H&R Block Subsidiary Wins Lawsuit Over Broken Noncompete

A tax preparer is guilty of breaking a contract after he signed a noncompete agreement with an H&R Block subsidiary, but continued his tax preparation business, the Eighth Circuit ruled March 26.

Claude L. Sanks sold his mother’s tax preparation business, Sanks Income Tax, to H&R Block Eastern Enterprises Inc. after she suffered a brain injury. Sanks didn’t disclose that his sister had threatened to sue him over his ownership of the family tax preparation business after it became an H&R Block franchise. She continued to manage it.

Despite signing a noncompete and nonsolicitation agreement, Sanks started ...