Darlington v. General Elec.

• Decision Date: 31 January 1986
• Parties: , 107 Lab.Cas. P 55,768, 2 IER Cases 1666 Oscar DARLINGTON, Appellant, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC, Appellee. 02646 PHILA. 1983
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 306

504 A.2d 306

350 Pa.Super. 183, 107 Lab.Cas. P 55,768,

2 IER Cases 1666

Oscar DARLINGTON, Appellant, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC, Appellee.

02646 PHILA. 1983

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Nov. 15, 1984.

Filed Jan. 31, 1986.

Arlene G. Simolike, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Keith D. Heinold, Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before CAVANAUGH, BECK and TAMILIA, JJ.

CAVANAUGH, Judge:

Oscar Darlington appeals from the judgment n.o.v. entered on September 30, 1983 in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. We affirm.

Darlington had been employed as an engineer for General Electric for fifteen years when, in 1976, he was accused of certain expense and phone account irregularities and was subsequently discharged. Darlington brought suit contesting the discharge, and a trial was held in March of 1983 before the Honorable Murray C. Goldman and a jury. The jury returned a verdict for Darlington and assessed damages against General Electric in the amount of $100,000.00. General Electric then sought a judgment n.o.v. and a new trial. Oral argument on these motions was heard before Judge Goldman on September 14, 1983. On September 30th of the same year, the judge granted General Electric's motion for judgment n.o.v. and dismissed the motion for a new trial as moot. This appeal followed.

Our scope of review in this case is as follows: "On an appeal from the entry of a judgment n.o.v., all of the evidence and the reasonable inferences therefrom must be viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict-winner." Handfinger v. Philadelphia Gas Works, 439 Pa. 130, 132, 266 A.2d 769, 771 (1970). "A judgment n.o.v. should be entered only in a clear case and any doubts should be resolved in favor of the verdict." Atkins v. Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, 489 Pa. 344, 351, 414 A.2d 100, 103 (1980). It is not our function on appeal to retry the case or to arrive at our own conclusions as to questions of fact.

In the instant case, appellant Oscar Darlington contends that his employment at General Electric was not "at-will" and that his discharge was in contravention of an employment contract entered into at the time he was hired. He also alleges that the manner in which the company effected his discharge constitutes a wrongful discharge.

The facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the appellant as verdict winner, are as follows. In late 1961, appellant and General Electric entered into an employment contract. Appellant, a professional engineer was already several years into his career when he was recruited to work for General Electric. At his job interview with the Manager of Professional Recruitment, Anthony J. Marini, a discussion ensued concerning appellant's intent to settle into a company with a long range program for engineers with skill and experience similar to his. Marini outlined "in some detail" the procedures that would be followed in the event that a problem arose. Marini gave appellant a pamphlet which contained a description of the procedures and also informed him of provisions for transfer in case a "problem" arose. (Appellant subsequently took advantage of the transfer provision.) Marini testified that General Electric agreed to employ appellant for so long as performance on both sides was satisfactory. However, in 1976, company officials accused appellant of certain expense and phone account violations. Appellant's position was that he did not knowingly and deliberately engage in the impermissible conduct he was charged with but was merely following company policy as he knew it. The company subsequently discharged appellant.

Appellant alleges that his discharge was in contravention of an employment contract entered into at the time he was hired in 1961 which provided that the term of his employment was to be for a reasonable length of time. If such a contract existed, and if the reasonable time had not passed, appellant's employment could not have been terminated at-will but could only have been rightfully severed with "just cause." Before assessing the merits of this controversy, we must first briefly examine the history of employment at-will.

Since at least 1891, Pennsylvania courts have recognized the rule that, absent a contract, employees may be discharged at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. Henry v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Co., 139 Pa. 289, 21 A. 157 (1891). See also Forman v. BRI Corporation, 532 F.Supp. 49 (E.D.Pa.1982); Rogers v. International Business Machines Corporation, 500 F.Supp. 867 (W.D.Pa.1980); Linn v. Employers' Reinsurance Corporation, 397 Pa. 153, 153 A.2d 483 (1959); Fawcett v. Monongahela Railway Company, 391 Pa. 134, 137 A.2d 768 (1958); McKinney v. Armco Steel Corporation, 270 F.Supp. 360 (W.D.Pa.1967).

