EMPLOYMENT OF AN ENGINEER 27 



a covenant would be unreasonable, and as such it would be 

 void, as being in restraint of trade and against public policy. 

 Where, however, the covenant provides that the manager shall 

 not for the space of ten years take any part in the manufacture 

 of cotton, say, in Lancashire, such a covenant might be said 

 to be reasonably necessary for the protection of the master's 

 business, and therefore valid. It is obvious that, unless some 

 exception of this kind is grafted on the rule which renders 

 contracts in restraint of trade invalid, an agreement to employ 

 would be exceedingly dangerous. 



17. Where covenant too wide. The question whether a 

 covenant is or is not too wide is for the Court to decide. 

 Regard is had to the nature of the interests which require 

 protection. Thus it has been held that it was unreasonable 

 to seek to prevent a dentist carrying on his practice within 

 200 miles of York, it being considered that the limit of *200 

 miles was too wide (Homer v. Graves, 7 Bing. 735). Where, 

 however, a particular trade or industry is world-wide in its 

 character, a world-wide covenant may be held reasonable. 

 Thus a man was prevented from manufacturing certain 

 explosives in any part of the world under a covenant of this 

 kind. 



It is, indeed, for the Court to say whether a covenant is 

 reasonable or not. In Mitchell v. Reynolds (Smith's Leading 

 Cases, Vol. I., p. 301), Lord Macclesfield thus declared the 

 law : " In all restraints of trade, where nothing more appears, 

 the law presumes them bad ; but if the circumstances are set 

 forth, that presumption is excluded, and the Court is to judge 

 of those circumstances and to declare accordingly." 



18. Principles of law as to restrictive covenants. The 

 principles to be deduced from the decided cases may be thus 

 applied to the employment of an engineer, or to the manager 

 of an engineering business. Suppose an engineering firm at 

 Birmingham were to employ a manager, they would naturally 

 desire to prevent his setting up in business in competition with 

 them, and to insure this they would have to put him under a 

 restrictive covenant. The question then would be : What kind 

 of covenant would be wide enough ? Beyond that it would be 

 unsafe for them to go. It may safely be assumed that a 

 covenant not to set up in a similar line of business in 



