American Hardware Mut. Ins. Co. v. Moran

• Decision Date: 11 April 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-2275,82-2275
• Citation: 705 F.2d 219
• Parties: AMERICAN HARDWARE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John P. MORAN, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 219

705 F.2d 219

AMERICAN HARDWARE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John P. MORAN, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 82-2275.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Nov. 29, 1982.

Decided April 11, 1983.

Alan L. Unikel, Fox & Grove, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.

Roger B. Harris, Altheimer & Gray, Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellees.

Before CUMMINGS, Chief Judge, POSNER, Circuit Judge, and SWYGERT, Senior Circuit Judge.

CUMMINGS, Chief Judge.

This appeal considers whether a promise by an insurance salesman not to do business with insureds of his former employer is enforceable under Illinois law.

Plaintiff American Hardware Mutual Insurance Company ("American") is a Minnesota corporation in the business of selling package insurance plans to businesses. These plans cover a wide variety of risks--i.e., fire, casualty, sickness, injury, death, workers' compensation. The typical plan has a term of one year and may be terminated by the insured at any time at a cost of 10% of the remaining monthly premiums.

Defendant Moran is a former employee of American and an Illinois citizen. For five years, Moran was one of American's sales representatives in a territory comprising five counties in northern Illinois. On January 31, 1982, Moran quit his position with American and began work as a sales representative for defendant Frank B. Hall & Co. of California ("Hall"), a competitor of American. ¹ Moran had a written employment contract with American when he switched companies. That contract gives American the "exclusive right, title, and interest in and to * * * all records of [American's] insurance policies, * * * policy expiration dates, and the names, telephone numbers and addresses of existing or prospective policyholders" and requires that Moran surrender all such records to American upon termination of his employment. The contract also prohibits Moran from doing business in the same five county territory with any customers of American for a period of two years from the date he leaves American's employ. That period will expire February 1, 1984, according to American's counsel.

After consulting his new employer, Moran apparently decided to disregard these restrictions. Moran retained certain records from his days with American that reveal the names and addresses of businesses insured by American, the premiums each pays, the type of insurance policy each possesses, and the expiration date of each policy. Shortly after leaving American, Moran also began contacting on behalf of Hall some of the same businesses to which he had sold insurance while an employee of American. Because of Moran's sales efforts, some of American's insureds terminated or failed to renew their policies with American and purchased insurance from Hall.

Three months after Moran ended his employment with American, American commenced this diversity action for monetary and injunctive relief in federal district court. American charges, inter alia, that Moran's conduct after leaving its employ is a breach of his employment contract. American moved for a preliminary injunction barring Moran from attempting to sell package insurance plans to businesses that were customers of his when he was an employee of American. The district court denied that motion and American has appealed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm, 545 F.Supp. 192.

Admittedly Illinois law governs this diversity case. Illinois courts will not enforce a covenant by an employee not to compete with his employer except to protect some "legitimate business interest" of the employer. Hydroaire, Inc. v. Sager, 98 Ill.App.3d 758, 764-765, 53 Ill.Dec. 928, 424 N.E.2d 719 (1st Dist.1981), quoting Image Supplies, Inc. v. Hilmert, 71 Ill.App.3d 710, 712-713, 28 Ill.Dec. 86, 390 N.E.2d 68 (1st Dist.1979). See also House of Vision, Inc. v. Hiyane, 37 Ill.2d 32, 37-38, 225 N.E.2d 21 (1967). The district court denied American's preliminary injunction motion on the ground that it was unlikely that American would be able to prove that it had a legitimate business interest in preventing one of its former employees from enticing away some of its customers. American claims that the district court abused its discretion in making that determination. American claims that preventing Moran from inducing its insureds to discontinue their policies will protect three business interests it has and that each of these interests is entitled to protection under Illinois law.

First, American claims that it expended considerable resources training Moran when it first hired him and that it has a legitimate interest in recouping those resources. American argues that the only way it can do this is to prevent Moran from taking some of its customers with him upon his leaving its employ. We doubt that this is so. American could probably recoup whatever it spends to train its salesmen--if it does not already do so--simply by paying them a lower base salary or rate of commission or by requiring that they pay out of pocket for the cost of their training. It appears that there is nothing secret about the skills American teaches its novice salesmen. That salesmen do not covenant not to compete with American until after all of their classroom training is complete is some indication of this. The skills taught are commonly possessed by experienced salesmen throughout the industry so that there is no reason to suppose that employees could not afford to pay for their training out of the income they earn while employed by American. See P. Rubin & P. Shedd, Human Capital and Covenants Not To Compete, 10 J. Legal Stud. 93 (1981). But American might not want to recoup its investment in its employees by paying them a lower salary or a lower rate of commission. Salesmen might prefer foregoing the chance to do business with American's insureds on their own or for another insurer sometime in the future rather than receiving a lower salary or commission, perhaps because a dollar in hand is worth more to them than the chance to earn more than a dollar sometime in the future. And American might prefer to pay its salesmen higher salaries and commission rates than to run the risk of losing business when salesmen quit, perhaps because the premiums its insureds pay are worth more to it than to its salesmen. Thus American might be able to pay its salesmen more if it can prevent them from competing for its customers when they leave its employ.

This suggests that American's professed interest in recouping its training costs derives from its interest in hiring good salesmen. The amount of good will between purchasers and salesmen, or the cost of training salesmen, might be less in other markets than in the market for package insurance plans. If no-compete covenants by American's employees are not enforced, American might be forced to pay its salesmen less than other firms pay their salesmen. If so, the quality of salesmen American is able to hire might decrease.

It would seem to follow that a firm should be free to compete with other firms for good employees by preventing its former employees from competing with it provided the firm, as here, is not a monopolist in the market in which the employee is prohibited from competing. Only when a firm enjoys monopoly power is there any danger that enforcing an employee's covenant not to compete will injure the public by requiring it to pay more for the firm's product. The market in northern Illinois for package insurance plans for automobile, truck, and motorcycle dealers is apparently very competitive--in fact, American's market share appears to be dwindling, so that there is probably no danger that enforcing Moran's covenant will have any effect upon the market price of the package insurance plans American sells. Thus one might suppose that American should not be required to pay Moran more than it agreed to when it hired him, that is, it should...