Opinion ID: 744570
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Breach of the Obligation of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Text: 33 Under Oregon law, parties to a contract are subject to an implied duty of good faith. Sheets v. Knight, 308 Or. 220, 779 P.2d 1000, 1008 (1989). The contractual good faith doctrine is designed to effectuate the reasonable contractual expectations of the parties. Best v. United States Nat'l Bank, 303 Or. 557, 739 P.2d 554, 563 (1987). If the parties agree to restrict the right to terminate at will, the duty of good faith applies to the restrictive terms. Elliott v. Tektronix, Inc., 102 Or.App. 388, 796 P.2d 361, 365 (1990). On appeal, Koepping argues that he raised issues of material fact as to whether Tri-Met's failure to follow its own performance evaluation policy violated this duty of good faith and fair dealing. We agree. 34 Because we conclude that Koepping has established the existence of triable issues of fact as to whether he had an implied-in-fact contract with Tri-Met not to terminate him without good cause, we remand his claim for breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. See Elliott, 796 P.2d at 365 (proof of the existence of a performance evaluation system promised to employee created a question of fact as to whether the policy is a restriction on the right to termination).