Opinion ID: 1976125
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Breach of Fiduciary Duty; Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Text: Plaintiff next claims that the court erred in treating his claim for breach of fiduciary duty, and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing as co-extensive with his claim for tortious interference with business relations. The court allowed the tort claim to proceed to trial, and plaintiff lost. To prevail here, plaintiff must establish an independent cause of action for breach of fiduciary duty and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. In support of this claim, plaintiff argues that defendants left the Lodge with a one day notice. . . the Lodge was not prepared for the Defendants' abrupt departure . . . [and] work that should have already been done by the date Defendants left was unfinished. Essentially, plaintiff is contending that defendants breached a duty of good faith and fair dealing implied in defendants' employment contract. Here, however, the contract at issue is an at-will employment arrangement. An at-will employment agreement is flexible, terminable at any time, for any reason or for none at all. Sherman v. Rutland Hosp., Inc., 146 Vt. 204, 207, 500 A.2d 230, 232 (1985). Just as the employer is free to terminate the employee absent a clear and compelling public policy reason against doing so, see Payne v. Rozendaal, 147 Vt. 488, 491, 520 A.2d 586, 588 (1986), so may the employee end the relationship as he or she chooses. That is precisely the case that confronts us here. Plaintiff's argument amounts to no more than an objection to the freedom of his employees to avail themselves of the at-will arrangement. Defendants did not breach any duty because we decline to recognize the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as means of recovery where the employment relationship is unmodified and at-will. Ross v. Times Mirror, Inc., 164 Vt. 13, 23, 665 A.2d 580, 586 (1995). See also Gadbois v. Rock-Tenn Co., 984 F.Supp. 811, 820 (D.Vt.1997). Plaintiff's reliance on Carmichael v. Adirondack Bottled Gas Corp., 161 Vt. 200, 635 A.2d 1211 (1993), is not persuasive. In Carmichael, the duty that was breached arose from a written contract for a petroleum gas distributorship. Id. at 202, 635 A.2d at 1213. Thus, Carmichael is completely inapposite. As we explained, the duty of good faith is a concept that varies. . . with the context in which it is deemed an implied obligation. Carmichael, 161 Vt. at 208, 635 A.2d at 1216. In this context, there simply is no implied obligation of good faith and fair dealing. Therefore, we affirm the trial court's judgment on this issue. See Hudson v. Town of East Montpelier, 161 Vt. 168, 170, 638 A.2d 561, 563 (1993) (we need not adopt trial court's rationale in affirming its conclusion). Affirmed.