Every employment relationship is also a contractual relationship. Even at-will employment is formed by contract. The type of employment (the duration and the permissible grounds for discharge) is determined by the type of contract entered into. In the absence of an express understanding between employer and employee concerning the duration of their contract, there has always been considerable difficulty in providing the appropriate legal reaction to employee dismissal. As early as 1562, an English statute prohibited the discharge of an employee "unless it be for some reasonable and sufficient cause or matter...." Statute of Labourers, 5 Eliz. c. 4 (1562) (found in 6 Pickering's Statutes 159-160 (1763)). When the statute was repealed, English courts continued to insist that a contract of employment for an indefinite term was presumed to be a contract for one year. See 1 Blackstone, Commentaries 335 (1832). That view was accepted by some American courts and rejected by others. See Feinman, The Development of The Employment At Will Rule, 20 J.Amer.L.Hist. 118 (1976). The dominant American position started to become clear at the end of the nineteenth century: an employment contract of indefinite duration was deemed to be terminable at will for any cause or no cause, regardless of the "morality" of the situation. There is little question that the rationale for the prevailing rule was based on the assumption that it was necessary to preserve managerial discretion in the work place and to maintain freedom of contract. The dominant philosophy of freedom of contract failed to consider the lack of bargaining power in an individual employee, i.e., that there can be no freedom of contract between parties of grossly unequal bargaining power. Since that time, there has been a growing recognition of that fact as evidenced by numerous Congressional mandates allowing collective bargaining which result in agreements precluding arbitrary dismissal of employees. See e.g., 5 U.S.C. § 7513 which requires "such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service" to be shown to dismiss a civil servant. Other Congressional directives preclude dismissal of employees in retaliation for reporting employee activity which violates certain statutes. See e.g., Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. § 660 and the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 215. Over the years, the presumption of "at-will" employment has afforded courts and counsel alike the solace of certainty inherent in any iron-clad rule. In recent years, however, it has been frequently suggested that the presumption is an antiquated remnant of a by-gone era. The at-will presumption flourished in the laissez-faire climate of the latter part of the last century. The philosophy of "freedom of contract", of which the at-will presumption was a manifestation, served to fuel the furnace of the free enterprise system. Because commerce was king, laws were tailored to facilitate business and courts were very much disinclined to impede the natural workings of the free enterprise system. Thus, laws were developed whereby courts largely left business decisions to businessmen. It has been noted with some degree of frequency, however, that since the age of unrestricted laissez-faire economics has passed, the at-will presumption should no longer be adhered to with "unquestioned deference." See Woolley v. Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc., 99 N.J. 284, 491 A.2d 1257 (1985). The presumption has been called "a stubborn progeny" of the common law, "an anachronism." Pierce, Mann and Roberts, Employee Termination At Will: A Principled Approach, 28 Vill.L.Rev. 1 (1982). In recent years, courts have become increasingly willing to afford the discharged employee relief based on ever-widening theories grounded in contract and also on causes of action sounding in tort. But, despite the expanding bases upon which courts now afford relief to discharged employees, they still exhibit a predilection for precedent and a corresponding reluctance to effect the wholesale elimination of the at-will presumption. Courts have, in fact, only impinged on the presumption in gradual, piecemeal ways. "[A]bsent a statutory or contractual provision, the employers' right to hire and fire is virtually absolute." O'Neill v. ARA Services, Inc., 457 F.Supp. 182, 186 (E.D.Pa.1978). The citadel of the at-will presumption has been eroded of late, but it has not been toppled. Perhaps the time has come for employees to be given greater protection in this area. This was the opinion of one commentator, who cautioned, however, that "Pennsylvania courts ... should at this time avoid further modification of the at-will employment relationship. Restraint should be observed to minimize the adverse effects that any complete abrogation might have on employment, productive efficiency, and overburdening of the judicial process with additional cases. Time and thought should be given now to whether abrogation of the doctrine should occur through 'judicial erosion' or 'legislative mandate.' " K.H. Decker, At-Will Employment in Pennsylvania--A Proposal For Its Abolition and Statutory Regulation, 87 Dickinson L.Rev. 477, 479 (1983). In the Report of...