Opinion ID: 475510
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Breach of Life-Time Employment Contracts

Text: 14 The employees argue that their life-time employment contracts with Amoco were breached when Amoco sold its business to Norgas. However, even where a life-time employment contract is legally enforceable, Alabama law provides that the contract remains in effect only as long as the employer remains in the business for which the employee was hired and needs the particular services the employee was hired to perform. See, e.g., Bates v. Jim Walter Resources, Inc., 418 So.2d 903, 906 (Ala.1982). It is undisputed that Amoco completely abandoned the retail LPG business in Alabama when it sold its operations to Norgas. The employees present no argument on appeal that was not persuasively rejected by the district court. In fact, they conceded at oral argument that they have no breach of contract claim that is not identical, at bottom, to the fraud claim addressed in the next section. The district court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of Amoco on this claim. 15