Court Opinion

ID: 9696129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:37:59.776665+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:18.815148
License: Public Domain

CATHELL, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In my view, the majority strains to expand the holding in Weisman v. Connors, 312 Md. 428, 540 A.2d 783 (1988). Under the majority’s holding, had the hospital put Griesi, or any other lower or middle level employee, on *22the payroll and then terminated him the next day, it may have been insulated from suit. The mere allegation of promises causes the hospital to be subject to suit arising out of the interviewing procedure for an “at will” position, unless it first puts the prospective employee on the payroll, then fires him. It is, as I see it, a nonsensical situation.
There is an even more serious problem that may arise from the holding. Anyone who applies for an “at will” position will have a cause of action if not hired, based solely on allegations of misrepresentation. This decision will open the flood gates. No employer, however ethical, will be safe from the burden of defending itself against frivolous lawsuits. In my view, the adoption of the majority’s position will effectively cause the imminent abrogation of the employment “at will” doctrine in Maryland.
Weisman was intended, as I read it, and as it was read by others, prior to the Court of Special Appeals’ rush to expand it in Lubore v. RPM Associates, Inc., 109 Md.App. 312, 674 A.2d 547 (1996), to apply only in those rare instances of upper level management employment negotiations. The majority today extends it virtually to all preemployment representations— presumably even representations in employment advertisements.
Every employer, as a result of this opinion, will be well advised to instruct its hiring personnel to hire in silence— based only on written applications and on what an applicant may say. Any representation — any statement, by anyone in the employer’s hiring process could subject the employer to suit if an applicant is not hired, even though the position at issue is for employment “at will” and even though the person, if hired, could be fired the next day without cause.
If an employer interviews ten people for one “at will” position and hires the one it feels is best qualified, the other nine can now sue for not being hired based on allegations of some misrepresentation. It is only a minor step — an inevitable step, for the same thing to occur in terminations of “at will” employment as, today, has occurred to situations of *23failure to hire for an “at will” position. Any other result would be simply illogical. With the filing of the majority’s opinion, the existence of the employment “at will” doctrine in Maryland has entered its terminal stage.
Moreover, lawyers will be unable to advise employer-clients as to just what their status may be in interviewing prospective employees. If we are going to abolish the doctrine, we should say so; not strain to make exceptions, leaving traps for attorneys and trial judges.
I would affirm.
Judge RAKER has authorized me to state that she joins in the views expressed herein.