019s decision reaffirms that, in order for <em>in-term<\/em> restrictive covenants which are not being scrutinized under Georgia\u2019s new Restrictive Covenant Act to be enforceable, they must generally be reasonable as to time, territory and scope of activities.\u00a0 <span>See<\/span>, <span>generally<\/span>, O.C.G.A. section 13-8-56(4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The facts and claims at issue in B &amp; F System, Inc. v. Leblanc, Civil Action No. 7:07-CV-192 (HL), 2011 WL 4103576 (M.D. Ga. Sept. 14, 2011), are very detailed and complex.\u00a0 One ruling in Judge Lawson\u2019s lengthy opinion is of particular interest to this blog. Some of the parties to the lawsuit had entered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"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":[27,20,25,16,22],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Middle District of Georgia Judge Strikes Down In-Term Restrictive Covenant in Distributorship Agreement - 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\/middle-district-of-georgia-judge-strikes-down-in-term-restrictive-covenant-in-distributorship-agreement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Middle District of Georgia Judge Strikes Down In-Term Restrictive Covenant in Distributorship Agreement - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The facts and claims at issue in B &amp; F System, Inc. v. 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