American Institute of Chemical Engineers v. Reber-Friel Company

I respectfully dissent. The majority proceeds on the erroneous assumption that the restrictive covenant here must be treated the same as one of adhesion that might be extracted by a powerful employer from an employee, which will not be enforced by New York courts when it prevents the employee from earning his livelihood elsewhere. But no such circumstances are present here. The present covenant was agreed to after arm’s-length bargaining between a trade association (AIChE) and a well-established independent corporate management organization (Reber) that will continue, as it has in the past,…