Court Opinion

ID: 9474279
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:52:58.97994+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:00.095031
License: Public Domain

WALD, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In 1983, this court concluded that Hodge was entitled to an opportunity to demonstrate that Jon Tilley, the president of Evans Financial Corporation, orally promised him permanent employment with Evans if he would give up his job in Pittsburgh and move to Washington. Under such a permanent employment contract, we concluded, Hodge could only be fired for a justifiable reason. See Hodge v. Evans Financial Corp., 707 F.2d 1566, 1567-70 (D.C.Cir.1983). In doing so, we reversed the district court’s ruling that all employment contracts of an indefinite nature are terminable at will as a matter of law. See id. On remand, a jury determined that Tilley had indeed promised Hodge permanent employment, and that Hodge had not been fired for cause. The majority now vacates the jury’s verdict on the ground that Hodge’s oral contract for permanent or lifetime employment is unenforceable under the local statute of frauds. The majority is wrong.
The District of Columbia statute of frauds provides, in relevant part, that:
An action may not be brought ... upon an agreement that is not to be performed within one year from the making thereof, unless the agreement upon which the action is brought, or a memorandum or note thereof, is in writing, which need not state the consideration and signed by the party to be charged therewith or a person authorized by him.
D.C.Code § 28-3502. Despite its sweeping terms, the one-year provision of the statute has long been construed narrowly and literally. Under the prevailing interpretation, the enforceability of a contract under the statute does not depend on the actual course of subsequent events or on the expectations of the parties. Instead, the statute applies only to those contracts whose performance could not possibly or conceivably be completed within one year. The statute of frauds is thus inapplicable if, at the time the contract is formed, any contingent event could complete the terms of the contract within one year. See, e.g., Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 130 comment a (1979); 2 Corbin on Contracts § 445, at 542-43 (1950 & Supp.1984) (“It makes no difference how improbable it is that the condition will occur within a year; if there is any possibility that it may so happen, the statutory provision is not applicable.”) (emphasis added); 3 Williston on Contracts § 495, at 577-83 (3d ed. 1960) (same).
*805In Snyder v. Hillegeist, 246 F.2d 649 (D.C.Cir.1957), this court explicitly ruled that the local statute of frauds should be so construed, observing that “decided eases and authorities too numerous to cite and too well known for discussion have held that an agreement which is capable, possible or susceptible of performance within one year is not within the reach of the statute.” Id. at 651 (Burger, J.) (emphasis added); see also Coan v. Orsinger, 265 F.2d 575, 578 (D.C.Cir.1959) (“If the contingency which fulfills and completes the terms of the contract happens or could possibly happen within a year, the contract is not within the statute.”) (emphasis added). At the time of the Snyder case, of course, this court was the final authority on District of Columbia law. In the absence of intervening changes in local law, we must therefore respect its construction of the statute as any diversity court must respect the decisions of the highest relevant state court. See Steorts v. American Airlines, Inc., 647 F.2d 194, 196 (D.C.Cir.1981); M.A.P. v. Ryan, 285 A.2d 310, 312 (D.C.1971).
Hodge argues that a permanent or lifetime employment contract does not fall within the statute as interpreted by Snyder because it is capable of full performance within one year if Hodge were to die within the period. Hodge’s view of the statute’s applicability to lifetime or permanent employment contracts has, in fact, been accepted by an overwhelming majority of courts and commentators. See Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 130 illustration 2 (1979) (“A promises to work for B, and B promises to employ A during A’s life at a stated salary. The promises are not within the one-year provision of the Statute, since A’s life may terminate within one year.”); Restatement (First) of Contracts § 198 illustration 2 (1930) (same); Restatement (Second) of Agency § 414 comment a (1958) (same); 2 Corbin on Contracts § 446, at 549 & n. 35 (1950 & Supp.1984) (“A contract for ‘permanent’ employment is not within the one-year clause for the reason that such a contract will be fully performed, according to its terms, upon the death of the employee.”); E. Farnsworth, Contracts § 6.4, at 394 (1982) (same); 3 Williston on Contracts § 495, at 579-81 & n. 8 (3d ed. 1960) (same); 72 Am.Jur.2d Statute of Frauds § 42 (1974 & Supp.1984) (“It is a well-settled rule that a contract... to employ one for the duration of his life [or] a contract to give one ‘permanent’ employment ... is not within [the statute] for the reason that contracts of this description are deemed possible of performance within one year from their formation, since, for example, the employee may die within that period.”) (footnotes omitted).
