Court Opinion

ID: 9934132
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:53:22.109932+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:25.167110
License: Public Domain

I would agree that if an employer fraudulently induces an employee to enter into an employment contract by misrepresenting that the employee will not be an at-will employee, then this could create a cause of action for promissory fraud. However, if the employee knows that she will be an at-will employee, then there is an irrebuttable presumption that she knows the public law of the land,Georgia Home Insurance Co. v. Warten, 113 Ala. 479, 486,22 So. 288, 290 (1897), including the law relating to at-will employees, Burrell v. Carraway Methodist Hospitals,607 So.2d 193 (Ala. 1992); Salter v. Alfa Insurance Co., 561 So.2d 1050
(Ala. 1990); and she could not justifiably rely on any promise concerning the working conditions during her at-will employment.
I would answer certified question 1 in the negative; such an answer would then obviate any need to answer certified question 2.