Section 2855 Of Article 3. Obligations Of Employee From California Labor Code >> Division 3. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.
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. (a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b), a
contract to render personal service, other than a contract of
apprenticeship as provided in Chapter 4 (commencing with Section
3070), may not be enforced against the employee beyond seven years
from the commencement of service under it. Any contract, otherwise
valid, to perform or render service of a special, unique, unusual,
extraordinary, or intellectual character, which gives it peculiar
value and the loss of which cannot be reasonably or adequately
compensated in damages in an action at law, may nevertheless be
enforced against the person contracting to render the service, for a
term not to exceed seven years from the commencement of service under
it. If the employee voluntarily continues to serve under it beyond
that time, the contract may be referred to as affording a presumptive
measure of the compensation.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a):
(1) Any employee who is a party to a contract to render personal
service in the production of phonorecords in which sounds are first
fixed, as defined in Section 101 of Title 17 of the United States
Code, may not invoke the provisions of subdivision (a) without first
giving written notice to the employer in accordance with Section 1020
of the Code of Civil Procedure, specifying that the employee from
and after a future date certain specified in the notice will no
longer render service under the contract by reason of subdivision
(a).
(2) Any party to a contract described in paragraph (1) shall have
the right to recover damages for a breach of the contract occurring
during its term in an action commenced during or after its term, but
within the applicable period prescribed by law.
(3) If a party to a contract described in paragraph (1) is, or
could contractually be, required to render personal service in the
production of a specified quantity of the phonorecords and fails to
render all of the required service prior to the date specified in the
notice provided in paragraph (1), the party damaged by the failure
shall have the right to recover damages for each phonorecord as to
which that party has failed to render service in an action that,
notwithstanding paragraph (2), shall be commenced within 45 days
after the date specified in the notice.