Although the local courts have not directly spoken on the applicability of the statute to permanent employment contracts, the vast majority of the state courts faced with this issue have squarely and unequivocally held that contracts such as Hodge’s fall outside the statute.1 In Cooper v. Saunders-Hunt, 365 A.2d 626, 629 (D.C.1976), *806moreover, the highest local court adhered to the conventional, narrow interpretation of the one-year provision by concluding that an indefinite oral partnership agreement does not fall within the statute. See id. (“An oral partnership agreement [for an indefinite period of time] would not run afoul of the Statute of Frauds since no term of years was ever fixed and therefore it was capable of performance within one year.”) (emphasis added) (citing Snyder, 246 F.2d at 651). This court has also recognized, albeit in dicta, that employment contracts of an uncertain or permanent duration are excluded from the statute. See Farrow v. Cahill, 663 F.2d 201, 207 n. 29 (D.C.Cir.1980) (“[A] promise to serve as an employee as long as the employee lives ... is ... clearly outside the statute.”) (discussing Williston). In sura, the settled view is that Hodge’s permanent employment contract is not barred by the statute.
The majority nonetheless insists that Hodge’s argument is inconsistent with “precedent,” relying on dicta in two federal district court cases suggesting that oral long-term employment contracts are unenforceable under the statute. See Prouty v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., 572 F.Supp. 200, 204 (D.D.C.1983); Gebhard v. GAF Corp., 59 F.R.D. 504, 506 (D.D.C. 1973). Neither of those cases, however, mentioned the conventional view that permanent employment contracts are outside the statute, and neither attempted to predict how local courts would treat such a contract in light of Snyder and Cooper. Thus the majority points to no reliable authority or suggestion that District of Columbia courts would not follow the conventional interpretation of the statute of frauds. Snyder and Cooper, in turn, strongly indicate that local courts would embrace the prevailing view and accept. Hodge's argument. In the absence of contrary indications in local law, this court has consistently looked to established authority for guidance on the statute of frauds. Cf. Farrow, 663 F.2d at 208-10 (consulting Williston and the Restatement to determine whether a particular writing satisfies the statute). We should do so here.
While the majority next concedes the “conventional point of law” that open-ended or lifetime employment contracts fall outside the statute, it simply denies that Hodge ever had such a contract. See Maj.Op. at p. 801. Instead, the majority reasons, Hodge’s agreement with Evans must be interpreted as a contract for a fixed term of eleven years because Hodge expected to retire at approximately age 65. Under the conventional view of the statute, an oral employment contract for a stated, definite term of years exceeding one year is unenforceable on the rationale that the employee’s possible death within one year would “defeat” rather than “complete” the express terms of the contract.2 The majority’s creative transformation of Hodge’s permanent employment contract into a contract for eleven years allows it to apply the statute to bar Hodge’s claim despite Snyder and Cooper. The majority’s entire argument thus turns on its assertion that the parties “really” agreed to an employment contract for a fixed term of years. In my view, this contrivance lacks even plausible support in either the record or the law.
To begin with, the majority has simply crafted this eleven year contract out of thin air. Hodge unequivocally alleged a contract for permanent employment, not a contract for eleven years or any other stated period of time. See Complaint 116, Joint Appendix at 13; Hodge, 707 F.2d at 1567 (“The Complaint ... stated that Tilley promised Hodge that his employment *807would be permanent.”). While Hodge indeed testified that he contemplated retirement at some point in the future and that he intended to remain with Evans for the remainder of his working life, nothing in that testimony suggests (as the majority now “holds”) that he and Tilley specifically agreed to a definite, expressly stated term of years. The record nowhere indicates, for example, that Hodge told Tilley that he would only accept a job with Evans if Tilley promised him employment for eleven years or that Tilley insisted on or even mentioned a stated, definite term of employment for eleven years or any other period.
