Case Title: Havill v. Woodstock Soapstone Co.

Citation: 2007 VT 17

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 2007-03-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
Havill v. Woodstock Soapstone Co. (2005-292)

2007 VT 17

[Filed 01-Mar-2007]

                                 ENTRY ORDER

                                 2007 VT 17

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 2005-292

                             DECEMBER TERM, 2006

  Lois Havill                          }         APPEALED FROM:
                                       }
      v.                               }
                                       }         Windsor Superior Court
                                       }
  Woodstock Soapstone Company          }
                                       }         DOCKET NO. 147-3-98 Wrcv

                                                 Trial Judge: Alan W. Cook

             In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       ¶  1.  Plaintiff Lois Havill and defendant Woodstock Soapstone
  Company separately appeal from the trial court's order on remand
  recalculating the damage award in this wrongful termination action.  For
  the reasons set forth below, we affirm. 

       ¶  2.  This is the third appeal in this matter to come before the
  Court.  In the first, Havill v. Woodstock Soapstone Co., 172 Vt. 625, 783 A.2d 423 (2001) (mem.) ("Havill I"), we reversed a summary judgment in
  favor of defendant/employer Woodstock Soapstone Company, holding that
  genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether defendant's personnel
  policies modified the at-will employment relationship and, if so, whether
  plaintiff's employment with the company was  properly terminated. 
  Following a bench trial on remand, the trial court concluded that
  defendant's personnel policies created an implied contract requiring just
  cause and progressive disciplinary procedures as conditions of termination,
  and that defendant breached the contract when it terminated plaintiff
  without warning and on the pretext that it had eliminated her job
  functions.  The court awarded plaintiff a total of $74,644 in principal
  damages for a seven-year period, consisting of five years back pay from
  1998 to the date of judgment, and two years front pay for lost future wages
  from the date of judgment to the end of 2004-the year in which plaintiff
  reached the normal retirement age of sixty-five-plus $15,040 in prejudgment
  interest.     
              
       ¶  3.  We affirmed the trial court's finding of liability in Havill
  v. Woodstock Soapstone Co., 2004 VT 73, 177 Vt. 297,