Despite California’s prohibition against non-compete agreements, a federal court in the Eastern District of California recently ruled that a California resident may be subject to the non-compete covenant in his employment agreement due to a provision in the agreement identifying Indiana as the parties’ choice of forum and that state’s law as the parties’ choice of law.  The lawsuit, Scales v. Badger Daylighting Corp. (Case No. 1:17-cv-00222-DAD-JLT), was (prior to removal to federal court) filed in California state court by the employee, Daniel Scales, after his employer, Badger Daylighting Corp., first filed a breach of contract action against Scales in Indiana state court.

Badger’s Indiana lawsuit claims that Scales violated the non-compete clause in his employment agreement when he quit his employment with Badger in California and began working for one of the hydrovac excavation company’s California competitors. Scales’ employment agreement contains Indiana choice of law and choice-of-forum clauses.  Trial for the Indiana action is set for January 23, 2018.

In Scales’ later-filed California action, he seeks a declaratory judgment “that [his] respective Non-Competition Agreement [is] an unlawful and unenforceable restraint of trade, in violation of section 16600 of the California Business and Professions Code.” Badger removed the case to federal court in the Eastern District of California based on diversity of citizenship and immediately filed a motion to dismiss based on the agreement’s Indiana forum-selection clause.

U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd granted Badger’s motion to dismiss on June 1, 2017, holding that the forum-selection clause was valid because it did not deprive Scales of his day in court and it did not contravene public policy.  Judge Drozd reasoned that Scales has the financial means and opportunity to challenge the non-compete provisions of the employment agreement in the matter pending in Indiana state court – thus consigning Scales to the Indiana court for a determination of the enforceability of the non-compete.

Judge Drozd also rejected Scales’ argument that enforcing the forum-selection clause would violate recently enacted California Labor Code § 925.  The new law (which became effective this year) provides that an employer shall not require an employee who primarily resides and works in California to agree to a provision that would either: (1) require the employee to adjudicate a claim outside of California that arose in California; or (2) deprive the employee of the substantive protection of California law with respect to a controversy arising in California.  The statute also requires that a provision of a contract that violates § 925 is “voidable by the employee” and “the matter shall be adjudicated in California.” The recently enacted law also awards attorneys’ fees to employees seeking its protection. However, Judge Drozd correctly noted that § 925 applies only to contracts “entered into, modified, or extended on or after January 1, 2017.” Scales signed his employment agreement in August 2014, and, therefore, is not covered by the protections of § 925.

Although non-California forum-selection clauses may sometimes save a non-compete from near-certain-death before a California court, Judge Drozd recognized that going forward, § 925 will generally preclude the enforcement of forum-selection clauses contained in agreements entered into on or after January 1, 2017, thus defeating out-of-state employers’ attempts to evade California’s non-compete restrictions.

Employers should review their employment agreements going forward to ensure compliance with § 925 and can begin by visiting the helpful FAQ we published earlier this year regarding the new law.

 

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Special thanks to Samuel Kronenberg, Summer Associate, for his assistance in preparing this alert.

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.