Court Opinion

ID: 9672447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:55:23.647699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:16.236747
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent.
Obviously, any employment is a contract. The issue is about the terms of that contract. Undertaking “PROCEDURES AND RULES” for “Progressive Discipline,” as part of an employment agreement to set terms for disciplinary discharge, does not necessarily fix the “employment contract for any period of time.” And, I cannot view this “Closing Statement” as an unambiguous or “explicit disclaimer.”
There are evident issues of fact about the “ambiguity and reliance created by an employer’s disclaimer in an employee handbook that purports to ‘taketh’ what the remainder of the handbook appears to ‘giv-eth,’ and the effect of such ambiguity on the employer-employee relationship.” Bailey v. Perkins Restaurants, Inc., 398 N.W.2d 120, 123 (Justice Levine, specially concurring) (N.D.1986). See also Sadler v. Basin Elec. Power Co-op., 409 N.W.2d 87 (N.D.1987).
Accordingly, I would reverse the summary judgment and remand for trial of the issues of fact.