Court Opinion

ID: 9512930
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:28:34.841627+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:39.982442
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice JEFFERSON, joined by Justice O’NEILL and Justice MEDINA,
concurring.
The Court’s holding permits an employer to enforce a non-compete covenant months or even years after the employee signed it, as long as the employer eventually fulfills its side of the bargain. That sort of delay is inconsistent with clear statutory language that the covenant must be enforceable “at the time the agreement is made.” While I agree with the Court that “at the time” does not require an instantaneous exchange of consideration, neither does the statute permit the employer’s promise to hang in the air, indefinitely, until it “becomes enforceable” by performance. Rather, consistent with Light and with the statute, I would hold *658that the employer’s exchange of consideration must occur within a reasonable time after the agreement is made. Because that condition was satisfied on this record, I concur in the judgment.
I
The Covenants Not to Compete Act
At common law, courts used four criteria to evaluate the reasonableness of a covenant not to compete. Hill v. Mobile Auto Trim, Inc., 725 S.W.2d 168, 170-71 (Tex.1987). The covenant had to be (a) necessary to protect a legitimate business interest of the promisee, (b) supported by consideration, (c) reasonable as to its time, territory, and activity limitations, and (d) not injurious to the public. Id. In Hill, we adopted the additional restriction that “covenants not to compete which are primarily designed to limit competition or restrain the right to engage in a common calling are not enforceable.” Id. at 172 (citations and quotations omitted). Our “common calling” rule proved difficult to define and apply. See DeSantis v. Wackenhut Corp., 793 S.W.2d 670, 682-83 (Tex.1990) (discussing cases). In 1989, the Legislature enacted the Covenants Not to Compete Act, which essentially codified the four criteria, applied at common law. See Act of June 16, 1989, 71st Leg., R. S., ch. 1193, § 1, 1989 Tex. Gen. Laws 4852, 4852; Peat Marwick Main & Co. v. Haass, 818 S.W.2d 381, 388 (Tex.1991) (noting that “the purpose of the Act was to return Texas’ law generally to the common-law as it existed prior to Hill”). As amended, the Act states that a covenant is enforceable if it is
ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement at the time the agreement is made to the extent that it contains limitations as to time, geographical area, and scope of activity to be restrained that are reasonable and do not impose a greater restraint than is necessary to protect the goodwill or other business interest of the promisee.
Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a).
The central issue in this case concerns the meaning and application of “ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement at the time the agreement is made.” Id. Consistent with our interpretation in Light, it is helpful to view this text as incorporating the first two criteria from the common law. First, the covenant must protect a legitimate business interest that originates in the enforceable agreement. Second, the covenant must be supported by the consideration in the enforceable agreement.
A
The “Ancillary” Relationship
Because a covenant not to compete is a restraint of trade, at common law the covenant was unenforceable as against public policy unless it arose from a “valid transaction or relationship,” such as “the purchase and sale of a business, and employment relationships.” Light v. Centel Cellular Co. of Tex., 883 S.W.2d 642, 644 n. 4 (Tex.1994) (citing DeSantis, 793 S.W.2d at 681-82). The transaction or relationship had to create a legitimate interest worthy of protection, such as “business goodwill, trade secrets, and other confidential or proprietary information.” DeSantis, 793 S.W.2d at 682. Thus, for example, an agreement between two strangers in which a covenant not to compete was supported merely by a payment of money was unenforceable. See, e.g., Restatement (Second) of ContRacts § 187 cmt. b.
Following the common law, section 15.50(a) does not permit the covenant to stand alone. Hence, the covenant must be “ancillary to or part of’ an enforceable *659agreement. Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a). In Light, we dissected the ancillary relationship with a two-part test.1 The relationship is satisfied if the covenant arises within or alongside an agreement to transfer and safeguard a legitimate business interest. A confidentiality agreement is a model because its purpose is to provide the employee with confidential information in return for his promise not to disclose it.2 If the covenant is ancillary to such an agreement, it is not a direct restraint of trade in violation of public policy because it protects a legitimate business interest. The agreement must, however, be supported by consideration.