Crucially, Evans has not at any point in this lawsuit argued or even hinted at the possibility that Hodge and Tilley entered into a contract for eleven years or any other fixed period of time. To the contrary, Evans has consistently argued that Hodge must be deemed an at-will employee precisely because he was not promised employment for “any fixed period of time.” Evans’ Brief at 7 (emphasis added); see also id. at 13, 15-16; Hodge, 707 F.2d at 1566-67 & n. 3. At trial, for example, Evans’ counsel elicited the following testimony from Hodge:
Question: Mr. Hodge, am I correct that you received no promise from anyone at Evans of employment for any specified period of time?
Answer: Not a specific date or number of years, no.
Question: As a matter of fact, not any specific period of time; not one day, not 10 days, not 20 days, not 60 days, not 90 days, not 10 years, no specific period of time?
Answer: No.
Transcript, Record (“R.”) Item 85, at 203-04. In various pretrial memoranda, moreover, the parties definitely stipulated that Hodge and Tilley had not entered into a contract for any fixed period of time. See Evans' Pretrial Brief, R. Item 54, at KK 32-33; Hodge’s Pretrial Brief, R. Item 55, at 3.
Given the parties’ stipulation that Hodge did not contract for any fixed period of employment, I simply cannot understand how the majority can declare that Hodge and Tilley in fact agreed upon “a fixed term of years,” and that “no reasonable jury” could have found otherwise. See Maj.Op. at pp. 801-02.3 Instead, it seems to me abundantly clear that Hodge has alleged “the typical, open-ended permanent employment contract that might last ten years or twenty or indeed less than one,” Maj.Op. at p. 800 — precisely the sort *808of contract that falls outside the statute under the conventional view. If anything, then, the record completely contradicts the majority’s attempt to apply the statute on the theory that Hodge and Tilley agreed upon an employment contract for a fixed ]term of years.
Similarly, the bare fact that Hodge expected to retire at some point provides no legal basis for the majority’s assertion that his contract could not possibly be performed within one year. All employment contracts for permanent, lifetime or indefinite duration undoubtedly contemplate retirement; such contracts certainly do not, as a matter of law, mean that employees are bound to work until the moment they drop dead. Hodge’s permanent employment contract with Evans could therefore be fully performed, according to terms, upon Hodge’s retirement or upon his death. Under the conventional view of the statute, the latter possibility is sufficient to take the contract out of the statute. See, e.g., 2 Corbin on Contracts § 454 (contracts susceptible to alternative performances are outside the statute if any one of the alternatives could possibly be performed within one year); 3 Williston on Contracts § 498 (same). That Hodge fully expected to retire before he died is completely irrelevant to this case so long as the contract was legally susceptible of performance within one year. The applicability of the statute of frauds simply does not depend on the expectations of the parties.
Thus the majority’s repeated insistence that the statute bars Hodge’s contract because the parties expected that Hodge would retire at some point is starkly inconsistent with the conventional view. “Under the prevailing interpretation, the enforceability of a contract under the one-year provision does not turn on the actual course of subsequent events, nor on the expectations of the parties as to the probabilities.” Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 130 comment a (1979). As the Supreme Court has explained in a similar context:
The parties may well have expected that the contract would continue in force for more than one year; it may have been very improbable that it would not do so; and it did in fact continue in force for a much longer time. But they made no stipulation which in terms, or by reasonable inference, required that result. The question is not what the probable, or expected, or actual performance of the contract was; but whether the contract, according to the reasonable interpretation of its terms, required that it should not be performed within one year.
Warner v. Texas & Pacific Rwy., 164 U.S. 418, 434, 17 S.Ct. 147, 153, 41 L.Ed. 495 (1896) (emphasis added); see also Snyder, 246 F.2d at 651; Cooper, 365 A.2d at 629; supra pp. 804-05. In the absence of a specifically agreed upon and stated term of years, the parties’ expectation that Hodge would work until retirement does not bring his contract within the statute.
