Blinn v. BEATRICE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CENTER, INC.
| Decision Date | 19 April 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. A-04-079.,A-04-079. |
| Citation | 13 Neb.App. 459,696 NW 2d 149 |
| Parties | ROBERT BLINN, APPELLANT, v. BEATRICE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CENTER, INC., APPELLEE. |
| Court | Nebraska Court of Appeals |
Nancy R. Wynner and Danielle M. Koonce, Senior Certified Law Student, of DeMars, Gordon, Olson & Zalewski, for appellant.
Nicole B. Theophilus, Michaelle L. Baumert, and Angela M. Lisec, of Blackwell, Sanders, Peper & Martin, L.L.P., for appellee.
Robert Blinn appeals from an order of the district court which granted Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center, Inc. (Beatrice), summary judgment on Blinn's petition seeking damages arising out of Beatrice's termination of Blinn's employment. The substance of Blinn's petition in the district court was that his at-will employment status had been modified by representations of Beatrice promising Blinn would be employed for a period of at least 5 years, that the representations induced Blinn to forgo another employment opportunity, and that Beatrice then terminated Blinn's employment approximately 6 months after the alleged representations. On appeal, Blinn asserts that the district court erred in finding that summary judgment was appropriate. We find that evidence adduced and not objected to by Beatrice raised a genuine issue of material fact concerning whether Beatrice offered to extend Blinn's employment either until he chose to retire or for at least 5 years and that such a modification of Blinn's employment status would not have violated the statute of frauds. We also find that a genuine issue of material fact was raised concerning Blinn's promissory estoppel claim. Accordingly, we find that summary judgment was inappropriate, and we reverse the district court's order granting Beatrice summary judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.
Read in a light most favorable to Blinn, the record indicates the following factual background:
Blinn began his employment with Beatrice in 1993, as an at-will employee. In June 2002, Blinn received a job offer from a hospital in Kansas. Blinn approached Beatrice with an offer of resignation; although Blinn did not desire to resign from his employment with Beatrice, he wanted some assurances that he had job security with Beatrice before rejecting the other job offer. According to Blinn, his supervisor with Beatrice assured him that Beatrice had "at least five more years of work" for him. Blinn took the statement to mean that he had a contract with Beatrice for "at least five years." Blinn then rejected the offer from the hospital in Kansas. Beatrice terminated Blinn's employment in February 2003.
On March 6, 2003, Blinn filed a petition alleging several theories of recovery based upon Beatrice's termination of his employment. Throughout the petition, Blinn repeatedly makes specific reference to Beatrice's representations concerning "five years." For example, Blinn alleges that Beatrice informed him "that he had at least 5 years of work left to do for [Beatrice], and that he should not take the Kansas job offer"; that Beatrice's representations concerning Blinn's "ability to remain employed by [Beatrice] for the next five years turned out to be false"; that Beatrice "wrongfully terminated [Blinn] without allowing [him] the opportunity to achieve the five years of continued employment as promised"; and that Beatrice's "representations that [Blinn] would have five years of continued employment substantially contributed to [Blinn's] decision to reject the Kansas job offer."
On April 24, 2003, Beatrice filed an answer in which, inter alia, Beatrice specifically alleged that Blinn's claims were barred by the statute of frauds. On November 12, Beatrice filed a motion for summary judgment.
On December 16, 2003, the district court held a hearing on the motion for summary judgment. The court received two depositions on behalf of Beatrice—the deposition of Blinn and the deposition of Blinn's supervisor at Beatrice. The court also received on behalf of Blinn an affidavit and a letter, both of which suggest that the offer from the Kansas hospital was made with an understanding that Blinn, if he chose to accept the offer, would be able to remain in his position with the Kansas hospital until such time as he chose to retire.
On December 31, 2003, the district court entered an order granting Beatrice summary judgment. The court specifically noted that Beatrice had alleged the statute of frauds as a defense and that Blinn had argued that the statute of frauds was not applicable because "the contract could feasibly have been performed within one year as [a representative of Beatrice] told Blinn he could work until he retired, and he could have performed all the recruiting work for [Beatrice] within one year." The district court, however, did not resolve the potential statute of frauds issue; the district court instead found that the alleged oral modification of Blinn's contract was not specific or definite enough to modify his at-will employment status. The district court found that no genuine issue of material fact existed and that Beatrice was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Therefore, the district court granted summary judgment to Beatrice. This appeal followed.
