Cara Miller, Plaintiff - Appellant v. Honkamp Krueger Financial Services, Inc., Defendant - Appellee, Blucora, Inc., Defendant; Mariner Wealth Advisors, LLC, Third Party Defendant - Appellant, 9 F.4th 1011

Summary

HOLDINGS: [1]-Where a former employee sued for a declaration that the restrictive covenants in her employment contracts were unenforceable, her former employer's successor was not entitled to preliminarily enjoin her from breaching the non-compete and non-solicitation provisions in the contracts because it was unlikely to succeed on these claims; [2]-The employer was not likely to prevail on its breach of contract claim as to the non-compete provision because, but its terms, the non-compete provision did not survive the termination of the employment agreement; [3]-The employer was also not likely to prevail on its breach of contract claim as to the contractual non-solicitation provision because it impermissibly prohibited the employee from accepting unsolicited business from her former clients, which was a restrain on the exercise of trade in violation of S.D. Codified Laws § 53-9-8.