Hayden's Sport Center, Inc. v. Johnson

Plaintiff, Hayden's Sport Center, Inc., appeals from an interlocutory order of the circuit court of Kane County denying its motion for a preliminary injunction. Plaintiff's motion, filed with its complaint, seeks to enjoin defendants Edwin Johnson and Joseph S. Calcione from engaging in the sporting goods business until the court rules on the merits of the suit. Plaintiff alleges in its complaint that Johnson and Calcione breached the restrictive covenants in their employment contracts and their duties as agents not to disclose to third persons confidential matters when they resigned their positions as plaintiff's salesmen and began to work for a competitor, Pro-Quip, Inc. After a hearing on plaintiff's motion, the trial court denied the motion from which the plaintiff appeals. Plaintiff sells sporting goods at retail and at wholesale to schools. Johnson began working for plaintiff in the fall of 1974, and Calcione began in September 1975. As plaintiff's salesmen, they worked out of a Rockford office concentrating on sales of sporting goods to schools. They resigned their positions within a month of each other and began to work for defendant Pro-Quip, Inc., around March or April of 1982. They presently engage in the same work in the same geographical area as when they worked for plaintiff.