Opinion ID: 1123057
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Tort Claim for Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing and the Related Punitive Damage Claim.

Text: The hiring of an employee by an employer occurs by contract. Wilder, 868 P.2d at 216. All contracts of employment contain an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Id. at 220. As noted earlier, Wyoming recognizes a limited tort claim for breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in employment contracts. Wilder, 868 P.2d at 221. When a special relationship of trust and reliance is demonstrated to exist between the employee and the employer, a breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing is actionable. Wilder, 868 P.2d at 222. Only in rare and exceptional cases will a duty be created giving rise to tort liability. Wilder, 868 P.2d at 221. Trust and reliance may be found by the existence of separate consideration, common law, statutory rights, or rights accruing with longevity of service. Wilder, 868 P.2d at 221. Loghry contends that the special relationship exists in her case by virtue of separate consideration given when she turned over the files to Hilt and did not inform her supervisor that the supervisor was the object of an investigation. A generally accepted definition of consideration is that a legal detriment has been bargained for and exchanged for a promise. Moorcroft State Bank v. Morel, 701 P.2d 1159, 1161-62 (Wyo.1985). Detriment means giving up something which immediately prior thereto the promisee was privileged to keep. Id. at 1162. Loghry's assertion that she acted when she did not have to does not constitute valid consideration since there is no dispute that she was required to turn over company documents at the request of a company officer. She does not contend that she gave up an obligation to inform her supervisor of Hilt's request. Without a demonstration of legal detriment, Loghry does not establish the existence of separate consideration. Id. The failure to establish this existence is fatal to her tort claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.