In the face of these settled principles, the majority points to absolutely no authority for its unprecedented assertion that the statute of frauds applies to permanent or indefinite employment contracts contemplating retirement, but not to ordinary service contracts for “life.” The cases purportedly standing for this proposition all involve contracts for expressly stated definite terms exceeding one year4 and are thus irrelevant here. See supra note 2. The majority most assuredly does not point to any indication in local law or elsewhere *809that a permanent employment contract should be construed as a contract for an expressly stated, fixed term of years by virtue of an employee’s expectation that he or she will retire at some point. While courts and commentators have often discussed the applicability of the statute to long-term permanent employment contracts, no court or commentator has ever suggested that such contracts “really” constitute agreements to work for a fixed term of years because the parties expect the employee to retire at some point or that the possibility of the employee’s death within one year would “defeat” rather than “complete” such a contract. To the contrary, courts and commentators have consistently accepted the view that indefinite permanent employment contracts such as Hodge’s fall outside the statute because they are capable of full performance within one year. See, e.g., 2 Corbin on Contracts § 446, at 549 (Permanent employment contracts fall outside the statute because “[t]he word ‘permanent’ has, in this connection, no more extended meaning than 'for life.’ ”); 3 Williston on Contracts § 495, at 582 (“A promise for permanent personal performance is on a fair interpretation a promise for life, and therefore not within the statute.”). See also supra note 1 (collecting cases); supra p. 805 (collecting commentators).
The majority finally asserts that Tilley’s July 31st letter to Hodge confirming salary and benefit matters brings Hodge’s contract within the statute because it established a fixed date in the future, more than a year from the making of a contract, for the payment of Hodge’s first year bonus. That letter states in relevant part:
I am pleased to welcome you to Evans. I thought it would be useful to confirm in writing a number of items.
Your position will be Vice President and General Counsel of Evans Financial Corp. This position is a Grade 63 and initial salary will be at the annual rate of $47,500. In addition, a minimum bonus of $6000 is guaranteed for 1981 (payable January, 1982). In the event actual bonus exceeds this amount, you will receive the higher amount. I have enclosed a summary of our current bonus plans with this letter____
Letter from Jon Tilley to Albert Hodge 1 (July 31, 1980), R. Excerpts at 161. Because his first bonus was payable in January of 1982, the majority evidently believes, Hodge’s contract at least “contemplated” work until that date and therefore could not be performed within one year. See Maj.Op. at pp. 802-03.
Yet Tilley’s letter obviously constitutes nothing more than a routine confirmation of a particular contract term — Hodge’s salary scale — that is irrelevant to whether Hodge was promised permanent employment. It does not address the duration of Hodge’s employment and it certainly does not purport to establish an employment contract for seventeen months or any other fixed period of time. No party to this case has ever advanced any such argument, and no court has ever taken the position that the existence of an escalating future salary schedule demonstrates that a permanent employment contract cannot possibly be performed within one year. Indeed, courts have specifically and consistently held that the presence of bonus or salary terms payable after one year does not bring a long-term indefinite employment contract within the statute. See, e.g., White Lightning Co. v. Wolfson, 68 Cal.2d 336, 66 Cal.Rptr. 697, 438 P.2d 345 (1968) (Tobriner, J.); Murphy v. Buschman-Jennings, Inc., 382 S.W.2d 29 (Mo.App.1964); Miller v. Riata Cadillac Co., 517 S.W.2d 773 (Tex.1974). At most, Tilley’s letter indicates only that Evans fully expected Hodge to work through January of 1982 — an expectation that does not bring a permanent employment contract within the statute. If the contract at issue here was merely an oral agreement to pay Hodge a sum of money after seventeen months, the statute of frauds might well apply under the cases cited by the majority.5 Try as it may, however, the majority *810simply cannot erase the fact that the contract alleged and proven at trial by Hodge was an agreement for long-term permanent employment.