B
Consideration
A promise not to compete, by itself, is not a contract. Like any other promise, it must be supported by consideration to be enforceable.3 Consideration for a promise may be either a performance or a return promise bargained for in a present exchange. Roark v. Stallworth Oil & Gas, Inc., 813 S.W.2d 492, 496 (Tex.1991); Restatement (Second) of ContRacts § 71(1) (1981). Each party’s promise or performance serves as a reciprocal inducement to enter the agreement. Roark, 813 S.W.2d at 496; OliveR Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law 293-94 (Little, Brown & Co. 1881); cf. Connell v. Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co., 148 Tex. 311, 224 S.W.2d 194, 196 (1949) (discussing “the elemental principle of contract law that ‘nothing is a consideration that is not regarded as such by both parties’ ”) (quoting Fire Ins. Ass’n v. Wickham, 141 U.S. 564, 579, 12 S.Ct. 84, 35 L.Ed. 860 (1891)); Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 71(2) (a performance or return promise is bargained for if it is “sought by the promisor in exchange for his promise and is given by the promisee in exchange for that promise”). It follows that “past consideration” is not consideration. See Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6; Roark, 813 S.W.2d at 496.
So that the covenant complies with these principles and is enforceable as a matter of contract law, section 15.50(a) requires the covenant to be supported by consideration in the “otherwise enforceable agreement.” The common law was familiar with this system of supplying consideration to the covenant:
An enforceable covenant not to compete must be ancillary to an otherwise valid contract whose primary purpose is unrelated to the suppression of competition between the parties. A covenant not to compete must be supported by valuable consideration. However, as long as there is an exchange of consideration to support the primary purpose of the agreement, the covenant not to compete is supported by that consideration.
*660Martin v. Credit Prot. Ass’n, Inc., 793 S.W.2d 667, 669 (Tex.1990) (citations omitted); see also Justin Belt Co. v. Yost, 502 S.W.2d 681, 683-84 (Tex.1973). Thus, if the “otherwise enforceable agreement” is a confidentiality agreement, the promise (or performance) to provide confidential information must serve as consideration for the promise not to compete.4 Because “past consideration” is not consideration, the statute requires the covenant to be “ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement at the time the agreement is made .... ” Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a) (emphasis added). Accordingly, the covenant and the enforceable agreement must be formed together as part of one transaction.
In sum, section 15.50(a) seeks to enforce reasonable covenants that protect legitimate business interests and are supported by valid consideration. These two criteria are interlaced because, for purposes of the statute, valid consideration is a promise (or performance) to transfer or share the legitimate business interest, be it trade secrets, specialized training, goodwill, or other confidential and proprietary information. A covenant satisfying the statute is part of a transaction that benefits both parties. In the employment setting, these benefits include, for example, more efficient operations through freedom of communication within an organization, and greater investment in the improvement of business methods and technologies. Harlan M. Blake, Employee Agreements Not to Compete, 73 HaRV. L.Rev. 625, 627 (1960). In addition, the special knowledge and skills acquired by the employee increase his value and compensation. Hill v. Mobile Auto Trim, Inc., 725 S.W.2d 168, 171 (Tex.1987); see also Jeffrey T. Rickman, Noncompete Clauses in Georgia: An Economic Analysis, 21 Ga. St. U.L.Rev. 1107, 1120-21 (2005). The covenant, in turn, ensures that the costs incurred to develop human capital are protected against competitors who, having not made such expenditures, might offer higher salaries to employees and thereby appropriate the employer’s investment. Greg T. Lem-brich, Garden Leave: A Possible Solution to the Uncertain Enforceability of Restrictive Employment Covenants, 102 Colum. L.Rev. 2291, 2296 (2002).
C
At-Will Employment
The covenant’s dependency on the consideration in an “otherwise enforceable agreement” presents problems in the at-will employment context because any promise whose performance requires continued employment is illusory. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645; see also J.M. Davidson, Inc. v. Webster, 128 S.W.3d 223, 228 (Tex.2003). Generally, a promise is illusory if it does not commit the promisor to perform. See Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 77 cmt. a; 3 Samuel Williston & Richard A. LORD, A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF Contracts § 7.7 (4th ed.1992). At-will employment renders many promises illusory because the promisor effectively “retains the option of discontinuing employment in *661lieu of performance.” Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 & n. 5 (discussing the example of an employer’s promise to raise wages). Because an illusory promise does not constitute consideration, an agreement based on an illusory promise is not an “otherwise enforceable agreement.” See id., 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6; Restatement (Second) of CONTRACTS § 77 cmt. a; 3 Williston on CONTRACTS § 7.7.
