Employer Fires CEO And Then Obtains TRO Enjoining Him From Breaching His Non-Disclosure, Non-Compete Agreement

Dakota Beef, a South Dakota processor and seller of organic beef products, hired Scott Lively in 2006 to be its CEO. He signed an employment agreement prohibiting him for two years after his employment terminated from disclosing confidential information, soliciting Dakota Beef’s customers, and competing in the organic beef business, anywhere Dakota Beef conducts business. South Dakota law permits such contracts. Lively was fired in November 2008. In May 2010, he began competing against Dakota Beef which filed suit against him the next month seeking a TRO and a preliminary injunction. Six days later, a South Dakota federal judge entered the requested TRO and set the matter for a preliminary injunction hearing one week thereafter. Howard Venture LLC v. Lively, 2010-2 Trade Cases ¶ 77,200 (D.S.D., June 23, 2010).

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