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Home » Court denies injuction in Medtronic’s non-compete suit against former Medicrea CEO

Court denies injuction in Medtronic’s non-compete suit against former Medicrea CEO

September 14, 2021 By Chris Newmarker

judge gavel justice Medicrea Medtronic
[Image from Unsplash]
A federal court in New York has denied Medtronic a preliminary injunction in its non-compete-agreement lawsuit against former Medicrea CEO Joseph Walland.

Judge Edgardo Ramos of the U.S. District Court of Southern New York, in a Sept. 10 order, ruled that the agreement between Walland and Medtronic was covered by the law in California, where Walland has resided the majority of the time in recent years, and not New York.

Under California law, “every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void,” Ramos wrote.

“An injunction would impose a hardship on Walland because it would bar him from his current employment, and given Medicrea’s nationwide market, he would likely be barred from working anywhere else in the country that overlaps with his specialty,” Ramos said. “Further, if enjoined, Walland will be deprived of the benefits of California law — specifically, its prohibition on anti-competitive restraints. By contrast, absent an injunction, plaintiffs may lose some business and customers, but as noted, there has been no evidence yet of such a loss.”

Walland entered into an employment agreement when Medicrea promoted him to CEO in July 2018, according to Ramos’ recounting the facts of the case. Walland voluntarily left the spinal surgery tech company in December 2020, about a month after Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) completed its acquisition of Medicrea.

Within weeks of leaving Medicrea, Walland started a job as VP for sales at Alphatec Spine. While Alphatec was negotiating its acquisition of EOS imaging earlier this year, two emails related to the negotiation came into Walland’s old Medicrea account — and the emails included information that a Medicrea official deemed to be confidential Medicrea information, according to Ramos, who said the official did not elaborate about the information.

Within days, Medtronic sued Walland.

Filed Under: Featured, Imaging, Legal News, Orthopedics, Spine Tagged With: Alphatec, Medicrea, Medtronic

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About Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at [email protected].

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