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I am involved in a civil lawsuit involving my former employer. I filed
a case involving breach of my employment contract. Without going into
all the details, I believe that my former employer breached my
contract, and did so in a deceitful, and purposeful manner in order to
maximize their profits. Specifically, I was a provider of a service to
my former employer. I was informed that the facility where I provided
service would be closing. The management of the facility told me on
multiple occassions that my contract and the services that I supplied
would be transferred to another facility. If my former employer had
told me that they considered my contract null and void upon closing of
the facility, I would have felt completely justified to stop providing
services immediately (because I believed that would constitute a breech
of the contract), forcing my former employer to be left without a
necessary service. On multiple meetings between myself, and the
administration of the facility, as well as multiple conversations
between my attorney, and the facilities attorney, the facility never
said that they considered my employment contract null and void upon
closure of the facility. Indeed there were mulitple discussions
between myself, the facility administration, and attorneys regarding
transferring my contract to another facility. On the night before the
closing of the facility, the administration told me that they
considered my contract null and void, and withdrew any offer of
transfer of my contract. There was no explanation offered. I feel
that it is clear that their behavior was clearly motivated so that they
could keep me supplying a necessary service until the last day. Unless
they can provide some explanation for why they reversed position on the
status of my contract, I feel that one can assume that it was a
purposeful and malicious strategy. This is because until they told me
that they considered the contract null and void, I was bound in the
contract to provide service, and thus could not seek other employment.
If they had been truthful in their intentions and informed me that they
would consider my contract null and void upon closure of the facility,
I could have immediately sought alternative employment, since I would
consider them in breech. Let me conclude by saying that there is no
countersuit that I breeched my employment contract in any way. Can any
of the group comment on if my viewpoint has any merit, or how I can
improve my claim for punitive damages. Finally let me add that my
employers actions voiding my business contracts had both real financial
and emotional impact. The stress of the closing of the facility
occured concurrently to marital problems, and certainly was an added
stressor contributing to my eventual divorce. In the divorce
settlement, I paid my ex hundreds of thousands of dollars extra based
on the value of the business contracts that I had with my former
employer, which of course ended up being worth zero.
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On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 22:31:34 -0500, taegu2@aol.com wrote:
I am involved in a civil lawsuit involving my former employer. I filed
a case involving breach of my employment contract.
[long story made short]
Two things work against you here:
Breach-of-contract cases do not allow for punitive damages. You can
get economic damages, sometimes including consequential damages,
attorney's fees, and costs, but not exemplary or punitive damages. It
sounds farfetched to argue that your employer's actions so directly
contributed to your divorce that costs related to the divorce are
consequential damages.
Employment in the US is at will unless you have a contract that
actually states otherwise, such as a contract for a set number of
months or years. This means your employer can let you go for a stupid
reason or no reason at all; he can even be sneaky and underhanded
about it, so long as he doesn't run afoul of discrimination or
harassment laws.
Promises of continued employment have sometimes been held to be enough
of a contract to negate the "at will" doctrine. These have to be
pretty specific and concrete promises. That sounds to me like your
best argument.
--
Not a lawyer,
Chris Green
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taegu2@aol.com wrote:
[OP believes his former employer (FO) breached his employment
contract. He also believes that FO intentionally concealed his
intention to terminate the employment, which led to OP being damaged
further. OP has filed a lawsuit against FO.]
Run, do not walk, to a lawyer who specializes in employer-employee
relations. This is a complicated area and not one where you should
represent yourself.
It sounds as if you have significant damages, and any case involving
more than the small-claims court limit ($5000 in CA) should be pursued
by an attorney.
Don't worry about whether you are entitled to punitive damages. Let
your lawyer figure out whether it's worth pursuing them. Your lawyer
will know the best strategy to follow -- whether to go ahead with the
lawsuit or settle for some reasonable amount. And your lawyer will be
better able to estimate what is a reasonable settlement than you can.
How to find a lawyer: ask your personal lawyer to recommend one. If
you don't have a personal lawyer (for wills, etc.), ask your relatives
and friends for the names of their lawyers. Then call them up and ask
them to recommend someone. If you don't know anybody who has a personal
lawyer, call your county bar association and ask for their referral
service, then call up several lawyers on that list and find out what an
initial consultation will cost. (The right answer is: free.)
If you can't find a lawyer to take your case, then you don't have one.
Get over it and go on with your life. Assuming you get a good lawyer to
handle your lawsuit, ask all your questions of your lawyer.
DON'T, under ANY circumstances, post any more details of your problem
here. Whatever you say here could come back and bite you, if FO's
lawyers are adept enough to do a Google search. For the same reason,
don't file any more papers on your lawsuit, or contact FO or any former
co-workers. Leave all that to your lawyer. Doing something wrong now
could wreck your case, perhaps even leave you open to a countersuit.
Find a good lawyer and let him/her handle it. That's what lawyers are
for.
--
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
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