MinnLawyer Blog

Judge Monahan

Ramsey County District Court Judge M. Michael Monahan has granted St. Jude Medical Inc.’s request for a restraining order keeping its deposed Group President, Joseph McCullough, from working for Medtronic.

That’s the good news for St. Jude. The bad news for St. Jude is that the order, after undoubtedly thorough and intense litigation, will only last 11 weeks, or until Oct. 31, 2010. At issue is a noncompete clause that McCullough signed at some point, although Monahan said the date is unclear. McColloughs’ employment ended approximately Oct. 31, 2009. He said he was fired, St. Jude said he “retired. ”

As Monahan wrote, “Evidently in modern corporate parlance, ‘terminate,’ ‘resign,’ and ‘retire’ are synonyms, leaving the casual onlooker at a loss to know what actually occurred.” At any rate, Oct. 31 was when Monahan said the one-year limit kicked in, thus allowing McCollough to go to work for Medtronic right after Halloween.

The judge commented, “[D]efendant and Medtronic recognized that they were embarking upon a relationship that was laden with serious legal and ethical problems. Thankfully, I am not required to deal with the ethical.”

More coverage in our next print edition.