Dillon V. Champion Jogbra Case – What Were the Legal Issues?
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Employers should take the appropriate measure to ensure its employee hand book and other documents are prudently written and reviewed by someone with legal expertise before they are put to use (Walsh 625). Even where a handbook contains a prominent disclaimer stating that it does not establish any contract rights, an employer must be careful with all of the handbooks wording to not create a contractual liability. Linda Dillon sued Champion Jogbra on the grounds that she was encouraged to take a more challenging position within the company and was then fired for not meeting expectations. She claimed that she was told it would take several months to get up to speed and that Champion would give her extensive training. Instead, she was only given four days of training and was fired without notice after two months. Dillon was hired as a full-time analyst, then later hired as a “sales administrator” (Walsh, 2010).
What were the legal issues?
The legal issue in this case is that Linda Dillon sued her former employer, Champion Jogbra, claiming that it breached an implied contract when the company terminated her employment without following its progressive discipline policy as stated in the company handbook. Dillon was never told that she was in the process of losing her job. However, Dillon applied for a job that would be available in a month but she was not selected. Unfortunately, she left the company when her temporary position terminated. According to Walsh (2010) she argued that the trial courts summary judgment on her claim of promissory estoppels was incorrect. Champion claimed that Dillon was an at-will employee, and thus could be terminated at any time, and that nothing in the employee handbook created any contract rights. In order to support this claim, Champion pointed to the prominent disclaimer on the first page of the manual which informs employee that manuals provisions constitute guidelines only and no commitment was being made to employees about terminations and other decisions would be handled (Walsh, 2010).
What was the implied contract in this case?
According to Walsh, an implied contract is an agreement, presumably intended among those involved, but not explicitly in writing, additionally, an employee hand book that labeled its provisions as “binding” and that outlined specific disciplinary procedures was sufficiently specific and authoritative to form the basic for an implied contract (Walsh,2010). Jogbra could be held accountable for the things they placed in their employee manual even in an at-will employment situation. “The implied contract context, noted that when an employer takes steps to give employees the impression of job security and enjoys the attendant benefits that such an atmosphere confers, it should not then be able to disregard its commitments at random” (Walsh, 2010).Dillon relies upon Jogbras policies and procedures and had reasonable belief that the company would follow any corrective action policies in the employee manual. Jogbra created its contract based on three factors. First of all, the provisions in the employee handbook stated that no employee would be discharged without an opportunity to succeed. Second, it outlines progressive steps to be taken for certain type of cases, including “unsatisfactory quality of work”. Finally, managers are trained not to terminate employees without notice.
Explain how the employer breached the implied contract.
The employer