Court Opinion

ID: 9487436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:16:26.670474+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:16.023020
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
There is ample evidence in this record from which a jury could find that Farmland’s *1278chief executive officer orally promised Paul that if he accepted employment with Farmland, he would not be terminated, except for cause, before August 31, 1990. There is also sufficient evidence to show that in reliance on that promise, Paul gave up his job in New Jersey and moved himself and his family to take the Farmland job. This evidence, if believed by a jury, is sufficient to establish an enforceable contract between Farmland and Paul, a contract that a jury could find was breached by Farmland when it discharged Paul before August 31, 1990. It follows that I would reverse and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this dissent.
I have no quarrel with the majority with respect to the provisions of the written contract, and would agree with them that were it not for the oral promise of employment for a definite period of time, Johnson v. McDonnell would control, and that under Missouri law, Paul could not recover on a contract theory. Here, however, a jury could find that Farmland made an oral promise to Paul that he would have a job for three years.
Paul called the chief executive officer, James L. Rainey, as an adverse witness. That officer testified as follows:
Q: (By Mr. McClelland) So you did inform Mr. Paul that as part of his employment with Farmland, that he would be subject to being terminated, but only for cause, correct, sir?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay. And you agree, will you not, that he was, according to this plan, not subject to termination unless it was for cause; that’s what you testified to earlier, correct?
A: Yes.
Q: And you agree that the plan did cover the period through August 31,1990, that he was under; is that correct?
A: Yes.
T. 1731, 1735. Later in the record, Rainey denied that he promised Paul a three-year job (T. 1739 — 43), but clearly a jury issue as to whether he had made an oral promise of three years of employment was raised. Paul himself testified as follows:
Q: (By Mr. McClelland) Okay. Would you please tell this jury after you received this document from Mr. Rainey and after he had explained it to you on September 19, 1987, what was the term of employment that he was employing for you?
A: Okay. He was employing me for the term beginning on October 12th 1987 through the end of this three-year plan, August 31, 1990.
Q: Okay. So there were references to the three-year term going through 8-41-90 [8-31-90], not only on the first page, but also the second page of this plan, is that correct?
A: Yes, that’s right.
Q: Is that consistent with what Mr. Rai-ney told you that you would be employed through 8-31-90?
A: Yes, it is.
Q: Okay. Now Mr. Paul, why was it important to you that you be able to have an opportunity to spend three years at Farmland in this new job of vice-president Management Information Services?
A: Well, it was important because, and I was changing locations, moving from New Jersey. It was important not just to have, in making this kind of change with the amount of work that Mr. Rai-ney has laid out, in that he had indicated that Farmland was ten years behind in our information systems, there was quite a bit of work to do to get Farmland caught up with the entire work program in MIS. And when Mr. Rainey offered me three years employment with the bonus plans, you know, I was very happy about it, I was very delighted with it.
I thought that, you know, there is an opportunity and an offer that, it’s not just a typical offer, but it was a very exceptional offer, to get the annual bonuses that were there. And when he had lined out the three-year bonus plan *1279and showed me the dates. And he had taken me through, you know, every one of- these pages and he went through the specific criteria, he went through the results, pay-out examples. He was very concerned about me understanding clearly what the plan was, and he went through it in great detail.
And after he had offered this three-year employment plan, the one thing I asked him to do was to put our agreement in writing, so I was, you know, very pleased with the offer that he had made and everything else that he had, you know, offered with it.
Q: Mr. Paul, prior to this time, was it normal for you to get an offer of employment from an employer that set forth a specified time period of three years, was that something normally that you had done before in the past?
A: No, I have not.
Q: Okay. But in this case, you were being asked to do something exceptional at Farmland; were you not?
A: Yes, I believe so.
Q: You were asked to catch up ten years of backlog in applications at Farmland, correct?
A: That’s correct.
Q: Did you know at that time that it could not be done in one year?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you know at that time that it couldn’t be done in two years?
A: It didn’t appear to be a two-year project.
Q: And did you discuss that with Mr. Rainey, that you wanted to make sure that he gave you sufficient time to accomplish all of those objectives, and it would take at least three years to get those implemented?
A: I believe in our discussions that he may have indicated that, in our discussions one of us may have indicated that we would be looking at three or four years to try to get everything back on par.
Q: Okay. Did you rely on representations from Mr. Rainey that you would be employed for this three-year period, at a minimum?
A: Yes, I sure did.
Q: Did he make that representation to you?
A: Yes, he did.
Q: And didn’t he even indicate to you that not only after this three-year period for annual and cumulative bonuses that follows this one, if the board approves it, correct?
A: Yes, he did. He also indicated to me that he was hoping that I was not looking at this as a one- or two-year position, that I was looking at accepting the position with Farmland Industries for the long-term; and I told him that I was.
And part of the plan here that he explained and the philosophies was to tie individuals to the company for the long term. And what he was trying to do was build a management team to help build Farmland’s entire management and specifically information systems.
Id. at 155-56, 160, 160-63.
There remains only the question of whether the Missouri Statute of Frauds, which provides that contracts that cannot be performed within one year must be in writing, Mo.Rev.Stat. § 432.010, bars recovery in this case. In my view, it does not. If the party to whom the promise has been made fully performs his part of the bargain, he can enforce the contract. See Performance of Personal Service as a Ground for Taking Oral Contracts Out of the Statute of Frauds, 26 Wash.U.L.Q. 275 (1941); Services as Part Performance to Take an Oral Contract Out of the Statute of Frauds, 21 St. Louis L.Rev. 262 (1936). Here a jury could certainly find that Paul had fully performed by giving up his old job, moving to a new community, taking up the new job with Farmland, and performing it satisfactorily.
In my view, Paul can also recover on a promissory estoppel theory. See Bower v. AT & T Technologies, Inc., 852 F.2d 361 (8th Cir.1988).
*1280I would reverse and remand with directions to proceed to trial.