Enforcing a Non-compete Agreement Entered Into by a Former Employee in Florida

Schweiger, Johnston v. Dockside Fueling of North America, Inc., 658 So. 2d 618 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1995), involved an effort by a new corporation to enforce a non-compete agreement entered into by a former employee and a dissolved corporation. The Third District cited Schweiger with approval and held that the employee's continued employment with the new corporation was insufficient to constitute consent to the assignment. See id. at 619. In Strehlow v. Legend Equities Corp., 727 So. 2d 1076 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), the Fourth District relied on Schweiger and Johnston in reversing a temporary injunction enforcing nonsolicitation clauses of the appellants' sales representative contracts, signed in 1989 "when . . . they worked for a different company." Id. at 1076-77. The sales representatives had not consented to assignment of the contracts to the appellee corporation when it purchased the business with which the representatives had originally contracted. See id. at 1077.