I agree with the Court that an agreement based on an illusory promise may become enforceable as a unilateral contract when the promisor performs. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6 (explaining that the employee’s promise is treated as an offer, which the employer accepts by performance, creating a binding unilateral contract); United Concrete Pipe Corp. v. Spin-Line Co., 430 S.W.2d 360, 364 (Tex. 1968) (assignee of pipeline construction contract performed terms of assignment agreement, rendering promissory note enforceable); 3 WILLISTON ON CONTRACTS § 7:15. Part performance is sufficient to render the entire agreement enforceable. Hutchings v. Slemons, 141 Tex. 448, 174 S.W.2d 487, 489 (1943); see also O’Farrill Avila v. Gonzalez, 974 S.W.2d 237, 244 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1998, pet. denied); Sunshine v. Manos, 496 S.W.2d 195, 198 (Tex.Civ.App.-Tyler 1973, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Restatement (Second) of Contracts §§ 32, 50, 62. However, while a unilateral contract is an “otherwise enforceable agreement,” the performance that creates it does not supply consideration to a covenant, nor satisfy section 15.50(a), unless the unilateral contract and the covenant are formed together as part of one transaction. See Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a). For example, in a confidentiality agreement, the employer must provide the confidential information in exchange for the employee’s promises not to disclose and not to compete. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6. While this exchange need not be contemporaneous, it must occur within a reasonable time so that the employer’s performance and the employee’s promises are bargained for and constitute reciprocal inducements. Cf. Montgomery County Hosp. Dish v. Brown, 965 S.W.2d 501, 504 (Tex.1998) (Gonzalez, J., concurring) (“When the parties omit an express stipulation as to time, it is in accord with human experience and accepted standards of law for us to assume they meant whatever term ... might be reasonable in the light of the circumstances before them at the date of the contract.”) (quoting Hall v. Hall, 158 Tex. 95, 308 S.W.2d 12, 16 (1957)); Gulf Oil Corp. v. Reid, 161 Tex. 51, 337 S.W.2d 267, 275 (1960) (‘Where no time is fixed for performance of any phase of a contract, the law necessarily will imply that it is to be performed within a reasonable time. That which is implied in a written contract is as much a part of it as though it were expressed therein.”); see also U.C.C. § 2-309(1) (2003); Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 231 cmt. b. If the employer’s performance is not part of the same transaction, but instead comes months or years later, the resulting unilateral contract does not satisfy the statute because it was not an “otherwise enforceable agreement” when the parties formed the covenant. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6.; Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a); see, e.g., TMC Worldwide, L.P. v. Gray, 178 S.W.3d 29, 38-39 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2005, no pet.) (holding covenant not to compete unenforceable because at-will marketing consultant received customer lists one year after signing employment agreement).
II
Response to the Court
Undeterred by a contrary pronouncement in Light, the Court holds that the *662phrase “at the time the agreement is made” modifies not “otherwise enforceable agreement,” which it directly precedes, but “ancillary to or part of.” A plain reading of the statute, however, establishes that the phrase “at the time the agreement is made” either refers solely to “otherwise enforceable agreement” or to both “otherwise enforceable agreement” and “ancillary to or part of’ — but in no event to “ancillary to or part of’ alone. Under the Court’s reasoning, however, an employer’s illusory promise satisfies the Act’s requirements as long as the employer opts to perform at some indefinite time in the future. There are two problems with this approach: First, it is contradicted by the Act’s grammatical structure. See Spradlin v. Jim Walter Homes, Inc., 34 S.W.3d 578, 580-81 (Tex.2000) (stating that, finder the doctrine of last antecedent, “a qualifying phrase in a statute or the Constitution must be confined to the words and phrases immediately preceding it to which it may, without impairing the meaning of the sentence, be applied”). Second, and more importantly, it would permit an employer’s illusory promise to bind its employee to the covenant even if, at the time the covenant is signed, the employer never intended to perform, and even when the employer’s performance is deferred so long that one cannot say the enforceable agreement and covenant are part of the same transaction.