In my view, then, no theory advanced by the majority can overcome either the plain fact that Hodge alleged and proved that Evans promised him indefinite permanent employment or the settled legal principle that such contracts are not barred by the statute of frauds. I recognize that the conventional view of the statute represents a somewhat “legalistic” triumph of form over substance. Yet the statute of frauds itself is widely understood as a formal legal device that shields promise breakers from the consequences of otherwise enforceable agreements. See, e.g., Farrow, 663 F.2d at 207 n. 29; Hackney v. Morelite Constr., 418 A.2d 1062, 1065-67 (D.C.1980); 2 Corbin on Contracts § 444 (1950 & Supp. 1984). The conventional, narrowing interpretation overwhelmingly adopted by courts and commentators is designed to mollify the often harsh and unintended consequences of the statute. See Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 130 comment a (1979). Here, the jury concluded, despite Evans’ vigorous defense, that Hodge was promised permanent employment and that he was nonetheless fired without cause. Under the traditional, narrow view of the statute generally endorsed by Snyder and Cooper and explicitly adopted by the vast majority of courts and commentators, the statute of frauds simply does not bar the enforcement of such jury verdicts.
As a diversity court, we must make a conscientious attempt to predict whether local courts would accept the conventional interpretation in light of the relevant indications in local law and elsewhere. There is no reason to believe that the District of Columbia courts would depart from the prevailing interpretation of the statute in this case. The majority has nonetheless devised and projected onto local courts a bizarre and unprecedented interpretation of the statute without support in the cases or commentary. While the consequences of today’s decision may be relatively modest, I am nonetheless deeply disturbed by the majority’s apparent willingness to ignore settled legal principles in order to deny Hodge his deserved relief.
I dissent.

. See, e.g., Kitsos v. Mobile Gas Serv. Corp., 404 So.2d 40 (Ala.1981) (permanent or lifetime employment); Buechner v. Rose, 538 P.2d 117 (Colo.App.1975); Spindel v. National Homes Corp., 110 Ga.App. 12, 137 S.E.2d 724 (1964) (indefinite or permanent employment); Martin v. Federal Life Ins. Co., 109 Ill.App.3d 596, 65 Ill.Dec. 143, 440 N.E.2d 998 (1982) (permanent employment); Kiyose v. Trustees of Indiana Univ., 166 Ind.App. 34, 333 N.E.2d 886 (1975) (permanent or lifetime employment); Strader v. Walnut Grove Prods., 188 N.W.2d 305 (Iowa 1971) (indefinite, permanent or lifetime employment); Pierson v. Kingman Milling Co., 91 Kan. 775, 139 P. 394 (1914) (lifetime employment); Carnig v. Carr, 167 Mass. 544, 46 N.E. 117 (1899) (permanent employment); Rowe v. Noren Pattern & Foundry Co., 91 Mich.App. 254, 283 N.W.2d 713 (1979) (permanent employment); Bussard v. College of St. Thomas Inc., 294 Minn. 215, 200 N.W.2d 155 (1972) (permanent employment); Slabon v. St. Louis Car Co., 102 S.W.2d 939 (Mo.1937) (permanent or lifetime employment); Weber v. Perry, 201 S.C. 8, 21 S.E.2d 193 (1942) (permanent or indefinite employment); Miller v. Riata Cadillac Co., 517 S.W.2d 773 (Tex. 1974) (permanent employment); Cooper v. Vitraco, Inc., 320 F.Supp. 239 (D.V.I.1970) (Virgin Islands law) (permanent or lifetime employment); Silverman v. Bernot, 218 Va. 650, 239 S.E.2d 118 (1977) (lifetime employment); Rua v. Bowyer Smokeless Coal Co., 84 W.Va. 47, 99 S.E. 213 (1919); Dow v. Shoe Corp. of Am., 276 F.2d 165 (7th Cir.1960) (Wisconsin law) (permanent or lifetime employment).

