They announced the move on the practice’s own Facebook page
When ten OB-GYN doctors quit an Atlanta practice and opened shop next door, their former employer went to court - and lost.
The Georgia Court of Appeals on October 15, 2026 affirmed the denial of an interlocutory injunction - a temporary court order during litigation - that Peachtree Women’s Clinic (PWC) and its billing consortium, Atlanta Women’s Health Group (AWHG), sought to enforce non-competes against the departing physicians.
The physicians were PWC employees and AWHG shareholders. Their contracts barred them from providing OB-GYN services for two years within a five-mile radius of PWC and AWHG affiliate offices.
In November 2025, all ten resigned. At a December board meeting, they announced they were moving to Northside Hospital and would not comply with the non-competes. On February 3, 2026, an open letter from the physicians appeared on PWC’s Facebook page, telling patients “our name is changing” to “Peachtree Women’s Care of Northside” and listing five new offices - all, according to PWC and AWHG, within the restricted zone. One was allegedly in the same building as an existing PWC office.
PWC and AWHG sued the next day. The trial court denied the injunction after an expedited hearing.
The money told the story. AWHG’s exposure was a one percent management fee on PWC’s net revenue - roughly $150,000 a year. The trial court called that “easily quantifiable,” meaning damages could make AWHG whole. AWHG’s president and CEO had already said the departures would have no impact on its “strong position in the marketplace regardless of outcome.”
PWC had an even harder case. The trial court found the clinic had “consistently been operated as a partnership” of the physicians themselves. PWC called that “legally ridiculous,” insisting it was an LLC. The appeals court acknowledged the paperwork but found enough evidence to support the trial court.
What tipped the balance was patient welfare. The physicians handled about 5,000 encounters a month, with an estimated 40 percent classified as high-risk. About 100 deliveries were imminent. Continuity of care, the trial court held, “vastly outweighed” AWHG’s “desire to preserve its management fee.”
The breach of contract claims remain pending. The court did not rule on whether the non-competes are enforceable - the trial court noted “genuine doubts” - only that the employers failed to meet the threshold for temporary relief.
For HR teams that rely on non-competes, the takeaway is practical: a clause on paper and an order from a court are two very different things, especially when public welfare sits on the other side.
