After a hard fought 16 (sixteen) day trial in the Chancery Division, Bergen County, on August 29, 2025, the Hon. Darren DiBiasi found in favor of our client Defendant, Timothy Vogel, M.D. (“Dr. Vogel”), a pediatric neurosurgeon, on all counts, dismissing with prejudice claims for breaches of a restrictive covenant, breaches of fiduciary duty and fraud for which his former practice, New Jersey Brain & Spine (“NJBS”), sought permanent injunctive relief and $4.5 million in damages.
In a much-anticipated decision, the Court held that NJBS presented false testimony concerning its true reason for terminating defendant. Judge DiBiasi found that Dr. Vogel was an excellent physician who started NJBS’s pediatric neurosurgery practice from scratch, was able to successfully obtain the ranking of Hackensack University Medical Center as one of the top pediatric neurosurgery centers in the United States and was fired by NJBS without cause and solely for its own financial reasons, resulting in an undue burden on him. Therefore, although the restrictive covenant agreement was otherwise reasonable in scope and duration and had been signed by the parties only one year earlier, the Court refused to enforce it, enabling Dr. Vogel to continue in his important role as Chair of Pediatric Neurosurgery at HUMC.
Dr. Vogel was represented by Steven I. Adler, Co-Chair of the Litigation Department and the Healthcare Litigation and Employment Litigation practice groups at Mandelbaum Barrett. NJBS was represented by Joseph Fiorenzo, Stephen Klein and Jordan Pace of Sills Cummis.