Although Illinois is at the forefront of this burgeoning consideration debate, other states increasingly have begun exploring the concept of what exactly an at-will employee receives in exchange for agreeing to a non-compete agreement. This "exchange" is the fulcrum of consideration, a legal term that ensures the enforceability of a contract obligation.
Pennsylvania, like other state supreme courts, has waded into the arena, albeit with an arcane and interesting twist to the legal problem. Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Socko v. Mid-Atlantic Systems of CPA, Inc. held that an employee can challenge a restrictive covenant agreement signed after the start of employment on the grounds that it lacks consideration, even if the agreement contains specific language that the employee "intends to be legally bound."
Why does that intent-to-be-bound language matter?
Pennsylvania is the only state to adopt something called the "Uniform Written Obligations Act." Consider, for a second, whether a statute can be uniform if 1 out of 50 states has enacted it. The Act provides that a written promise:
shall not be invalid or unenforceable for lack of consideration if the writing also contains an additional express statement, in any form of language, that the signer intends to be legally bound.
The challenge for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was to harmonize this very old statute with the general common-law principle that says an employee who signs a restrictive covenant after the inception of employment must receive new consideration beyond employment itself. This rule generally requires an employer to provide something tangible such as a promotion, a bump in pay, or some severance benefit. Continued employment never suffices in Pennsylvania.
The Court, facing a somewhat daunting challenge, did its best to reach what it felt was the right result, consonant with years of legal decisions in the restrictive covenants area. It concluded that, despite the plain language of the Act, extending it to contracts in restraint of trade would be "unreasonable." The Court considered the "historic background regarding" non-competes, as well as their "unique treatment in the law." Therefore, even if non-compete contracts include the mandated "intends to be legally bound" language, an employee still can challenge the agreement on the grounds that it lacks consideration.
The main canon of statutory interpretation that the Court had going for it was the strict construction rule. That rule generally states a statute in derogation of the common law must be strictly construed. Applied to non-competes, the Court traced the history of these "unique" agreements and the special issues pertaining to consideration that the law had afforded them.
The case is perhaps not a model of how to resolve questions of statutory construction. Nevertheless, it continues a clear and definite trend. In the last several years, courts seem to be pivoting away from examining whether an employer has a legitimate business interest to protect through a non-compete and towards looking at whether there even is consideration at all. To be sure, questions of reasonableness and protectable interest are vitally important in cases like this. But the consideration issue is fundamental to the issue of contract formation in the first place and often results in a rapid disposition of the suit.
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