Any person who sells the good will of a business may agree with the buyer to refrain from carrying on a similar business within a specified county, city, or other specified area, as long as the buyer or person deriving title to the good will from the seller carries on a like business within the specified geographical area.
S.D. Codified Laws § 53-9-9
Sale of good will--Seller's agreement with buyer to refrain from carrying on similar business, validity
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Communication Technical Systems, Inc. v. Densmore (1998)
Most recently applied in Aqreva, LLC v. Eide Bailly, LLP (October 2020)
Source: SDC 1939, § 10.0706 (1); SL 1992, ch 60, § 2; SL 1997, ch 274, § 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.