Filed: May 29, 2014
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: Case: 13-14289 Date Filed: 05/29/2014 Page: 1 of 4 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ No. 13-14289 Non-Argument Calendar _ D.C. Docket No. 9:12-cv-80361-KLR ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER SERVICE COMPANY, RISK PLACEMENT SERVICES, INC., Plaintiffs- Counter Defendants Appellees, versus THOMAS EGAN, Defendant-Counter Claimant- Appellant, GENESEE SPECIAL BROKERAGE, INC., Defendant. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Summary: Case: 13-14289 Date Filed: 05/29/2014 Page: 1 of 4 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ No. 13-14289 Non-Argument Calendar _ D.C. Docket No. 9:12-cv-80361-KLR ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER SERVICE COMPANY, RISK PLACEMENT SERVICES, INC., Plaintiffs- Counter Defendants Appellees, versus THOMAS EGAN, Defendant-Counter Claimant- Appellant, GENESEE SPECIAL BROKERAGE, INC., Defendant. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ..
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Case: 13-14289 Date Filed: 05/29/2014 Page: 1 of 4
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 13-14289
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 9:12-cv-80361-KLR
ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER SERVICE COMPANY,
RISK PLACEMENT SERVICES, INC.,
Plaintiffs- Counter Defendants
Appellees,
versus
THOMAS EGAN,
Defendant-Counter Claimant-
Appellant,
GENESEE SPECIAL BROKERAGE, INC.,
Defendant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(May 29, 2014)
Case: 13-14289 Date Filed: 05/29/2014 Page: 2 of 4
Before WILSON, PRYOR and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Thomas Egan appeals the summary judgment and the permanent injunction
entered in favor of Arthur J. Gallagher Service Company and Risk Placement
Services, Inc. (collectively “Gallagher”), on their complaint that Egan breached his
employment agreement by violating its covenants not to disclose confidential
information and not to solicit or accept accounts that he serviced for Gallagher.
The district court issued a preliminary injunction to enforce the covenants, and we
affirmed, Arthur J. Gallagher Service Co. v. Egan, 514 Fed. App’x 839 (11th Cir.
2013). Later, the district court entered summary judgment in favor of Gallagher
and awarded it a permanent injunction “[f]or the reasons stated in [the] Order
granting summary judgment.” After Egan appealed, we directed the parties to file
supplemental briefs addressing whether the judgment of the district court is final in
the light of an unresolved motion for attorney’s fees and, “if not, whether this
Court [could] otherwise review the . . . summary judgment order in conjunction
with the order of permanent injunction.” We conclude that we have jurisdiction to
review the judgment, and we affirm.
We have jurisdiction over this appeal. Regardless of the unresolved motion
for attorney’s fees, as a court of appeals, we have jurisdiction to review the
interlocutory order of the district court that granted Gallagher a permanent
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injunction against Egan. See 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1); Cable Holdings of
Battlefield, Inc. v. Cooke,
764 F.2d 1466, 1471 (11th Cir. 1985). The injunction is
premised on the determination that Gallagher is entitled to summary judgment on
its complaint that Egan violated the nondisclosure and nonsolicitation covenants in
his employment contract. Because “we cannot properly exercise our jurisdiction
under [section] 1292(a)(1) without also reviewing the grant of . . . summary
judgment,”
Cooke, 764 F.2d at 1472, we extend our pendent appellate jurisdiction
to review the order of summary judgment.
The district court did not err by entering summary judgment in favor of the
complaint of Gallagher that Egan breached his employment agreement. Egan
argues that he was relieved of his obligations under the restrictive covenants
because Gallagher first breached the agreement, but in the absence of any new
evidence being introduced by the parties on that subject, the doctrine of the law of
the case bars us from considering, for a second time, a legal issue that we resolved
on appeal of the preliminary injunction. We concluded earlier that Egan’s written
offer of a specific salary and incentive payments did not supersede the right of
Gallagher, under paragraph two of the employment agreement, to modify Egan’s
salary. See Egan, 514 Fed. App’x at 842–43. That decision “must be followed in
all subsequent proceedings in the same case . . . unless (1) the evidence on a
subsequent trial [is] substantially different, (2) controlling authority has since
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[changed] . . ., or (3) the decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest
injustice.” United States v. Williams,
728 F.2d 1402, 1406 (11th Cir. 1984).
Because Egan fails to cite any controlling authority or argue that earlier decision
was clearly erroneous, we will not “relitigate [a] settled issue[].” United States v.
White,
846 F.2d 678, 685 (11th Cir. 1988).
The district court did not abuse its discretion when it entered a permanent
injunction in favor of Gallagher. The injunction, in relevant part, prohibits Egan
from accepting insurance accounts that Egan serviced for Gallagher. Egan argues
the injunction impermissibly punishes him for wrongfully soliciting those
accounts, see White v. Sparkill Realty Corp.,
280 U.S. 500, 511,
50 S. Ct. 186, 189
(1930), but we disagree. Egan agreed to abstain “for a period of two (2) years
following the termination of his employment for any reason whatsoever,” from
“accept[ing] . . . the renewal . . . of any insurance or reinsurance . . . for[] any
existing . . . account or any actively solicited prospective account . . . for which he
performed any . . . functions during the two-year period immediately preceding
[his] termination.” The injunction simply enforces that covenant.
We AFFIRM the permanent injunction in favor of Gallagher.
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