Opinion ID: 1800234
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Four years after Titus began his employment with Jostens and two years after Henderson began his, they each signed the following agreement:

Text: All papers and apparatus relating to Jostens' business, including those prepared or made by me, shall be the property of Jostens and except as required by my work, I will not reveal them to others nor will I reveal any information concerning Jostens' business including its inventions, shop practices, processes and methods of manufacturing and merchandising. There was no evidence that, by signing this agreement, either Titus or Henderson gained greater wages or a promotion or access to technical or operational parts of the Burnsville system that nonsigning employees did not have. According to Titus, he and the others asked to sign the agreement did so under the impression that they would lose their jobs if they did not. Jostens argues that the promise of future or continued employment is adequate consideration. 2. We have held that the adequacy of consideration for a noncompetition contract in an ongoing employment relationship depends on the particular facts of each case. Davies & Davies Agency, Inc. v. Davies, 298 N.W.2d 127 (Minn.1980). In Davies we observed that the contract provided the employee with real advantages. That does not appear to be the case here. The agreements obtained by Jostens did not increase Jostens' commitment to the employees for future benefits, as in Modern Controls, Inc. v. Andreadakis, 578 F.2d 1264 (8th Cir. 1978) (applying Minnesota law). Nor do the agreements memorialize a prior oral agreement made between the employer and prospective employee, as in Cybertek Computer Products, Inc. v. Whitfield, 203 U.S.P.Q. 1020 (1972). Davies contains dicta that [m]ere continuation of employment as consideration could be used to uphold coercive agreements. Id., 298 N.W.2d at 130-31 (emphasis added). In this instance, however, where no raises or promotions resulted, where other employees with similar access were not asked to sign, the mere continuation of employment for Titus and Henderson is not enough. To the extent the agreements encompassed the employees' common-law duty to their employer not to disclose, our disposition of that common-law duty makes any contractual duty moot. Since we find the employment agreements not enforceable, we need not decide the issue of whether their purported reach of all papers and information is overbroad or lacking in fair notice of what is not to be disclosed.