In Azzouz v. Prime Pediatrics, P.C., Case No. A08A2340, 2009 WL 619189 (Ga. App. Mar. 12, 2009), the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s grant of an interlocutory injunction on behalf of Prime Pediatrics, P.C. against Dr. Rami Azzouz. Dr. Azzouz entered into a detailed non-competition provision upon the commencement of his employment with Prime. The provision is as follows:

Employee hereby covenants and agrees with Employer that during his employment pursuant to the terms of this Agreement and for a period of two (2) years following the termination of his employment for any reason, the Employee shall not practice pediatric medicine or any pediatric sub-speciality within the following counties located in the State of Georgia: Whitfield, Murray, Gordon, Catoosa, and Walker except as an Employee of the Employer pursuant to the terms of this Employment Agreement.

Nothing contained herein however shall be construed so as to prohibit the Employee from practicing medicine as a pediatrician outside the territory set forth above before the expiration of said two (2) years, or within the territory as described above after the expiration of two (2) years, nor from prohibiting the Employee from practicing specifically any specialty of medicine other than pediatrics….

The parties agree that prohibited competition shall include maintaining pediatric privileges at any hospital located in the prohibited area, advertising in any form, including but not limited to, telephone, white and yellow pages, radio, newspaper advertisements, signage advertising, keeping or maintaining an office within the prohibited geographical area, posting web-sites showing business locations in the prohibited geographical area, or mailings to patients of Employer within the prohibited geographical area.

Non-compete provisions in Georgia typically are limited to the language of the first paragraph of Dr. Azzouz’s non-compete section: a prohibition on competing in a specific field and a specific geographic area for a specific period of time. Prime Pediatrics added the subsequent paragraphs that have the effect of providing greater detail as to what is and is not prohibited by the provision. These subsequent paragraphs proved important when Dr. Azzouz left Prime Pediatrics to open a competing practice and litigation ensued.

Dr. Azzouz argued that the third paragraph barred him from working in any hospital that advertises within the five-county area covered by the non-compete provision. If this interpretation were correct, then the non-compete provision would have been overly broad and unenforceable. The Court of Appeals found that this paragraph was “not constructed perfectly” and then proceeded to add in semicolons to make the provision clearer:

The parties agree that prohibited competition shall include …, advertising in any form, including but not limited to [ (1) ] telephone, white and yellow pages, radio, newspaper advertisements, signage advertising, keeping or maintaining an office within the prohibited geographical area[; (2) ] posting to web sites showing business locations within the prohibited geographical area [;] or [3] mailings to patients of Employer within the prohibited geographical area.

In so doing, the Court of Appeals relied on O.C.G.A. § 13-2-2(6), which provides that the rules of grammatical construction may be disregarded when interpreting a contract in order to give effect to the parties’ intent. Although the Court of Appeals’ action could be construed as blue-penciling (which is prohibited in Georgia for restrictive covenants in the employment context), the Court of Appeals was able to rely on statutory and common law authority that permits minor changes for grammatical purposes.

The Court of Appeals also cited the second paragraph of the non-compete section, noting that Dr. Azzouz’s construction of the third paragraph was inconsistent with the provision of the second paragraph stating that Dr. Azzouz was free to practice any specialty of medicine other than pediatrics. In the end, the additional paragraphs following the basic non-compete provision first gave Dr. Azzouz an angle of attack and then negated that angle.

Azzouz is interesting because Court of Appeals assumed that the trial court’s factual conclusions were correct. Yet, in other instances, the Court of Appeals has refused to enforce non-compete provisions based on fact-specific arguments made by defendants before a trial court. For instance, in Beacon Sec. Technology, Inc. v. Beasley, 286 Ga. App. 11, 648 S.E.2d 440 (2007), the Court of Appeals refused to enforce a non-compete provision because the record reflected that the employer did not prove that the employee performed each of the prohibited activities in each of the counties listed in the non-compete provision. It is possible that Azzouz could have made a similar argument regarding his provision of pediatric services in the five-county area covered by the non-compete provision, but he failed to get a transcript of the proceedings below.

Azzouz further illustrates that non-compete provisions, although disfavored under Georgia law, are useful in certain professions. Georgia has a strict rule that a non-compete provision has to be limited to the geographic area worked by an employee. This can create problems for employees who have very large assigned areas (such as sales personnel with nationwide books of business) or employees who have no assigned areas (such as research scientists). Physicians, on the other hand, typically see patients from defined geographic areas. As such, it often can be easier to draft and enforce a non-compete provision against a doctor.