Opinion
April 27, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Cohalan, J.)
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The plaintiff's assignor, a board-certified surgeon with a sub-specialty in colon and rectal surgery, employed the defendant, also a board-certified surgeon with the same sub-specialty, under the terms of a written employment agreement. A restrictive covenant in that agreement contained several specific prohibitions, and pursuant to it the defendant agreed, essentially, not to compete with the plaintiff for two years after the date the defendant ceased to be employed by the plaintiff. The plaintiff commenced this action to enforce the covenant, and moved for partial summary judgment to enforce so much of the covenant as required the defendant to resign his medical staff privileges at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital and St. Charles Hospital, both in Port Jefferson, where the plaintiff performs 95 percent of his surgeries. The Supreme Court granted the plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment, and we now affirm.
Generally, "a restrictive covenant will only be subject to specific enforcement to the extent that it is reasonable in time and area, necessary to protect the employer's legitimate interests, not harmful to the general public and not unreasonably burdensome to the employee" ( Reed, Roberts Assocs. v. Strauman, 40 N.Y.2d 303, 307; see also, Last v. New York Inst. of Technology, 219 A.D.2d 620, 622). Under the circumstances of this case, the portion of the covenant upon which the plaintiff sought partial summary judgment satisfied these requirements, and was valid and enforceable ( see generally, Bollengier v. Gulati, 233 A.D.2d 721; Rifkinson-Mann v. Kasoff, 226 A.D.2d 517; Novendstern v. Mt. Kisco Med. Group, 177 A.D.2d 623; Penny W. Budoff, P.C. v. Jenkins, 143 A.D.2d 250).
Pizzuto, J.P., Joy, Friedmann and Florio, JJ., concur.