Does an Illinois non-compete agreement apply to the radius of a defunct business location?

Without the benefit of review of the actual non-compete language, it is not really possible to answer your question. Your husband should take his agreement to an employment attorney for review and guidance.

I would need to see the contract and read the non-competition clause to see if it as you say. If your facts are all correct, your husband should prevail given the right legal advocate. You will need to hire an employment lawyer or IP lawyer, the specialties that would deal with such clauses.

No one here will offer specific actionable advice on your agreement across this free public forum. I agree that this should be reviewed by a lawyer and discussed in private. That said, I am unclear what you mean by a defunct location? The courts in IL and frankly anywhere non-competes are upheld are loath to side against someone trying to make a living and in IL they require the plaintiff to show that unless the non-compete is enforced their business interests will be adversely affected. Your situation seems to indicate that they would have a very hard time showing this and the cost of litigating the matter will be high. You further have to consider the cost of compliance. Your husband my choose to "strategically breach" the agreement because the benefit ad value of the new opportunity far outweighs the risk of being sued over the non-compete. This is a very common scenario, but also a very good reason to listen to the lawyers here and get this looked at properly. Lastly, the fact that this one location is closing may certainly affect the courts decision, but it does not mean that the employer cannot bring the action and force him to defend himself anyway. This is very unlikely because as I noted above this will cost the employer a great of money with no guarantee that he will prevail or even if he did that the award would be anywhere close to the cost of bringing the case. I suggest that you consult with a lawyer in private and discuss your options in more detail. You can start by calling around to several for a free phone consultation, get some insights then pick the best fit to work with. Best regards, Frank Natoli-Lapin, LLC

Your husband's employer will have an excellent chance at prevailing in this dispute. The additional information that you supplied clinches it. When your husband sold one of the sites to the national franchisor, he certainly informed that national franchisor about the non-compete agreement with your husband, and the franchisor who acquired the Northbrook location almost certainly relied upon the existence of this non-compete as one of the considerations in its decision to acquire the Northbrook location. Furthermore, it is significant that the new location where your husband would like to work is only three miles beyond the 25 mile limit for the Vernon Hills location. While technically your husband is beyond the 25 mile limit on Vernon Hills, courts look to compliance with both the letter and spirit of the agreement----and here, your husband seems to clearly be violating the spirit of the agreement. On the other hand, in Illinois and most states, non-compete agreements are disfavored and they are strictly construed so as to make them reasonable in scope. But a 25 mile non-compete provision is usually considered quite reasonable----courts will uphold city-wise or state-wise non-compete limitations, much less a limitation of 25 miles. Thus, my personal view is your husband's chances of winning this battle in court are very slim.