. In Easter v. Kass-Berger, Inc., 121 A.2d 868, 871 (D.C.1956), for example, a local trial court held that an employment contract for an express term of two years fell within the statute. This holding is entirely consistent with the conventional interpretation accepted by local courts. See Cooper, 365 A.2d at 629 (holding that contracts for an indefinite period are excluded from the statute's coverage); see also Farrow, 663 F.2d at 207 n. 29 (noting this distinction in the conventional view); cf. Coan v. Orsinger, 265 F.2d 575, 576-77 (D.C.Cir.1959) (concluding that contingencies that defeat a contract rather than complete its performance are within the statute). See generally 2 Corbin on Contracts § 447 (1950 & Supp.1984).

. Factual disputes concerning the applicability of the statute of frauds are normally submitted for jury resolution. See 72 Am.Jur.2d Statute of Frauds § 605, at 245 (1974); cf. Easter v. Kass-Berger, Inc., 121 A.2d 868 (D.C.1956). At the very most, then, the majority's fixed term contract theory might create a factual issue tie., whether Hodge entered into a contract for a definite, fixed period of time) that the district court should have submitted to the jury. I cannot even speculate on how the majority can conclude that the evidence is such that no reasonable jury could have found that Hodge entered into an indefinite, open-ended contract.
In this particular case, moreover, the district court’s refusal to instruct the jury on the statute of frauds should be sustained for two reasons. First, the district court could not have submitted any factual issue to the jury under the majority’s theory of this case because Hodge testified, and the parties stipulated, that he was not promised employment for any fixed period of time. Second, Evans’ proposed jury instruction concerning the statute was clearly wrong as a matter of law. That proposed instruction read as follows:
Under District of Columbia law, any alleged agreement that is not to be performed within one year must be in writing. The evidence is undisputed that there is nothing in writing signed by Evans Financial Corporation that evidences any agreement by Evans to retain plaintiff Hodge for any period of time. Accordingly, plaintiff has failed to satisfy the requirements of D.C. law and I instruct you that your verdict must be for Evans Financial Company.
Evans’ Pretrial Brief, R. Item 54, at 42. Thus, even if Evans could somehow escape its pretrial stipulation, its failure to raise the theory advanced by the majority (or any factual issue for the jury) before the district court should prevent it from obtaining relief in this court under any fixed term contract theory. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 51; see generally Black v. Stephens, 662 F.2d 181, 184 (3rd Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1008, 102 S.Ct. 1646, 71 L.Ed.2d 876 (1981); 9 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2559, at 646-48 (1971 & Supp.1985).

. See Coan v. Orsinger, 265 F.2d 575 (D.C.Cir.1959) (three-year employment contract); Blue Valley Creamery Co. v. Consolidated Prods. Co., 81 F.2d 182 (8th Cir.1936) (five-year purchasing agreement); Union Car Advertising Co. v. Boston Elevated Ry. Co., 26 F.2d 755 (1st Cir.1928) (fifteen-year rental agreement); Thoma v. Wolverine World Wide, Inc., 352 F.Supp. 580 (W.D.Pa.1972) (one-year employment contract commencing several weeks after the contract was agreed to). The Farrow case, moreover, merely recognized the distinction between express contracts for definite terms and lifetime contracts under the statute. It did not distinguish "permanent" from "lifetime" employment contracts; if anything, it recognized that employment contracts for an indefinite period of time are excluded from the statute. See Farrow, 663 F.2d at 207 n. 29.

. See Lee v. Jenkins Bros., 268 F.2d 357 (2d Cir.1959) (oral promise to pay a pension after *81030 years); Thoma v. Wolverine World Wide, Inc., 352 F.Supp. 580 (W.D.Pa.1972) (oral one-year employment contract to begin several weeks after the contract was agreed to); Price v. Press Publishing Co., 117 App.Div. 854, 103 N.Y.S. 296 (1907) (oral contract to pay $10,000 at the end of 16 months); Paschall v. Anderson, 127 Tex. 251, 91 S.W.2d 1050 (1936). These cases express the general rule that oral contracts to be performed in a stated, fixed period of time beginning at a future date are barred by the statute if the stated period ends after more than one year from the time the contract was made. See, e.g., 2 Corbin on Contracts § 447, at 556-58 (1950 & Supp.1971).