Court Opinion

ID: 9579566
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:56:17.437827+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:35.509224
License: Public Domain

*835Grice, Justice,
concurring in the judgment only. I do not agree that a contract which prohibits an employee from pursuing his trade or business throughout the State of Georgia is for that reason alone void as being in restraint of trade.
Rather, the outcome in my view should depend upon whether the restriction is necessary for the protection of the employer under the facts of each particular case, and not controlled by an arbitrary rule of state or other geographical limitations. Here, the application for temporary injunction maintained that such protection was necessary. See, in this connection, Rakestraw v. Lanier, 104 Ga. 188, 195 (30 SE 735) (one justice absent); Thomas v. Coastal Industrial Service, 214 Ga. 832 (108 SE2d 328); Orkin Exterminating Co. v. Mills, 218 Ga. 340, 341 (127 SE2d 796); Simpson on Contracts (2d Ed.), pp. 430-433.
Therefore, I do not approve of the holdings in Orkin Exterminating Co. v. Dewberry, 204 Ga. 794, 807-808 (51 SE2d 669) and Artistic Ornamental Iron Co. v. Wilkes, 213 Ga. 654 (100 SE2d 731). However, since they are full bench decisions they are binding until overruled by seven justices.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Justice Mobley joins me in this special concurrence.