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Case Study : ' Gloria Ramirez Will Not Be Bound By The Non Compete Agreement

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Gloria Ramirez will not be bound by the non-compete agreement that she signed with En Vogue because they will not be able to prove that they provided her with extraordinary or specialized training.
Legitimate business interests include, but is not limited to, extraordinary or specialized training provided by the employer. Fla. Stat. Ann. §542-33(2)(a) (West 1996). “Extraordinary is that which goes beyond what is usual, regular, or customary in the industry in which the employee is employed”. Hapney v. Central Garage, Inc., 579 So.2d 127, 131 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1991). Some of the key factors that determine whether training was specialized are: time and money spent, the manner of skills attained, and the uniqueness of the system or method …show more content…

Id. at 128. The court held that the former employer’s failure to provide evidence of specialized or extraordinary training amounted to a lack of legitimate business interest. Id. at 134.
In Passalacqua, the appeal court held that the appellee could not have provided specialized training to the appellants because based on the appellant’s testimony; their training came from reviewing a manual, and a day of “on the job” training. Passalacqua v. Naviant, Inc., 844 So. 2d 792 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2003). In this case, the appellants quit three weeks after signing the non-compete agreement and started their own business; their former employer sought injunctive relief on the basis that they had legitimate business interests to protect, one being specialized training about the customer database. Id. at 793. The court favored the appellant’s testimony showing that that the appellee’s did not provide specialized training; therefore, they ruled that the non-compete agreement could not be enforced on the appellants. Id. at 794.
In Raney, based on witness testimony, the court found that the defendant did not receive specialized training because she was merely

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