D'Ulisse-Cupo v. Board of Directors of Notre Dame High School

Decision Date03 February 1987
Docket NumberULISSE-CUPO
CourtConnecticut Supreme Court
Parties, 106 Lab.Cas. P 55,702, 37 Ed. Law Rep. 229, 2 IER Cases 948 Maria D'v. BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL, et al.

Thomas E. Crosby, New Haven, for appellants (defendants).

Joseph D. Garrison, with whom was Nancy E. Fey, New Haven, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before PETERS, C.J., and DANNEHY, SANTANIELLO, CALLAHAN and KLINE, JJ.

PETERS, Chief Justice.

This case arises out of the failure of a school board to rehire a nontenured teacher despite representations that she would receive a new employment contract. The plaintiff, Maria D'Ulisse-Cupo, filed a three count complaint against the defendants, the board of directors of Notre Dame High School and the principal of the school, George Schmitz, seeking damages premised on liability for breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation. The trial court rendered judgment against her after granting the motion of the defendants to strike all three counts of her complaint for failure to state a cause of action. Upon appeal to the Appellate Court, that court found error and remanded the case for further trial court proceedings on all counts. D'Ulisse-Cupo v. Board of Directors of Notre Dame High School, 6 Conn.App. 153, 503 A.2d 1192 (1986). We granted certification at the request of the defendants and now conclude that the Appellate Court's judgment must be reversed with respect to the plaintiff's contract counts, so that further trial court proceedings will be limited to the plaintiff's tort claim only.

Since this appeal is before us pursuant to a motion to strike, we take the facts to be those alleged in the plaintiff's complaint and construe the complaint in the manner most favorable to the pleader. Norwich v. Silverberg, 200 Conn. 367, 370, 511 A.2d 336 (1986); Mead v. Burns, 199 Conn. 651, 655, 509 A.2d 11 (1986); Cavallo v. Derby Savings Bank, 188 Conn. 281, 283, 449 A.2d 986 (1982); Sheets v. Teddy's Frosted Foods, Inc., 179 Conn. 471, 472, 427 A.2d 385 (1980); Stradmore Development Corporation v. Commissioners, 164 Conn. 548, 550-51, 324 A.2d 919 (1973). " 'For purposes of appeal, all well-pleaded facts and those facts necessarily implied from the allegations are taken as admitted....' " Mead v. Burns, supra; DeMello v. Plainville, 170 Conn. 675, 677, 368 A.2d 71 (1976); McAnerney v. McAnerney, 165 Conn. 277, 282, 334 A.2d 437 (1973).

The plaintiff alleged the following facts in her complaint. From September, 1981, to June, 1983, she taught Spanish and Italian to ninth and tenth grade students at Notre Dame High School in West Haven. During that period, she was employed under an employment contract which expired in June, 1983. On or about March 21, 1983, the defendant Schmitz, the school principal, orally represented to the plaintiff, during a performance review, that "there would be no problem with her teaching certain courses and levels the following year, that everything looked fine for rehire for the next year, and that she should continue her planning for the exchange program" which she organized for the school. Shortly thereafter, during the week of April 11, 1983, Schmitz or his authorized representative posted a written notice on a bulletin board in the school stating: "All present faculty members will be offered contracts for next year." Upon her return from an exchange trip to Italy, the plaintiff was again informed that she would have a teaching contract for the following year. On or about May 4, 1983, however, the plaintiff was told by school officials that, due to staff cutbacks in various departments, her teaching contract would not be renewed.

The complaint further alleged that Schmitz interviewed the plaintiff for a position in the English department on or about May 27, 1983. Schmitz told the plaintiff and other teachers that the defendants would do everything possible to avoid discharging them. Subsequently, instead of hiring the plaintiff for the position available in the English department, the defendants hired an outside applicant for that position. Furthermore, the defendants allegedly failed to explore alternative job opportunities for the plaintiff or to offer her any substitute teaching positions for which she was qualified and available.

