(DOWNLOAD) "Eastern Electric Construction Co. v. Morrissey" by Supreme Court of Connecticut " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Eastern Electric Construction Co. v. Morrissey
- Author : Supreme Court of Connecticut
- Release Date : January 27, 1955
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 63 KB
Description
On September 29, 1952, the defendant
entered into a contract of employment with the
plaintiff which provided that, for one year after the
termination of his employment for any cause, he
would not directly or indirectly, within the city of
Bridgeport or within a radius of twenty miles therefrom,
[142 Conn. 743]
engage in, or be employed by, any business in
competition with the plaintiff. The plaintiff discharged
the defendant for good cause on October 9,
1953. When this action was brought in November,
1953, and when the plaintiff's application for an injunction
was denied by the court on February 23,
1954, the defendant was in the employ of the County
Electric Company, Inc., of Bridgeport, a competitor
of the plaintiff. The plaintiff has appealed. It claims
errors in the finding and in the conclusions of the
court. While its claims appear to have merit, they
present purely academic questions. The period of
one year after the termination of the defendant's employment
with the plaintiff has long since passed. "It
is a well-settled general rule that the existence of an
actual controversy is an essential requisite to appellate
jurisdiction; it is not the province of appellate
courts to decide moot questions, disconnected from
the granting of actual relief or from the determination
of which no practical relief can follow." Reynolds
v. Vroom, 130 Conn. 512, 515, 36 A.2d 22; State
ex rel. Foote v. Bartholomew, 106 Conn. 698, 701,
138 A. 787; see Reply of the Judges, 33 Conn. 586; 5
C.J.S. 36. The plaintiff states that it has identical
contracts with other employees and that a determination
of this case will furnish guidance with respect
to these contracts. No controversy, however,
has yet arisen concerning them, and the parties to
them are not parties to this litigation. The case of
H. O. Canfield Co. v. United Construction Workers,
136 Conn. 293, 70 A.2d 547, is distinguishable on its
facts.