After today, an employer may easily refrain from sharing trade secrets or other specialized technical knowledge with an employee for a substantial period of time after the covenant is signed, only to quickly perform once the employee indicates an intention to leave his current job for the employer’s competitor. See Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 & n. 5 (discussing the example of an employer’s promise to raise wages). Thus, an employer may now legitimately restrain trade merely by performing a previously illusory promise, thereby converting an unenforceable unilateral contract into a binding commitment at the last minute. We should not encourage such one-sided gamesmanship. If the employer’s performance is not part of the same transaction bfit instead comes much later in time, the resulting unilateral contract does not satisfy the Act’s requirements because it was not “an otherwise enforceable agreement” when the parties formed the covenant. Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a); Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6; see, e.g., TMC Worldwide, L.P. v. Gray, 178 S.W.3d 29, 38-39 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2005, no pet.)(holding covenant not to compete unenforceable because at-will marketing consultant received customer lists one year after signing employment agreement). I would hold that “at the time” requires both that the employer’s promise be tied to the covenant as part of the same transaction, and that the employer tender consideration within a reasonable time after the covenant is signed.
In a footnote, the Court says that only an irrational employer would trigger the covenant as a means of subverting an employee’s subsequent mobility in the marketplace. 209 S.W.3d at 653. The Court underestimates the competitive nature of business. But the point is larger than that. Under the Court’s interpretation, the employer need not even intend to perform its side of the bargain when it compels the employee to sign covenant. If the employer has no incentive to perform, these covenants — once viewed as impermissible restraints on trade — will become not only ubiquitous in at-will employment contracts, but enforceable at the employer’s whim. Because the Court would not require the employer to prove an intent to fulfill its side of the bargain (an intent that would be implicit if the employer had to perform within a reasonable time), the em*663ployee is potentially left with none of the benefits typically conferred by an exchange of consideration. See DeSantis 793 S.W.2d at 682 (holding that covenant can permissibly accomplish a “salutary purpose” that encourages “an employer to share confidential, proprietary information with an employee in furtherance of their common purpose,” but may not “take unfair advantage” of its employee, thereby impairing the “employee’s personal freedom and economic mobility”). Moreover, the circumstances behind the covenant’s formation are not, as the Court suggests, subject to equitable review. Nor should they be if, as the Court holds, the contract is enforceable as a covenant the moment it is signed. By statute a court in equity reviews not the covenant’s formation, but its reasonableness in respect to time, geographical area, and scope of activity. Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 15.50(a).
Ill
Johnson’s Covenant Not to Compete
In January 1998, the parties signed an employment agreement containing a confidentiality agreement and a covenant not to compete. In the confidentiality agreement, ASM promised “special training regarding [its] business methods and access to certain confidential and proprietary information” in exchange for Johnson’s promise “to keep the Confidential Information, and all documentation, access and information relating thereto, strictly confidential.” Johnson’s covenant satisfies section 15.50(a)’s ancillary relationship requirement because it reinforces the parties’ agreement to share and protect ASM’s confidential and proprietary information. See Light, 883 S.W.2d at 647 & n. 14.
Johnson’s covenant also satisfies the statute’s consideration requirement. In September 1997, four months before signing the employment agreement, Johnson was promoted to Director of ASM’s Affiliation Program. In this position, ASM provided Johnson with daily access to confidential information about the company’s finances, strategies, client lists, marketing assessments, product development, pricing, sales projections, and client feedback. Much of this information was made available on an electronic database, which continuously updated the information. When Johnson signed the covenant, and during the next four years, ASM provided such access on a daily basis.5 Although ASM’s promise to provide the access was initially illusory, ASM’s contemporaneous performance created an enforceable unilateral contract. For example, Johnson became a member of ASM’s senior management team, affording him the opportunity to interact directly with numerous chief executive officers and senior bank executives the moment he signed the agreement. ASM’s performance thus supplied valid consideration for Johnson’s covenant not to compete. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 645 n. 6; United Concrete, 430 S.W.2d at 364. Johnson’s covenant was therefore ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement at the time the agreement was made, as section 15.50(a) requires.
