Restrictive Covenant

[Avalon]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated on this mess. I did not find anything helpful when I searched the topic.

 

I have resigned from my current position in family medicine. My contract was formally with a partnership of eight physicians, although I worked only with one who served as my SP. It is very clear that my contract was with the LLC and not with this individual physician. There were concerns too numerous to list in this post about the job, but suffice it to say that I met my goal of staying for one calendar year and had been planning my resignation for several months. In the interim, my SP resigned from the partnership and will be establishing a solo enterpirse (with the PA he has hired to replace me), effective on February 1st.

 

My original contract included a restrictive covenant of a 15 mile radius. Two of my former SP's partners offered me a position in their practice, and another physician from this very small town has also recruited me. I made no effort whatsoever to solicit these two interviews and offers. My SP's partners have released him from his restrictive covenant with their group, and previously said verbally (through the practice administrator) that they would not enforce the non-compete if I chose to stay in the area. Additionally, I believed that since my former SP will no longer be with the company that held my original contract, he could not enforce the restriction.

 

Yesterday I declined the offer from the partners and notified the other physican that I would like to join him. I dutifully informed him as required that I had a restrictive covenant in my previous contract, but that my SP will have left that group by February 1st, and that the other partners had indicated, at least verally, that they would not enforce it. We planned a dinner meeting tomorrow to finalize some details, and I have made my application to the osteopathic board, because in it's infinite wisdom, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires me to do so, even though I am already a licensed allopathic PA in the same state.

 

Today, I received a text message from my former SP strongly suggesting that he was going to pursue the non-compete and threaten my future employement in this town. Additionally, I received word through the practice administrator that the rest of the partners are concerned about "loss of revenue" if I were to join this other physician. All of this is a rather sudden change in perspective. I also heard from former co-workers that my former SP intends to offer me employment once again with him, which is about as likely to happen as my getting a date with Jon Bon Jovi. Please note also that my mother is terminally ill and that everyone involved in this scenario knows that I am providing a good deal of her care and can only work part-time for the forseeable future.

 

So now that you have the basics of the situation, do you think these covenants are enforceable, especially under these peculiar circumstances? How can a former SP try to enforce the clause contained in a contract with an entity to which he no longer belongs? I just don't get it....