My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Florida
I'm in sales and I have a non-compete with my former employer which I just left. The separation was somewhat mutual as the company is changing its business model and eliminating all staff in the position I had. As such it was not a firing, but more of a layoff.
The non-compete document has a section defining what is 'prohibited competition'. In this section it specifically says:
'Employee acknowledges and agrees that a business will be deemed competitive with the Company if it is in a business of providing enterprise mobile platforms (the "Field of Interest")"
The issue is that I have no idea what 'providing enterprise mobile platforms' is. From what I have been able to research, this statement refers to work in the tech sector, either providing software or development services for 'mobile platforms' (i.e. tablets, smartphones, etc.). While I do not want to divulge the nature of the work this company does, it in no way involves anything even tangentially related to 'mobile platforms' as I have been able to define it.
The company imports and sells a physical product. For the purpose of comparison let's say that this product is 'ceramic bricks from mexico' which are then installed in customers' locales. This clearly has nothing to do with 'enterprise mobile platforms'.
My question is: If this Non-Compete document was copied from a template, but this part (Field of Interest) was not changed and it is signed by both me and the employer, will the employer have legal recourse to prevent me from working in the same field I was working in with them (presumably the ACTUAL field of interest of this company) given that it's not spelled out in the document?
I guess what I'm really asking is: Will a court see this as a 'reasonable' mistake made by the employer and tell me: "you know what they really meant" or will they just tell the employer: "sorry...your screw up in a legal document is not the employee's fault"?
And by the way: I realize that this means I did not read this document closely enough when I first signed it. I mostly focused on the 'length of period of non-compete' more than anything else, but I definitely will use this as a learning experience for reading every thing in the future.
I'm in sales and I have a non-compete with my former employer which I just left. The separation was somewhat mutual as the company is changing its business model and eliminating all staff in the position I had. As such it was not a firing, but more of a layoff.
The non-compete document has a section defining what is 'prohibited competition'. In this section it specifically says:
'Employee acknowledges and agrees that a business will be deemed competitive with the Company if it is in a business of providing enterprise mobile platforms (the "Field of Interest")"
The issue is that I have no idea what 'providing enterprise mobile platforms' is. From what I have been able to research, this statement refers to work in the tech sector, either providing software or development services for 'mobile platforms' (i.e. tablets, smartphones, etc.). While I do not want to divulge the nature of the work this company does, it in no way involves anything even tangentially related to 'mobile platforms' as I have been able to define it.
The company imports and sells a physical product. For the purpose of comparison let's say that this product is 'ceramic bricks from mexico' which are then installed in customers' locales. This clearly has nothing to do with 'enterprise mobile platforms'.
My question is: If this Non-Compete document was copied from a template, but this part (Field of Interest) was not changed and it is signed by both me and the employer, will the employer have legal recourse to prevent me from working in the same field I was working in with them (presumably the ACTUAL field of interest of this company) given that it's not spelled out in the document?
I guess what I'm really asking is: Will a court see this as a 'reasonable' mistake made by the employer and tell me: "you know what they really meant" or will they just tell the employer: "sorry...your screw up in a legal document is not the employee's fault"?
And by the way: I realize that this means I did not read this document closely enough when I first signed it. I mostly focused on the 'length of period of non-compete' more than anything else, but I definitely will use this as a learning experience for reading every thing in the future.
Non-Compete Agreements: Employer Error in Non-Compete Agreement and Its Enforceability
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