IV
Conclusion
Based on the record in this case, I agree with the Court’s judgment that Johnson’s *664employment agreement is enforceable. I disagree with the Court’s analysis, however, and thus concur only in the judgment.
Justice WAINWRIGHT,
concurring.
Today, the Court modifies its interpretation in Light v. Centel Cellular Company of the Covenants Not to Compete Act. See 883 S.W.2d 642 (Tex.1994); Tex. Bus. & Com.Code §§ 15.50-.52. The at-will employee in this case, Kenneth Johnson, asserted that a noncompete agreement was unenforceable under Light’s construction of subsection 15.50(a) of the Act because no consideration was exchanged at the time the parties entered into the agreement. Contrary to Light, the Court holds that Johnson became bound by his promise not to compete when his employer later performed its corresponding promise to provide special training in its business methods and confidential information. This is similar to a unilateral contract under the common law and seems to address the Legislature’s purpose. I join most of the Court’s opinion.
I disagree with the Court’s decision not to reconsider Light’s test for determining whether a covenant not to compete is “ancillary to or part of’ an otherwise enforceable agreement. 883 S.W.2d at 647 n. 14. First, the Act does not create standards for these words beyond their common and ordinary meaning. Light does. In Light, the Court explained that “if an employer gives an employee confidential and proprietary information or trade secrets in exchange for the employee’s promise not to disclose them, and the parties enter into a covenant not to compete, the covenant is ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement....” Id. I agree with this statement. However, Light erected two additional requirements to enforce a non-compete. For a covenant not to compete to be “ancillary to or part of’ the confi-
dentiality agreement, the consideration given by the employer for the confidentiality agreement “must give rise to the employer’s interest in restraining the employee from competing,” and the noncom-pete “must be designed to enforce the employee’s consideration or return promise” not to disclose confidential information. Id. I would disapprove of these court-made requirements. Second, the statements in Light are dicta because Debbie Light, unlike Johnson in this case, did not promise to keep her employer’s confidential information secret. Third, I fail to see compelling logic in requiring that the consideration for the otherwise enforceable agreement give rise to the employer’s interest in restraining the employee from competing. An employer may desire a confidentiality agreement with its employees to protect the employer’s confidential or proprietary property, an interest the Court has recognized as “worthy of protection.” DeSantis v. Wackenhut Corp., 793 S.W.2d 670, 682 (Tex.1990). Under traditional contract law, the consideration for a confidentiality agreement could be money, as other courts have recognized. See, e.g., Zinpro Corp. v. Ridenour, No. 07-96-0008-CV, 1996 WL 438850, at *9 (TexApp.-Amarillo Aug.l, 1996, no writ) (not designated for publication) (suggesting that consideration for confidentiality agreement could be money, but evidence did not show payment). Under Light’s footnote 14 and the Court’s opinion, a covenant not to compete would not be “part of or ancillary to” a confidentiality agreement supported by monetary consideration. To determine the enforceability of the covenant, the focus should be on the purpose of the otherwise enforceable agreement rather than the consideration for it. Because the noncompete would supplement the confidentiality agreement, it would constitute the otherwise enforceable agreement to which the noncompete *665is ancillary. I would disapprove of footnote 14 and use the ordinary meanings of the statutory language — ancillary means “supplementary” and part means “one of several ... units of which something is composed.” WebsteR’s Ninth New Collegiate DICTIONARY 84, 857 (9th ed.1990).
More broadly, I wonder why we require an employer to provide consideration, in addition to employment, to make a confidentiality agreement entered at the commencement of or during employment enforceable post-termination. Almost fifty years ago we held that recovery against an employee for misappropriation of confidential information is not dependent on contractually imposed duties, but the duty on an employee not to misappropriate trade secrets is created by the confidence placed in an employee by his employer. Hyde Corp. v. Huffines, 158 Tex. 566, 814 S.W.2d 763, 769 (1958). “One who discloses or uses another’s trade secret, without a privilege to do so, is liable to the other if (a) he discovered the secret by improper means, or (b) his disclosure or use constitutes a breach of confidence reposed in him by the other in disclosing the secret to him.” 4 Restatement of ToRts § 757 (1939). Some courts of appeals have held that mutual promises between the employer to give confidential information and the employee to keep them secret is sufficient in an employment context to make a confidentiality agreement an otherwise enforceable agreement to which a noncompete may be a part. See, e.g., Curtis v. Ziff Energy Group, Ltd., 12 S.W.3d 114, 118 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1999, no pet.).
