Court Opinion

ID: 9716617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:46:06.473998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:47.273582
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, dissenting: The plaintiffs in this breach of contract action, all at-will employees, were hired as nurses by the defendant-hospital in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1971, the hospital distributed an employee handbook containing an economic separation policy pertaining to the “permanent elimination of departments, job classifications, and/or jobs.”1 Later, in 1983, the hospital added a provision to the handbook which stated that employees could be terminated at any time with or without notice.2 The plaintiff-nurses were discharged in 1991, and thereafter filed this breach of contract action against the hospital. The majority holds that the hospital’s handbook constituted an enforceable contract which it breached with the nurses by discharging them without the benefit of the economic separation policies contained in the handbook. Moreover, according to the majority, the disclaimer added to the handbook in 1983 was insufficient to supplant the economic separation policy because the disclaimer was not supported by a new consideration. I dissent because, under the facts of this case, the nurses were discharged under circumstances which do not entitle them to the procedures set forth in the economic separation clause. The majority therefore improperly reaches the question of whether the handbook modification made in 1983 required new consideration, and then compounds its error by making bad public policy in the process. Although the clear and unambiguous language of the handbook’s economic separation policy applies to the “permanent elimination of departments, job classifications, or jobs” (emphasis added), the complaint alleges and thereby admits that “there was in fact no permanent elimination of departments, job classifications, or jobs, as required by Policy No. 7 — G.” (Emphasis added.) Accordingly, because the nurses were not dischárged due to some type of “permanent” job elimination, they are not entitled to the economic separation procedures set forth in the handbook. Furthermore, the majority’s contention that reliance on the plain language of the handbook here would serve to defeat the stated purpose of the handbook policy is flatly wrong. Although the handbook cites stability in the workplace as the purpose for the economic separation policy, the majority elevates hortatory language above specific provisions and then erroneously assumes that stability can only be achieved by application of the policy to all employee discharges. Common sense tells us, however, that workplace stability can be furthered by providing separation procedures in some cases but not others. An employer is unrestricted in deciding how much employment security to provide to at-will employees. Where, as here, the language of the economic separation policy applies only to permanent job eliminations, this court has no justification to ignore that language and gratuitously broaden the scope of its coverage beyond the express language of the handbook. Accordingly, the majority errs when it purports to apply “ ‘traditional principles’ of contract law” (186 Ill. 2d at 112), but ignores the cardinal rule of contract interpretation— namely, that the intent of the parties is best ascertained from the plain language of a written contract. See Western Illinois Oil Co. v. Thompson, 26 Ill. 2d 287, 291 (1962). Since this court applies traditional contract principles in deciding whether a handbook forms a contract, it has the corollary duty to apply traditional contract principles in interpreting that handbook. Secondly, the majority creates bad public policy in holding that an employee handbook may not be amended without new consideration. As the hospital and amicus point out, under the majority’s holding, a large employer could now have literally hundreds of separate employment contracts, depending on the date when particular employees were hired and the particular language contained in the handbook at the time of each individual hiring. The majority, however, is unsympathetic because “this is a matter of contract and [we] see no compelling reason here to relieve the defendant of the obligations it has voluntarily incurred.” 186 Ill. 2d at 116. Such supposed obligations, however, were neither stated nor contemplated by the employer. Rather, they are obligations created out of thin air by the majority. Parties should be bound by the bargains they strike, but the majority overlooks the fact that this court did not construe an employee handbook as a binding contract until Duldulao v. Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center, 115 Ill. 2d 482 (1987), a full 16 years after the handbook in this case was distributed. Indeed, at the time the handbook was distributed, not a single published decision in Illinois held that an employee handbook constituted an enforceable contract. Since the state of the law at the time the handbook was promulgated was that handbooks did not create binding contractual duties, the majority’s presumption that the hospital should have known it was creating a binding contract via its handbook is completely untenable. This court changed the rules on employers in Duldulao by applying contract principles to employee handbooks. And today, the majority creates new chaos in the workplace by expanding Duldulao to handbook modifications. Finally, the majority’s entire discussion of whether handbook modifications must be supported by new consideration is nothing but dicta. As previously stated, the plain and unambiguous language of the handbook indicates that the economic separation clause in the handbook has no application to the facts in this case. The majority therefore unnecessarily and erroneously reaches the issue concerning the handbook modification. Thus, the handbook at issue confers no rights on the plaintiff nurses and no duties on the hospital to refrain from discharging at-will employees. Accordingly, for the reasons stated, I dissent.  Policy number 7 — G, “Economic Separation,” provides in part as follows: “Because of the special needs of our patients, the following factors will be used in an economic separation affecting R.N.’s. 1. Nursing Areas of Expertise 2. Length of Service Within Each Area of Expertise 3. Ability and Fitness to Perform the Required Work * * * Employees affected by an economic separation will be placed on a priority rehire list and will be contacted by the Human Resources Department if a position becomes available for which the separated employees may be eligible through experience, training, education and/or other qualifications. Priority rehire consideration shall be for a period of one year.”   Policy 5 — I provides: “The Personnel Policies and other various Hospital employee and applicant communications are subject to change from time to time and are not intended to constitute nor do they constitute an implied of express contract or guarantee of employment for any period of time. The employment relationship between the Hospital and any employee may be terminated at any time by the Hospital with or without notice.”