Any contract restraining exercise of a lawful profession, trade, or business is void to that extent, except as provided by §§ 53-9-9 to 53-9-12, inclusive.
S.D. Codified Laws § 53-9-8
Contracts in restraint of trade void--Exceptions
Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Communication Technical Systems, Inc. v. Densmore (1998)
Most recently applied in Aqreva, LLC v. Eide Bailly, LLP (October 2020)
Source: CivC 1877, § 959; CL 1887, § 3583; RCivC 1903, § 1277; RC 1919, § 898; SDC 1939, § 10.0706; SL 2005, ch 254, § 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.