Blinn assigns three errors on appeal which, consolidated and restated, all allege that the district court erred in granting Beatrice's motion for summary judgment.
[1, 2] In reviewing a summary judgment, an appellate court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment is granted and gives such party the benefit of all reasonable inferences deducible from the evidence. Sodoro, Daly v. Kramer, 267 Neb. 970, 679 N.W.2d 213 (2004). Summary judgment is proper when the pleadings and evidence admitted at the hearing disclose that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact or as to the ultimate inferences that may be drawn from those facts and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id.
As noted above, Beatrice specifically raised the statute of frauds as a defense. The district court recognized the statute of frauds defense and even commented on Blinn's arguments responding to the defense. Nonetheless, the district court chose to find that the terms of the alleged oral contract were not specific or definite enough to modify Blinn's employment status from that of an at-will employee. See Goff-Hamel v. Obstetricians & Gyns., P.C., 256 Neb. 19, 588 N.W.2d 798 (1999). As such, the district court did not specifically resolve the statute of frauds issue in this case.
We first recognize that the issue raised by Blinn's pleading in this case was whether Blinn's at-will employment status was modified to a term of employment of "at least five years." Blinn's petition specifically alleged such, although Blinn has also argued, here and below, that the terms of the alleged oral agreement to modify his employment status provided that he could remain employed with Beatrice until he chose to retire.
[3, 4] The Nebraska Supreme Court has previously held, in the context of a contract dispute, that a pleading has two purposes: (1) to eliminate from consideration contentions which have no legal significance and (2) to guide the parties and the court in the conduct of cases. Spanish Oaks v. Hy-Vee, 265 Neb. 133, 655 N.W.2d 390 (2003). Pleadings frame the issues upon which the cause is to be tried and advise the adversary as to what the adversary must meet. Id. The issues in a given case will be limited to those which are pled. Id. Although we recognize that Spanish Oaks was decided under Nebraska's old code-pleading system, the notions of due process expressed in that case concerning the purpose of pleadings remain appropriate.
[5] In Spanish Oaks, suit was brought seeking a declaratory judgment regarding the terms of a lease and the validity of a restrictive covenant contained in a sublease. The evidence presented at trial led the district court to note, in dicta, that there appeared to be a dispute between the parties about when certain terms of the lease would go into effect. The district court refused to rule on the dispute, however, because the parties had not raised the issue in their pleadings. The Supreme Court affirmed, noting that "[w]hile . . . judicial efficiency might be promoted if courts were to, sua sponte, determine questions raised by the facts but not presented in the pleadings, that efficiency would come at the expense of due process." Id. at 149, 655 N.W.2d at 404. Compare Schnell v. Schnell, 12 Neb. App. 321, 673 N.W.2d 578 (2003) ().
In Heinzman v. County of Hall, 213 Neb. 268, 328 N.W.2d 764 (1983), the Nebraska Supreme Court reviewed an order of a district court sustaining a demurrer in an employment action alleging wrongful termination. The Supreme Court specifically held that "[i]t seems elementary that if recovery is sought on a contract of employment, the terms of the contract must be alleged." Id. at 270, 328 N.W.2d at 767. The Supreme Court found that the plaintiff had failed to properly plead alleged terms of a contract dealing with employment benefits and that as a result of the pleading deficiency, the plaintiff was not entitled to recovery on the alleged contract. Id.
In the present case, Blinn's petition alleges, specifically, that Beatrice made oral representations that he would be employed by Beatrice for "at least five years." However, nowhere in Blinn's petition is any mention of an alleged term of employment extending until Blinn might elect to retire. As such, whether such a term was ever offered by Beatrice was not alleged in...
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Blinn v. Beatrice Community Hosp.
...the statute of frauds issue. The Court of Appeals reversed the district court's summary judgment. Blinn v. Beatrice Community Hosp. & Health Ctr., 13 Neb.App. 459, 696 N.W.2d 149 (2005). The Court of Appeals first recognized that Blinn's pleading did not allege Beatrice made representations......
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...efficiency would come at the expense of due process." 265 Neb. at 149, 655 N.W.2d at 404. Compare, Blinn v. Beatrice Community Hosp. & Health Ctr., 13 Neb. App. 459, 696 N.W.2d 149 (2005) (case filed under new rules of pleading holding that when issues not raised by pleadings are tried by e......