Litwinczuk v. Palm Beach Cardiovascular

• Citation: 939 So.2d 268
• Decision Date: 18 October 2006
• Docket Number: No. 4D06-5.,4D06-5.
• Parties: Zbigniew-Jacob LITWINCZUK, M.D., Appellant, v. PALM BEACH CARDIOVASCULAR CLINIC, L.C., Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Florida (US)

939 So.2d 268

Zbigniew-Jacob LITWINCZUK, M.D., Appellant, v. PALM BEACH CARDIOVASCULAR CLINIC, L.C., Appellee.

No. 4D06-5.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

October 18, 2006.

Hank Jackson and Joseph J. Ward of Holland & Knight LLP, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Alan C. Espy and Marjorie Gadarian Graham, Palm Beach Gardens, for appellee.

WARNER, J.

Dr. Zbigniew-Jacob Litwinczuk appeals a temporary injunction enjoining him from practicing medicine within a geographical area of Palm Beach County in accordance with the terms of a non-competition agreement he signed with his previous employer, appellee Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic, L.C. He claims that the trial court erred in finding that the clinic would be irreparably damaged were the covenant not enforced and that the clinic had a legitimate business interest to enforce the covenant. Further, Dr. Litwinczuk claims that the clinic first breached the employment agreement. Because the court found as a factual matter that the clinic did not breach the contract and that Dr. Litwinczuk did not overcome the presumption of irreparable injury, the court did not abuse its discretion in enforcing the covenant. We affirm the trial court's findings and order entering a temporary injunction.

Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic sought to expand its business by hiring a new doctor. It paid a recruiter $22,000 to find one for its practice. The recruiter contacted Dr. Litwinczuk, and after visits in Palm Beach, Dr. Litwinczuk agreed to a contract. In order to provide a patient base for him, the clinic also bought an existing practice for $40,000.

The clinic and Litwinczuk executed an employment agreement on June 15, 2003. It contained a non-competition clause in which Dr. Litwinczuk agreed that should he terminate his employment, then for two years he would not enter into any practice in any form with a "competing enterprise", which was defined as "any business which is in competition with any of the business of the Corporation. . . ." During that time he would not interfere with the corporation's relationship with any of its employees or patients.

Dr Litwinczuk commenced seeing patients through the clinic and began to gather his own clinic patients from referrals from other physicians. Despite the agreement, Litwinczuk resigned from the clinic, citing its on-call requirements and various disagreements with billing and treatment practices as a reason. He opened a practice a short distance from the clinic and began seeing patients he had seen in the clinic. At the hearing on the temporary injunction, the clinic presented evidence that Litwinczuk saw at least forty-nine of the clinic's patients at his new office in the first two months after opening his own practice.

The clinic filed suit for a temporary and permanent injunction to enforce the covenant not to compete. After the evidentiary hearing, the court entered an order enforcing the covenant, although it reduced the geographical area covered.

Although there was some conflict in the testimony, the Court accepts the testimony that a number of the patients of the Plaintiff have gone to the Defendant for treatment subsequent to his leaving the practice in contravention of the non-compete agreement. Moreover, the defendant has opened a practice less than four blocks from the existing offices of the Plaintiff. Likewise, he is a practicing cardiologist in the same hospitals as the Plaintiff corporation. The Court finds that the Plaintiff has invested substantial sums in bringing the Defendant into its practice and have [sic] legitimate business interests as set forth in the statute for enforcement of the restrictive covenant. Likewise, this Court finds that the period of two years is a reasonable period of time but finds that the geographical restrictions of the entire Palm Beach County area to be unreasonable. Based upon the testimony, the reasonable area would be an area from the southernmost boundaries of the City of West Palm Beach north to the Martin County line. . . . Otherwise, the court finds that Plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law and will suffer irreparable injury as a result of the failure to enforce the provisions.

Dr. Litwinczuk appeals this ruling. We review orders on temporary injunctions for an abuse of discretion. Colucci v. Kar Kare Auto. Group, Inc., 918 So.2d 431, 435 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006). Further,

To the extent [an order granting or denying an injunction] rests on factual matters, an order imposing a permanent injunction lies within the sound discretion of the trial court and will be affirmed absent a showing of abuse of discretion. To the extent it rests on purely legal matters, an order imposing an injunction is subject to full, or de novo, review on appeal.

Id. at 436 (quoting Smith v. Coalition to Reduce Class Size, 827 So.2d 959, 961 (Fla. 2002)).

In seeking a temporary injunction, the movant must show: (1) irreparable harm if the status quo is not maintained; (2) no adequate remedy at law; (3) a clear legal right to the relief requested; (4) that any public interest will not be disserved; and (5) a substantial likelihood of success on the merits. Shafer v. Shafer, 898 So.2d 1053, 1055 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005). Section 542.335(1)(c), Florida Statutes, provides, in relevant part:

(c) A person seeking enforcement of a restrictive covenant also shall plead and prove that the contractually specified restraint is reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate business interest or interests justifying the restriction. If a person seeking enforcement of the restrictive covenant establishes prima facie that the restraint is reasonably necessary, the person opposing enforcement has the burden of establishing that the contractually specified restraint is overbroad, overlong, or otherwise not reasonably necessary to protect the established legitimate business interest or interests.

Section 542.335(1)(j) states, in part: "The violation of an enforceable restrictive covenant creates a presumption of irreparable injury to the person seeking enforcement of a restrictive covenant." This presumption is rebuttable, not conclusive. Passalacqua v. Naviant, Inc., 844 So.2d 792, 796 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003).

Whether Dr. Litwinczuk violated the covenant not to compete by accepting patients from the clinic was a question of fact that the court resolved against him, based upon disputed evidence. Because he violated this provision, the clinic was entitled to a presumption of irreparable injury. Dr. Litwinczuk maintains that he overcame that presumption when he asked Dr. Crandall, the clinic's chief executive officer, on cross-examination whether Dr. Crandall knew how much money the clinic lost since Dr. Litwinczuk left. Dr. Crandall said he did not know, but they might be able to reconstruct a historical basis for how much money the clinic lost since Dr. Litwinczuk left the clinic. From this...