Appellant ex-employee challenged a judgment of the Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco (California), which granted respondent former employer a summary judgment in appellant’s suit for wrongful termination.

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Overview

Appellant ex-employee sought relief from a summary judgment granted to respondent former employer in his wrongful termination suit. The court reversed the judgment and ruled that the at-will language that appeared on the employment application appellant completed could not be the sole basis for rejecting a claim not to terminate except for good cause. The court found that the offer of employment sent to appellant neither contained any at-will language nor made reference to the application, that all employment termination cases began with the rebuttable presumption of at-will employment uner Cal. Lab. Code § 2922, and that the parties had acknowledged that the application was not a valid employment agreement because it lacked such terms as job description, but there was disagreement as to whether it was a partially integrated agreement. The court held that there was conflicting evidence of an implied contract; therefore, there was a triable issue, so the summary judgment was improperly granted.

Outcome

The court reversed the summary judgment granted to respondent former employer in appellant ex-employee’s wrongful termination suit because there was a triable issue of fact which resulted from conflicting evidence of an implied contract; therefore, the summary judgment was improperly granted.