Restrictive covenants: Contract partially in restraint of trade was enforceable

In Marshall v NM Financial Management Ltd [1997] IRLR 449, the Court of Appeal holds that an agreement to pay a self-employed insurance sales agent commission after the termination of his agency agreement could be enforced, notwithstanding that payment was made dependent upon the fulfilment of certain conditions which were held to be in restraint of trade and so void. The remainder of the agreement could stand because the consideration given by the agent for the payment of the commission was not his acceptance of the invalid conditions but, rather, the business he had procured for the company prior to the termination of the agency.