Mackay v. Four Rivers Packing Co.

• Decision Date: 19 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. 33829.,33829.
• Citation: 145 Idaho 408,179 P.3d 1064
• Parties: Stuart MACKAY, an individual, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FOUR RIVERS PACKING CO., an Idaho corporation, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

179 P.3d 1064

145 Idaho 408

Stuart MACKAY, an individual, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FOUR RIVERS PACKING CO., an Idaho corporation, Defendant-Respondent.

No. 33829.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, January 2008 Term.

February 19, 2008.

Johnson & Monteleone, L.L.P., Boise, for appellant. Samuel Johnson argued.

Birch Law Office, Payette, for respondent. Bruce H. Birch argued.

J. JONES, Justice.

Stuart Mackay sued Four Rivers Packing Co. alleging the breach of an oral contract for long-term employment and claiming that Four Rivers terminated him because it regarded him as disabled due to his insulin dependent diabetes. Four Rivers moved for summary judgment in district court, which the court granted on both counts. Mackay appeals to this Court. We vacate the summary judgment order and remand.

I.

Four Rivers operates an onion packing plant near Weiser, Idaho. Randy Smith, the general manager of Four Rivers, hired Stuart Mackay as a field man during the summer of 1999 to secure onion contracts from growers in the area. Four Rivers began experiencing financial difficulties in late 1999. All employees, including Mackay, were laid off at this time because one of the owners of Four Rivers filed suit to prevent the company from conducting business. When the lawsuit was resolved, Smith rehired Mackay as a field man. According to Mackay, Four Rivers offered him a long-term employment contract in March of 2000 to continue working as a field man up to the time of his retirement. Mackay claims he accepted the long-term offer of employment and advised Four Rivers that he may not retire for approximately ten years, at around age 62.

Four Rivers denies extending such an offer to Mackay. According to Four Rivers, the owners informed Randy Smith in 2000 that they did not know whether the company would be in business the next fall due to continuing financial difficulties. In 2001, Mackay asked Four Rivers for a written contract of employment. He refused to sign the agreement that was prepared because it gave Four Rivers the right to terminate his employment at will. Subsequent efforts to arrive at a written employment agreement were unsuccessful.

In 2000, Mackay was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and began taking oral medication to treat the condition. Mackay claims he immediately notified Four Rivers of the diabetes. In early 2003, Mackay became insulin dependent due to the diabetes. He notified Four Rivers of this dependency and the possible side effects. Four Rivers acknowledges that Mackay informed them of his condition, but denies it considered this a problem. Four Rivers claims no one ever told Mackay that his health interfered with his job.

On March 7, 2003, Smith terminated Mackay's employment relationship without notice. According to Mackay, he did this because of Mackay's diabetes. A co-worker, Jim Goins, claims to have heard Smith say Mackay was "too heavy, that he could not get off his fat ass, and that he was too sick with diabetes to work for Four Rivers Packing." Smith denies making such a statement. He claims Mackay's performance was not satisfactory because he was not meeting with growers with the frequency or regularity necessary to obtain the quantity of onions necessary to keep Four Rivers' packing plant operational on a full-time basis, resulting in the closure of the packing plant in February 2003. Four Rivers claims its employees, including Mackay, were laid off at this time as a result of the early closure. Mackay claims Four Rivers closed due to the price of onions at the time. Mackay applied for unemployment benefits in 2003, stating in his application that he was laid off due to company financial difficulties. Smith states he offered to rehire Mackay in a different position later that year, and Mackay declined.

Mackay filed a complaint on August 24, 2004, claiming Four Rivers breached his employment contract and discriminated against him in violation of the Idaho Human Rights Act (IHRA). Four Rivers answered, alleging that Mackay was an "at will" employee. Further, it asserted an affirmative defense that a contract such as that claimed by Mackay is null, void, and unenforceable as violating Idaho Code § 9-505 because the agreement could not be performed within one year of its making. Four Rivers moved for summary judgment in October 2006, and the district court granted its motion. The court concluded the alleged contract could not be performed by its terms within one year and would therefore be invalid in the state of Idaho. Thus, it granted summary judgment with regard to Mackay's breach of contract claim. In addition, the district court granted summary judgment with regard to plaintiff's disability claim, finding the plaintiff failed to direct the court to any authority recognizing diabetes as a disability under the IHRA. Plaintiff subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration, which the district court denied, resulting in this appeal.

