Issue

Enforceability of employment agreement—prior lawsuit—issue not actually litigated—resolved by settlement

Summary

In a complex business case in which an insurance agency and its holding company (plaintiffs) sued several former employees (defendants) for multiple claims including breach of contract for allegedly breaching the non-solicitation provisions of an employment agreement, plaintiffs were not collaterally estopped from seeking enforcement of those provisions despite a finding from a trial court in a prior lawsuit (which plaintiffs had brought against one of the defendants) determining that those provisions were unenforceable. The enforceability issue was not actually litigated and necessary to the judgment because the prior lawsuit was resolved by a settlement agreement, and there was no statement indicating the parties' intent to incorporate the unenforceability finding into the settlement agreement.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →