Court Opinion

ID: 9733745
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:16:27.458523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:43.981080
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(concurring specially in part and dissenting in part).
I concur in Issue III, concur specially on Issue I and dissent on Issue II.
The trial court correctly instructed the jury that a worker who is verbally promised future promotion to a specific position in exchange for his labor is not an at-will employee under SDCL 60-4-4 and may be discharged only for cause. This is good law. Merritt v. Edson Exp., Inc., 437 N.W.2d 528, 529-530 (S.D.1989); Breen v. Dakota Gear & Joint Co., Inc., 433 N.W.2d 221, 223 (S.D.1988); Larson v. Kreiser’s, Inc. (Larson I), 427 N.W.2d 833, 834 (S.D.1988).
Furthermore, just because a worker is employed at-will for ten years does not mean his employer cannot one day promise him a future promotion in exchange for his continued labor. In such a case the worker ceases to be employed at-will and may thereafter be discharged only for cause. In most of the cases we relied on in Larson I, at-will employment was transformed into good-cause employment in precisely this way by an oral contract entered into in midstream. See e.g., Zaniecki v. P.A. Bergner *766& Co., 143 Ill.App.3d 668, 97 Ill.Dec. 756, 493 N.E.2d 419 (3 Dist.1986); Mers v. Dispatch Printing Co., 19 Ohio St.3d 100, 483 N.E.2d 150 (1985); Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. O’Neal, 224 Va. 343, 297 S.E.2d 647 (1982); and Terrio v. Millinocket Community Hospital, 379 A.2d 135 (Me.1977). If Larson “accepted employment after being given a specific oral promise,” Breen, 433 N.W.2d at 223, employment subsequent to the promise was not at-will regardless of whether he happened to have been employed at-will prior to the promise. I agree with the majority that the trial court’s drawing of this common sense conclusion was correct.
However, the majority opinion holds on Issue II that “it was error for the trial court to instruct the jury on an implied contract theory.” It does not say why. The effect is that while employers and workers may contract out of at-will employment, they are for some reason forbidden to do so by means of one type of contract which is as legally binding as an express contract in other contexts. If this distinction is not arbitrary and there is actually some policy argument or persuasive authority to support the distinction, the opinion should cite it.
How can this court reject an implied-in-fact contract theory in this case when Larson I explicitly stated that Larson “filed suit for breach of implied and express contract,” 427 N.W.2d at 833 (emphasis added), and held that summary judgment on this issue was inappropriate? Since we effectively told the circuit court it had to submit the question of whether an implied contract existed to the jury, it seems anomalous to now reverse the court for telling the jury where it might look for evidence of such a contract.
Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court on Issue II also.
MORGAN, Retired Justice, joins this special writing.