II.

We are presented with the questions of: (1) whether the district court erred when it held the alleged oral contract between Mackay and Four Rivers fell within Idaho's Statute of Frauds; and (2) whether the district court erred when it held that Mackay must show his diabetes substantially limits a major life activity in order to make a disability discrimination claim under the IHRA.

A.

On appeal from the grant of a motion for summary judgment, this Court applies the same standard used by the district court originally ruling on the motion. Carnell v. Barker Mgmt., Inc., 137 Idaho 322, 326, 48 P.3d 651, 655 (2002). Summary judgment is proper "if the pleadings, depositions, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Id. at 327, 48 P.3d at 656 (citing Idaho R. Civ. P. 56(c)). All disputed facts are to be construed liberally in favor of the nonmoving party, and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the record are to be drawn in favor of the nonmoving party. Id. Summary judgment is appropriate where the nonmoving party bearing the burden of proof fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case. Id.

The burden at all times is upon the moving party to prove the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. G & M Farms v. Funk Irrigation Co., 119 Idaho 514, 517, 808 P.2d 851, 854 (1991). The plaintiff's case must be anchored in something more than speculation, and a mere scintilla of evidence is not enough to create a genuine issue. Id. However, all doubts are to be resolved against the moving party, and the motion must be denied if the evidence is such that one may draw conflicting inferences therefrom, and if reasonable people might reach different conclusions. Id.

B.

The parties disagree regarding the proper application of Idaho's Statute of Frauds. According to Mackay, the longstanding rule in Idaho is that where an agreement depends upon a condition which may ripen within a year, even though it may not mature until much later, the agreement does not fall within the Statute. Since the alleged contract here contains a term that it will last until Mackay retires, and Mackay could have retired within the first year, the oral contract does not violate the Statute. Mackay argues this Court should construe the facts in his favor as the nonmoving party and determine that Four Rivers made a definite promise that he could work until retirement. Thus, summary judgment was inappropriate on the contract claim. Alternatively, if the Court concludes the contract was unclear as to its intended duration, summary judgment was inappropriate because the contract term must be determined by a jury.

Four Rivers denies entering into a long-term contract of employment, and further claims Mackay was at all times an "at will" employee. Four Rivers claims Mackay's allegations make it impossible to determine the term or duration of the alleged employment contract. Thus, the alleged contract fails for indefiniteness. Alternatively, Four Rivers claims the contract violates Idaho Code § 9-505, relying on Burton v. Atomic Workers Fed. Credit Union, 119 Idaho 17, 803 P.2d 518 (1990). The employee in Burton claimed the employer breached an employment contract entitling her to work until she retired at age 65. According to Four Rivers, the contract in this case similarly falls within Idaho's Statute of Frauds. We consider that issue first.

Idaho's Statute of Frauds provision is found in Idaho Code § 9-505. Section 9-505 provides that "an agreement that by its terms is not to be performed within a year from the making thereof" is invalid, unless the same or some note or memorandum thereof, be in writing and subscribed by the party charged, or by his agent. I.C. § 9-505. Evidence of such agreement cannot be received without the writing or secondary evidence of its contents. Id. According to the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, courts construe this statute narrowly. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 130, cmt. a (1981). 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. Id. Contracts of uncertain duration are simply excluded, and the provision covers only those contracts whose performance cannot possibly be completed within a year. Id.

Leading treatises follow this general rule. It is well settled that the oral contracts invalidated by the Statute because they are not to be performed within a year include only those which cannot be performed within that period. 9 Samuel Williston, A Treatise on the Law of Contracts § 24:3 (West 1999). A promise which is not likely to be performed within a year, and which in fact is not performed within a year, is not within the Statute, if at the time the contract is...