Ferguson v. City of Orofino
| Decision Date | 20 February 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 23097,23097 |
| Citation | 953 P.2d 630,131 Idaho 190 |
| Parties | Homer FERGUSON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. CITY OF OROFINO, a municipal corporation, State of Idaho, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Court of Appeals |
James J. Davis, Thomas E. Dvorak, Boise, for defendant-appellant. Thomas E. Dvorak argued.
Harvey Richman, Coeur d'Alene, for plaintiff-respondent.
This is an appeal from the district court's appellate decision reversing a magistrate's order for summary judgment in favor of the City of Orofino. The plaintiff, a former employee of the City, claims that the City breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by preventing his use of accrued personal leave time while he was an employee. He claims compensation for his unused leave. We conclude that genuine factual issues are presented which preclude summary judgment. Therefore, we affirm the decision of the district court and remand the case to the magistrate for further proceedings.
Homer Ferguson worked as a police officer with the Orofino City Police Department from March 1986 until his retirement in February 1995. During the last several years of Ferguson's employment, the City's personnel manual provided that employees would accrue personal leave time at rates ranging from two days per month to two-and-one-half days per month. The personal leave was to be used for both vacation and sick leave. 1 Sections 4(D) and 4(F) of the manual addressed the use of personal leave and the right to payment for unused leave upon resignation as follows:
D. Personal leave may be accumulated up to a maximum of eight hundred eighty (880) hours. Personal leave will be granted at a time and in an amount which will least interfere with the work of the City, and when such leave has been requested reasonably in advance and approved by the immediate supervisor and the City Administrator. Unless waived by the City Administrator, no personal leave will be granted in excess of one hundred sixty (160) hours unless sick leave is involved.
....
F. When an employee separates from City services by reason of resignation with proper notice, or by dismissal s/he will be entitled to cash payment for unliquidated leave, not to exceed one (1) month's current salary. In the case of death, the beneficiary will be entitled to cash payment for unliquidated personal leave not to exceed one (1) month's salary together with any other payments owed to the deceased employee.
At the time of his retirement, Ferguson had accumulated over 675 hours of unused personal leave time. However, the City paid him for only 160 of those hours upon his departure. The City based its position on the foregoing provisions of Section 4(F) of the personnel manual limiting reimbursement for unused leave upon an employee's separation from service, to an amount not exceeding one month's salary. Ferguson, however, maintained that notwithstanding that provision in the manual, he was entitled to compensation for the remaining 515 hours of unused leave time because he had been prevented from taking the leave during his employment. Ferguson brought this action in the magistrate division of the district court to recover for the 515 hours of unused leave.
The City moved for summary judgment, arguing that Ferguson's employment contract only entitled him to compensation for the 160 hours of unused leave for which he had already been paid. In response to the City's motion, Ferguson presented his own affidavit as well as the depositions of Ferris Childers, the chief of police from 1986 through 1994, and Michael Couts, the City's then current police chief. Ferguson's affidavit stated that the chief of police would not or could not allow Ferguson to use the personal leave to which he was entitled because, throughout the period of Ferguson's employment, the police department was seriously understaffed. Rather than being allowed to take leave, Ferguson testified, he was required to work extensive amounts of overtime. These statements were corroborated by the deposition testimony of Childers and Couts. Childers acknowledged that from October of 1990, when the subject leave policy was adopted, until Childers retired in 1994, Ferguson could not have taken "one more hour" of personal leave. Childers indicated that it would have been impossible to grant Ferguson time off because the police department was understaffed. He stated that the police force had been reduced from nine officers to eight, and that to be adequately staffed he would have needed to hire two more. Childers's testimony was echoed by Chief Couts, who stated that it would have been "extremely difficult to impossible" to have allowed Ferguson to take off any more of his personal leave hours while he was employed with the City. Childers stated that the police department was understaffed during the last year of Ferguson's employment. He indicated that the City was operating with only seven officers at that time.
