Opinion ID: 745863
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: breach of contract of claim

Text: 26 Bleasdell also claims that National Medical breached its employment contract by terminating him without cause. We reject this argument. 27 Under California law, employment with no specified term may be terminated at the will of either party at any time. See Cal. Lab.Code § 2922. This presumption of at-will employment may, however, be rebutted by evidence of an implied agreement limiting the employer's right to discharge the employee. See Foley v. Interactive Data Corp., 765 P.2d 373, 376 (Cal.1988). National Medical claims that Bleasdell was an at-will employee, as evidenced by his having signed written acknowledgments to that effect on three separate occasions in 1983, 1988, and 1990. 28 National Medical claims that these acknowledgments were intended by the parties as final expressions of their agreement and therefore cannot be contradicted by parole evidence. Bleasdell concedes that he signed the at-will acknowledgments, but argues that they are not binding, integrated contracts because the acknowledgments are contained in an employee handbook which states that the handbook is not intended to create contract for employment and that the handbook may be modified or amended by National Medical. 29 Bleasdell's arguments are without merit. An agreement may be integrated with respect to one or more, but less than all, of its provisions. Comeaux v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., 915 F.2d 1264, 1271 n. 7 (9th Cir.1990). The 1990 acknowledgment signed by Bleasdell included an integration clause with respect to the length and termination of employment. We agree with the conclusion of the district court that the signed acknowledgments were intended to be a final expression of the parties' agreement on the term of employment. Bleasdell cannot introduce extrinsic evidence of an alleged implied contract to terminate only for cause. See id. Bleasdell has failed to present a genuine issue of material fact for breach of an implied contract to terminate only for cause.