Section 2 Conditions for Enforceability Generally

• Library: Employer-Employee Law 2008

In general, Missouri law provides that contracts that restrain trade are presumptively void. Armstrong v. Cape Girardeau Physician Assocs., 49 S.W.3d 821, 825 (Mo. App. E.D. 2001). Restrictive employment covenants have as their goal a restraint—preventing someone from doing something related to business. A restraint that limits a party’s pursuit of an occupation is a restraint of trade. AEE-EMF, Inc. v. Passmore, 906 S.W.2d 714, 719 (Mo. App. W.D. 1995). Missouri courts, however, recognize that a limited restraint on an employee’s ability to compete with the former employer is enforceable if the agreement providing for the restraint is reasonable under all of the attending circumstances and if enforcement serves the employer’s legitimate protectable interests. Id. at 719–20.

In 2006, the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled in Healthcare Services of the Ozarks, Inc. v. Copeland, 198 S.W.3d 604, 610 (Mo. banc 2006), that a restrictive employment covenant is valid and enforceable if:

• the agreement is, or is part of, an otherwise valid and enforceable contract

• the agreement contains...