The trial court granted the City's motion for summary judgment. Ferguson appealed to the district court, arguing that there were genuine issues of fact regarding whether the City had breached his employment contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by preventing him from using the personal leave time to which he was entitled while employed with the police department. The district court reversed the summary judgment. On further appeal before this Court, the City maintains that summary judgment is appropriate because, under terms of the personnel manual, Ferguson was entitled to take personal leave only if and when it would not interfere with the City's work and his right to receive compensation for unused leave was limited to the amount he has already received.
When reviewing an order granting summary judgment, an appellate court applies the same standard employed by the trial court in initially ruling on the motion. Idaho Schools for Equal Educ. Opportunity v. Evans, 123 Idaho 573, 578, 850 P.2d 724, 729 (1993). That is, we review the record to determine whether there exists any genuine issue of material fact and whether the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See I.R.C.P. 56(c); Anderson v. City of Pocatello, 112 Idaho 176, 179, 731 P.2d 171, 174 (1986); Hirst v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., 106 Idaho 792, 795, 683 P.2d 440, 443 (Ct.App.1984). Every reasonable inference presented by the record must be drawn in favor of the party opposing the motion, Tingley v. Harrison, 125 Idaho 86, 89, 867 P.2d 960, 963 (1994); Idaho Schools, supra, and if reasonable people could reach different conclusions based on the evidence, the motion must be denied. Farm Credit Bank of Spokane v. Stevenson, 125 Idaho 270, 272, 869 P.2d 1365, 1367 (1994); Olsen v. J.A. Freeman Co., 117 Idaho 706, 720, 791 P.2d 1285, 1299 (1990).
The City maintains that the magistrate properly granted summary judgment based upon Section 4(F) of the personnel manual, which provides that upon resignation, an employee's entitlement to payment for accrued leave will not exceed one month's salary. Ferguson acknowledges receiving a copy of this manual and does not dispute that its terms were contractual. 2 He also does not dispute that the compensation he received for 160 hours of unused leave is the equivalent of one month's salary.
Ferguson contends, however, that this section of the policy manual is not dispositive because the City prevented him from utilizing his leave time while he was employed as a police officer. Ferguson argues that as a consequence of this conduct by the City, the contract law doctrines of impossibility of performance and prevention of performance should be applied to nullify those portions of the employment contract dealing with the forfeiture of personal leave and limitations upon cash compensation for unused leave.
We are of the opinion that these doctrines are inapplicable to Ferguson's circumstance. In general terms, the doctrines of impossibility of performance and prevention of performance both operate to excuse a party from performance of his or her obligations under the contract. The doctrine of impossibility "excuse[s] performance when the bargained-for performance is no longer in existence or is no longer capable of being performed due to the unforeseen, supervening act of a third party." Haessly v. Safeco Title Ins. Co., 121 Idaho 463, 465, 825 P.2d 1119, 1121 (1992); Sutheimer v. Stoltenberg, 127 Idaho 81, 85, 896 P.2d 989, 993 (Ct.App.1995). The doctrine of prevention of performance excuses a party from fulfilling his contractual obligations when the party to whom the obligation is owed unlawfully prevents the first party from tendering performance. Sullivan v. Bullock, 124 Idaho 738, 741-42, 864 P.2d 184, 187-188 (Ct.App.1993). See also J OHN D. C ALAMARI & J OSEPH M. P ERILLO, T HE L AW O F C ONTRACTS § 11-28 (3d ed.1987); W ALTER H.E. J AEGER, W ILLISTON O N C ONTRACTS § 1316 (3d ed.1968). The party whose performance has been prevented may be entitled to damages for the benefit of the bargain that would have been earned through performance. Sullivan, 124 Idaho at 743-44, 864 P.2d at 189-90; C ALAMARI, supra. Neither of these doctrines, however, can be applied in the manner suggested by Ferguson. In this case, Ferguson is not attempting to demonstrate that the City kept him from fulfilling his obligations under the employment contract. It is undisputed that Ferguson fully performed by providing services as a police officer. Rather, the substance of Ferguson's claim is that the City failed in its own performance by withholding from him benefits to which he was entitled. The law of impossibility of performance and prevention of performance has no apparent bearing upon the City's motion for summary judgment. 3
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