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California Civil Procedure, Keyed to Levine, 6th Ed.
Moncharsh v. Heily & Blase
Citation:
3 Cal. 4th 1, 10 Cal. Rptr. 2d 183, 832 P.2d 899 (1992)Facts
On June 16, 1986, Philip Moncharsh was hired as an associate attorney by the law firm Heily & Blase and signed an employment agreement containing numerous provisions governing his employment. Paragraph X-C of the agreement prohibited Moncharsh from causing firm clients to terminate their relationship with the firm and provided that if any firm client substituted Moncharsh as counsel, Blase would receive eighty percent of any fees Moncharsh received from that client and Moncharsh would receive twenty percent. Moncharsh terminated his employment on February 29, 1988. DeWitt Blase, the senior partner, contacted approximately twenty-five to thirty of Moncharsh’s clients and explained he would handle their cases. Five clients whose representation predated Moncharsh’s association with Heily & Blase chose to continue with Moncharsh, as did a sixth client, Ringhof, who retained Moncharsh less than two weeks before he left the firm. When Blase learned Moncharsh received fees from these six cases, he sought both quantum meruit compensation and the percentage specified in paragraph X-C. The parties invoked the arbitration clause in their employment agreement and submitted the matter to arbitration. After two days of testimony and submission of briefs, the arbitrator ruled in Heily & Blase’s favor, finding paragraph X-C enforceable except as to the Ringhof client, for whom the 80/20 split would be unconscionable.
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