The three counts of the plaintiff's complaint sought recovery of damages on the following legal theories: (1) breach of contract arising out of the defendants' failure to rehire the plaintiff despite oral and written promises of a new contract, on which the plaintiff relied to her detriment; (2) liability in tort because of negligent misrepresentions that the plaintiff would be rehired to teach for a third year, representations on which the plaintiff relied to her detriment; and (3) breach of contract arising out of the defendants' oral promises to avoid discharging teachers unnecessarily and to offer the plaintiff substitute teaching positions, promises on which the plaintiff relied to her detriment. The complaint further alleged that, as a result of these wrongful actions by the defendants, the plaintiff suffered the following damages: the stress of unemployment, loss of esteem, damage to her professional career and reputation, lost wages and fringe benefits, and mental and physical pain and suffering.

The defendants moved to strike the complaint on the ground that it failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The trial court granted the motion as to all three counts for reasons articulated in its memorandum of decision. On the first count, which alleged, inter alia, that the plaintiff had been wrongfully discharged, the court concluded that no cause of action had been stated because the doctrine of wrongful discharge protects only employees at will. Magnan v. Anaconda Industries, Inc., 193 Conn. 558, 569, 479 A.2d 781 (1984); Sheets v. Teddy's Frosted Foods, Inc., 179 Conn. 471, 477, 427 A.2d 385 (1980). Relying on the allegations in the complaint, the court found that the plaintiff was not an employee at will, but rather an employee hired pursuant to a term contract of fixed duration. The court therefore found that the plaintiff had not been discharged from her employment; she simply had not been rehired upon the expiration of her contract. The court struck the second count, sounding in negligent misrepresentation, because the plaintiff did not allege that the defendants had "failed to exercise reasonable care or competence in obtaining or communicating the information." Restatement (Second), Torts § 552 (1979). The court determined that the third count, which alleged a further claim for breach of contract, failed to establish such a claim because there was no allegation that the defendants had offered the plaintiff future employment or that she had accepted such an offer. Alternatively, the court found that the third count failed to state a claim grounded in detrimental reliance because there was no allegation that the defendants, by virtue of their representations to the plaintiff, had "reasonably expect[ed] to induce action or forbearance" of a definite and substantial character. 1 Restatement (Second), Contracts § 90 (1979).

In reviewing the judgment of the trial court, the Appellate Court addressed each count of the complaint separately. The court initially determined that the first count, although cast as a claim for wrongful discharge, was in fact a claim based on a theory of implied contract arising out of the defendants' alleged promises to rehire the plaintiff. D'Ulisse-Cupo v. Board of Directors of Notre Dame High School, supra, 6 Conn.App. at 157, 503 A.2d 1192. 1 The complaint contained allegations that the defendants had made representations concerning rehiring and promises that "all present faculty members will be offered contracts for next year." The court determined that these allegations, coupled with the allegation that the plaintiff had relied on these promises to her detriment, formed the basis of an actionable claim for breach of an implied promise to rehire. Id., 159, 503 A.2d 1192. 2 With respect to the second count, the court concluded that, even absent formal invocation of all of the language of § 552 of the Restatement Second of Torts (1979), the plaintiff's allegation of negligent misrepresentation was sufficient to withstand a motion to strike. D'Ulisse-Cupo v. Board of Directors of Notre Dame High School, supra, 6 Conn.App. at 160, 503 A.2d 1192. Addressing the third count, the court found that, although the plaintiff had not pleaded that the defendants "reasonably expected to induce action or forbearance" in making various representations to the plaintiff, that count likewise stated a claim for breach of an implied contract based on a theory of promissory estoppel. Id. The Appellate Court therefore set aside the judgment of the trial court and remanded the case for further proceedings.

In their appeal to this court following our granting of their petition for certification, the defendants challenge each of these conclusions of the Appellate Court. We agree with their claims with regard to the contract counts, counts one and three, but we disagree with respect to the second count alleging liability for tortious misrepresentation.

I

We will address jointly the defendants' attack on counts one and three, both of which contest the Appellate Court's conclusions that the various oral and written representations made by the defendants are promises that are enforceable under the doctrine of promissory estoppel. In contesting the first count, the defendants maintained that the oral and written representations they had made regarding their intent to rehire the plaintiff for a third year did not rise to the level of promises which are enforceable based on detrimental reliance. They further argued that the third count should also be stricken because their subsequent oral representations to the plaintiff,...

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