Court Opinion

ID: 9823320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 09:53:30.624109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:39:18.051834
License: Public Domain

ORME, Judge
(concurring):
T47 I concur in the court's opinion but write separately to add a comment about the role of public policy in this case. The lead opinion correctly concludes that Howick has not made "a showing free from doubt that the contract offends public policy." See supra ¶ 43. I agree, but I wish to emphasize that, at least in my view, we can so conclude largely because of the unique facts of this case. Howick was not an unsophisticated public employee but rather was a seasoned, experienced attorney who can be presumed to have known exactly what she was doing in entering into the contract. Indeed, as a key attorney for the City, she should have alerted her client, who also happened to be her employer, to the possibility that the contract was illegal if she honestly thought that it was. My view about the public policy implications of a contract like the one Howick signed would be very different if she were a less sophisticated, less well-educated employee.