Taylor Pub. Co. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 22 October 1970
• Docket Number: No. 25998,25998
• Citation: 226 Ga. 832,177 S.E.2d 655
• Parties: TAYLOR PUBLISHING COMPANY v. Edward W. JONES et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 655

177 S.E.2d 655

226 Ga. 832

TAYLOR PUBLISHING COMPANY v. Edward W. JONES et al.

No. 25998.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Oct. 22, 1970.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 5, 1970.

Troutman, Sams, Schroder & Lockerman, Tench C. Coxe, Michael C. Murphy, Atlanta, for appellant.

Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, Edward E. Dorsey, Sidney J. Nurkin, Atlanta, for appellees.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

UNDERCOFLER, Justice.

Edward W. Jones filed suit against Taylor Publishing Company and William H. Baker, Jr., Sales Representative, for a declaratory judgment of his rights as an Associate Representative under an employment contract entered into on January 8, 1962 with Taylor. The contract contains the following provision: '* * * the Associate Representative does hereby agree that for a period of two years from such termination he will not directly or indirectly for himself, or as agent of or in behalf of, or in conjunction with any person, firm or corporation, sell or solicit orders for any high school or college year books or other merchandise in competition with the Taylor Publishing Company within the territorial limits assigned hereunder to the Representative. * * *' The territorial limits assigned was the State of Georgia. Subsequent to the date of this contract, the complainant entered into an agreement with William H. Baker, Jr., Sales Representative, by which he was appointed as a subagent to sell high school and college year books published and printed by the defendant Taylor Publishing Company. This contract also prohibited the complainant from competing with Taylor Publishing Company or Baker for a period of two years within the State of Georgia by selling, soliciting, canvassing, advertising, or in any other manner engaging in activities directly or indirectly in the sale of school year books. This appeal is from the trial court's dismissal of Taylor Publishing Company's application for a preliminary injunction. Held:

1. Whether the restraints imposed by an employment contract are reasonable is a question of law for determination by the court. The restrictions imposed upon the promissor must not be larger than necessary for the protection of the promisee. Rakestraw v. Lanier, 104 Ga. 188, 30 S.E. 735, 69 Am.St.Rep. 154. The contracts here involved prohibit the employee from selling or soliciting orders for any high school or college yearbooks in competition with the employer within the State of Georgia.

In Orkin Exterminating Co. of South Georgia v. Dewberry, 204 Ga. 794, 807(1), 51 S.E.2d 669, 678, this court quoted with approval from Parish v. Schwartz, 344 Ill. 563, 176 N.E. 757, 78 A.L.R. 1032, which held: 'A contract in restraint of trade is thus total and general, when by it a party binds himself not to carry on his trade or business at all, or not to pursue it within the limits of a partidular country or state. * * * The effect of the contract * * * would be to deprive the public-the people of the whole state-of the industry and skill (of the employee) in the particular trade or business in which he may be most skillful and useful, and compel him to engage in some other business, or move to another state in order to support himself and family; in other words, to expatriate himself, so far as his citizenship of this state extends, and go beyond our jurisdiction. * * * It is against the policy of the state that the people of the whole state should be deprived of the industry and skill of a party in an employment useful to the public, and he should be compelled either to engage in other business or abandon his citizenship of the state and remove elsewhere in order to support himself and family. * * * Within its own sphere the state has a public policy * * * which the courts of the state regard and enforce, distinct from questions of policy affecting the nation at large. The state regulates its internal affairs, supports those who become public charges, and is interested...