U.S. District Court judge denied American Airlines an injunction to stop its ex-head of New York sales from working for Delta Air Lines

A , according to court filings. A temporary restraining order barring the sales executive, Charles Imhof, from conducting essentially the same job with Delta expired June 4. "If American were as deeply concerned about the risk of Mr. Imhof going to work for a competitor as it now professes, it had the means to prevent it," Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote. "It could have offered Mr. Imhof an employment contract containing a reasonable covenant against post-employment competition."