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99-1013 Farm Credit Services of North Central Wisconsin v. Wysocki

By: dmc-admin//June 4, 2001//

99-1013 Farm Credit Services of North Central Wisconsin v. Wysocki

By: dmc-admin//June 4, 2001//

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Wilcox, J.

“In accordance with the policy of encouraging the freedom of movement of employees and protecting their personal liberty, such fluid customer list limitations should be given greater breadth than rigid geographical restrictions because they oftentimes ‘more closely approximate the area of the employer’s vulnerability to unfair competition by a former employee and [do] not deprive the employee of legitimate competitive opportunities to which he is entitled.'”

And, even though defendant’s original employer has experienced two subsequent mergers, we reject defendant’s contention that the resulting legal entity may not enforce the original covenant not to compete.

“Wysocki has not raised any ambiguities in either of the merger documents that compel us to look beyond their four corners in order to determine the intent of the parties. Moreover, because we determine that PCA of Wausau, which was merely renamed FCS after the 1991 merger, is the surviving corporation of both mergers, we do not need to reach whether Wysocki’s covenant not to compete is severable from his employment agreement and whether his continued employment amounts to an implied assignment of that covenant.”

Reversed and remanded for further proceedings.

CONCURRING OPINION: Abrahamson, Ch. J. “I agree that the cause should be remanded to the circuit court for further fact-finding. But I write separately to state that a preliminary question of fact, which in my opinion the majority has improperly answered as a matter of law, is whether the parties intended the scope of the 1983 covenant not to compete to be expanded geographically as the corporation’s powers under the federal charter expanded.”

Court of Appeals

Attorneys:

For Appellant: Jerry W. Slater, Wausau

For Respondent: Gary L. Dreier, Stevens Point

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