The consideration for Johnson’s confidentiality agreement is continuing employment. Light may be on solid ground in holding that consideration for a noncom-pete is illusory if it is dependent on continued employment for an at-will employee. Otherwise, the employer could terminate the employee prior to providing consideration and still hold the employee to the terms of the noncompete. However, with a confidentiality agreement, the consideration of continued employment is not illusory because neither of the parties’ mutual promises is dependent on continued employment. If an employee signs a confidentiality agreement as a condition of his continued employment, it becomes enforceable upon the employee’s continuation in his job. If the employee is terminated, voluntarily or involuntarily, before continuing his employment, he is not bound by the contract to the terms of the confidentiality agreement. Light requires an owner of property to pay his agent twice-continued employment plus qualifying consideration — to protect his property by contract.
It is not uncommon in certain contexts for the law not to require any additional consideration beyond employment to create rights enforceable in contract. Arbitration is one example. See In re Dallas Peterbilt, Ltd., L.L.P., 196 S.W.3d 161, 163 (Tex.2006) (holding that an employee who receives notice of a modification of employment policy, the implementation of arbitration, and continues working is bound by the policy); Hathaway v. General Mills, Inc., 711 S.W.2d 227, 229 (Tex.1986) (holding that an at-will employee’s continuing to work after receiving modifications to the terms of employment constitutes acceptance of those terms “as a matter of law”). Here, we require the employer to pay consideration that “give[s] rise to the employer’s interest in restraining the employee from competing,” Light, 883 S.W.2d at 647 n. 14, to protect his confidential information when we recognized long ago that a fiduciary duty precluded employees from misuse or misappropriation of such property. Huffines, 314 S.W.2d at 775. We should reconsider.
*666Both the confidentiality agreement and the noncompete are part of Johnson’s employment agreement. I would hold that the covenant not to compete is enforceable on the ground that it is ancillary to the otherwise enforceable confidentiality agreement.

. We stated that (1) the consideration given by the employer in the enforceable agreement must give rise to its interest in restraining the employee from competing, and (2) the covenant must be designed to enforce the consideration given by the employee in the enforceable agreement. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 647.

. As we explained in Light, the provision of confidential information gives rise to the employer's interest in restraining the employee from competing, and a covenant not to compete is designed to enforce the employee’s promise not to disclose the information. Light, 883 S.W.2d at 647 n. 14.

.There are, of course, traditional exceptions to this general rule. See, e.g., 1464-Eight, Ltd. v. Joppich, 154 S.W.3d 101, 109-10 (Tex. 2004) (failure to pay recited nominal consideration does not preclude enforcement of option contract); Restatement (Second) of Contracts §§ 82-94 (1981) (discussing promissory estoppel, promises to pay debts discharged in bankruptcy, and other examples).

. The employer’s promise or performance in the "otherwise enforceable agreement” can furnish consideration for promises given by the employee in both the agreement and the covenant. See Birdwell v. Birdwell, 819 S.W.2d 223, 228 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 1991, writ denied) (“A single consideration is sufficient to support multiple promises bargained for in an agreement.”); Mitchell v. Lawson, 444 S.W.2d 192, 196 (Tex.Civ.App.-San Antonio 1969, no writ) (where two instruments are executed as part of the same transaction, the consideration given in one may support collateral promises made in the other); see also Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 80 cmt. a (a single performance or return promise may furnish consideration for multiple promises).

. Both Johnson and ASM’s CEO, Gabrielle Sheshunoff, testified that he experienced "no change” in his access to confidential information as a result of signing the covenant. Johnson's briefs to this Court confirm that the covenant "resulted in absolutely no change in his job duties, responsibilities, or access to information — confidential or otherwise — within ASM.”