Legal Encounter

Legal Encounter 1:

Pat Grey, manager of real property at NewCorp, was hired and fired within three months. He acknowledges that he knew that he was working in an “at will” environment, but believed that he had a contract. In fact, what he actually had was an “implied contract.” In the US, courts have “implied the existence of a contract because of the presence of promises, procedures,and policies in an employee personnel manual.” (Jennings, 2006, Ch. 18) In his acceptance of employment at NewCorp, Pat Grey sold his home and relocated his family 300 miles from home. Grey assumed that the new position would hold opportunities for him.

The CAP located in the manual represents an implied contract, and can be interpreted as a promissory estoppel in that “one party has relied on the promise of the other,” making it unfair not to enforce the agreement. (Promissory Estoppel, 2009)

Legal Encounter 2:

Legal Encounter 3:

Because of Paul’s claustrophobia that developed after commencing employment, he has filed for worker’s compensation. The workers compensation laws provide for salary and medical care for work related injuries. To qualify, the injury must have happened in the workplace, be caused by the workplace, or develop over time in the workplace. Even stress, when shown to be caused or originated by employment, is a compensable injury (Jennings, 2006). Under these rules, Paul could qualify for this compensation. Employee negligence, employer precautions, contributory negligence, and assumption of risk are generally not issues in workers’ compensation cases (Jennings, 2006).

References

Jennings, M.M. (2006) Business: Its Legal, Ethical and Global Environment (7th Ed)

University of Phoenix (2009) Class Syllabus. University of Phoenix student/faculty website. Retrieved May 20, 2009

Promissory Estoppel, (2009) Retrieved May 20, 2009 from http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/P/PromissoryEstoppel.aspx

Employment At Will: What Does It Mean?...