MONROE – A Downsville resident is asking the court to nullify a noncompete agreement she has with her former employer.
Connie Denise King filed a lawsuit Jan. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Biotronic Southeast LLC over a noncompete agreement entered between plaintiff and defendant.
According to the complaint, King was a former technologist of the defendant and was hired in February 2013. She claims that on or about Feb. 18, 2015, she entered into a technologist amended employment agreement, which was allegedly executed in Louisiana. The suit states that the agreement provides that for 12 months following the termination of her employment with the defendant, King will not be directly or indirectly involved or become associated with, employed by, or be financially supported by any business that seeks to provide or markets monitoring services to restricted customers or reduce or alter defendant’s business with said restricted customers.
Plaintiff asserts that the agreement does not define any municipalities, county or geographic scope. King resigned from defendants on Oct. 9 and began working for a small and local competitor, the suit states. Biotronic Southeast allegedly filed suit against King on Dec. 22 in a district court in Michigan. King is contesting the suit because she alleges that under Louisiana law, noncompetition agreements are null and void and are only enforceable when it identifies by name the parish or municipalities to which it applies. Since the defendant has not allegedly identified the geographic region, the agreement is therefore null, the suit states. King asserts that if she cannot work at her new position, she will suffer great financial harm.
King is therefore asking the court to declare that the noncompetition agreement to be unenforceable and any other rewards deemed just. She is represented by George M. Snellings from Nelson, Zentner, Sartor & Snellings in Monroe. The case has been assigned to Judge Robert G. James.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00133