Howell v. Commercial Credit Corp.
| Decision Date | 21 October 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 306,306 |
| Citation | 238 N.C. 442,78 S.E.2d 146 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | HOWELL, v. COMMERCIAL CREDIT CORP. |
Albion Dunn, Greenville, for plaintiff, appellee.
Louis W. Gaylord, Jr., Greenville, for defendant, appellant.
The demurrer admits the factual averments of the complaint relating to the colloquy between the plaintiff and the divisional manager of the defendant, but it does not admit the legal conclusion of the complaint that such colloquy operated as an implied assurance from the defendant to the plaintiff that his employment by it was to be permanent. Clinard v. Lambeth, 234 N.C. 410, 67 S.E.2d 452; Anderson v. Atkinson, 234 N.C. 271, 66 S.E.2d 886.
When the plaintiff is accorded the full benefit of all its factual averments, the complaint merely alleges a hiring under a contract which does not specify any definite time for the duration of the employment. Since an employment for an indefinite term is terminable at the will of either party without cause, the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action for breach of an employment contract by wrongful discharge. May v. Tidewater Power Co., 216 N.C. 439, 5 S.E.2d 308; Elmore v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 191 N.C. 182, 131 S.E. 633, 43 A.L.R. 1072.
We deem it not amiss to observe, in closing, that the legal standing of the plaintiff would not be bettered a single whit if the legal conclusion of the complaint could be construed to be a factual averment that the defendant actually contracted to employ plaintiff 'upon a permanent basis.' A mere agreement to give another permanent employment, in and of itself, implies nothing more than a general or indefinite hiring terminable at the will of either party. Malever v. Kay Jewelry Co., 223 N.C. 148, 25 S.E.2d 436.
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Ihekwu v. City of Durham, N.C.
...277, 281 (1992), in support of this allegation. However, as explained by the North Carolina Supreme Court in Howell v. Commercial Credit Corp., 238 N.C. 442, 78 S.E.2d 146 (1953), and the North Carolina Court of Appeals in Lorbacher v. Housing Authority of the City of Raleigh, 127 N.C.App. ......
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Lorbacher v. Housing Authority of City of Raleigh
...is hired on a permanent basis, the relationship is still terminable at the will of either party. Howell v. Commercial Credit Corp., 238 N.C. 442, 443-44, 78 S.E.2d 146, 147 (1953). Plaintiff fails to allege that he is covered by a statute or ordinance creating an entitlement to continued em......
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Guy v. Travenol Laboratories, Inc.
...the employment was terminable at will, even if the employer had offered a job "upon a permanent basis." Howell v. Commercial Credit Corp., 238 N.C. 442, 78 S.E.2d 146, 147 (1953). The North Carolina Supreme Court summed up the doctrine when it said "a contract of employment, even though it ......
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Dockery v. Lampart Table Co.
...S.E.2d 282, 79 A.L.R.3d 651 (1975); Tuttle v. Kernersville Lumber Co., 263 N.C. 216, 139 S.E.2d 249 (1964); Howell v. Commercial Credit Corp., 238 N.C. 442, 78 S.E.2d 146 (1953); Malever v. Kay Jewelry Co., 223 N.C. 148, 25 S.E.2d 436 (1943). However, the plaintiff here has attempted to all......