Opinion ID: 4363969
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Manager agreement

Text: As he rose through the ranks, Volrath signed a manager agreement that laid out various conditions of his job. It also restricted what he could do after he left Heartland. Two postemployment conditions are at issue. 2 First, the manager agreement has a confidentiality clause. When Volrath left the company, he had to return Heartland’s confidential information or destroy it. And he could not use or disclose it to anyone. Second, the agreement has a non-solicitation clause. When Volrath left, he could not poach Heartland’s merchants or employees. The clause broadly governs all of Heartland’s merchants: it forbids soliciting “any [Heartland] Merchant or other party having a contractual or business relationship with [Heartland]” for one year. App. 32 ¶ 9(a). The clause also has a narrower five-year ban on soliciting those merchants that Volrath signed. The non-solicitation clause bans soliciting or recruiting Heartland’s employees for two years as well.