Holton v. Physician Oncology Servs. LP

The inevitable disclosure doctrine is not an independent claim under which a trial court may enjoin an employee from working for an employer or disclosing trade secrets.

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In this case involving restrictive covenants in an employment agreement, Michael Holton appeals from the grant of an interlocutory injunction prohibiting him from working in an executive capacity for a particular competitor of his former employer for one year. He also challenges the trial court’s ruling that he would inevitably disclose his former employer’s trade secrets and confidential information in violation of the trade secrets act and his confidentiality covenant if he went to work for the competing business. Because a stand-alone claim for the inevitable disclosure doctrine of trade secrets—untethered from the provisions of our state trade secret statute—is not cognizable in Georgia, we reverse the part of the order enjoining Holton from the inevitable disclosure and use of trade secrets. On the remaining issues, we dismiss as moot his challenge to the order enjoining him from working for the competitor until October 2012 and affirm the part of the order enforcing the confidentiality covenant.

Holton was hired in August 2009 as the vice president and chief operating officer of Physician Oncology Services, LP, which provides radiation therapy services to cancer patients. In that position and later as president, Holton was responsible for overseeing the operations of seven facilities then operating in the metro Atlanta area. As part of the hiring process, Holton executed an employment agreement that contained a one-year noncompete covenant in which he agreed not to provide similar services to a competing business within a 25-mile radius of the seven company locations. The agreement also had a two-year confidentiality covenant in which he agreed not to use, divulge, disclose, or make accessible any confidential or proprietary information of the business or any personal information, which is defined as “any information concerning the personal, social, or business activities of its officers, directors, principals, partners, shareholders, agents, and employees.”

Holton v. Physician Oncology Servs. LP

The inevitable disclosure doctrine is not an independent claim under which a trial court may enjoin an employee from working for an employer or disclosing trade secrets.

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