Muller v. Stromberg Carlson Corp.

• Citation: 427 So.2d 266
• Decision Date: 16 February 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-1034,82-1034
• Parties: 115 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3447 Walter H. MULLER, Appellant, v. STROMBERG CARLSON CORPORATION, a foreign corporation, Guy Fiske, et al., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 266

427 So.2d 266

115 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3447

Walter H. MULLER, Appellant, v. STROMBERG CARLSON CORPORATION, a foreign corporation, Guy Fiske, et al., Appellees.

No. 82-1034.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

Second District.

Feb. 16, 1983.

John J. Chamblee, Jr., and Robert H. Miles of Chamblee & Miles, Tampa, for appellant.

Earnest W. Dean, Jr. of MacFarlane, Ferguson, Allison & Kelly, Tampa, for appellees.

LEHAN, Judge.

Walter H. Muller appeals the dismissal with prejudice of two counts of his amended complaint against Stromberg Carlson Corporation and one count against Guy Fiske. Muller's suit alleged that Stromberg Carlson had breached an employment contract by not giving him the full salary increases to which he was entitled for the years 1979-1981 and by terminating him without cause in 1981. Muller's count against Fiske alleged that Fiske had tortiously interfered with the employment relationship between Muller and Stromberg Carlson.

The trial court dismissed the two counts against Stromberg Carlson for Muller's failure to allege sufficient facts to show the existence of an employment contract. The count against Fiske was dismissed on the grounds that Fiske, an Executive Vice President of Stromberg Carlson's parent company, was not a third party to the employment relationship. We affirm.

Muller was first employed by Stromberg Carlson in December, 1960. He alleges he was told that he would become a "permanent" employee after a six-month probationary period and would remain employed as long as evaluations of his performance were satisfactory. According to the amended complaint, Stromberg Carlson followed a structured merit review policy, apparently known as the Merit Pay Plan, which required an employee and his supervisor to formulate yearly objectives to be carried out by the employee. The employee was evaluated annually to determine how well he had accomplished the objectives. The supervisor then made salary increase recommendations, which were subject to review and approval at various higher managerial levels in Stromberg Carlson and in Stromberg Carlson's parent company, General Dynamics Corporation, including review and approval by General Dynamics' executive vice presidents.

Muller alleges that in three fiscal years, despite satisfactory evaluations of his performance, his fulfillment of yearly objectives, advice to him from his supervisors that his performance merited certain salary increases, and recommendations by his supervisors of salary increases, he failed to receive the increases recommended. He alleges that such failures were due to nonapprovals by General Dynamics of the recommendations. Muller alleges that defendant Fiske maliciously and with willful and wanton disregard of the employment relationship caused those nonapprovals and caused Muller's termination. ¹

Muller contends that the policy of yearly reviews created a series of annual employment contracts, subject only to his satisfactory performance. Muller also contends that Stromberg Carlson's merit review policy created an obligation to give Muller specific salary increases which were not given. Muller further argues that, even if no contract existed, Stromberg Carlson breached a duty of good faith owed to him when the company dismissed him without just cause.

Attached to the amended complaint is a copy of the Stromberg Carlson merit review policy. Among its provisions is a provision that not all employees will receive raises. The policy is in the form of a memorandum to supervisors. There is no specific allegation that the policy was communicated to Muller, but even if there had been such an allegation, our conclusion would not be different.

We have studied the extensive briefs of the parties. In his argument Muller implicitly concedes that the employment arrangement does not contain specific terms relating to tenure and salary increases. Nor has he alleged the existence of any document or agreement which establishes that the parties ever intended a definite term of employment or specific salary increases. Nonetheless, he feels that we should find an enforceable inference of these contract terms from the company policy.

We cannot agree. We see no justification to depart from long established principles that an employment contract requires definiteness and certainty in its terms. An employee's entitlement to a particular term of employment or to particular salary levels on the basis of criteria more subject to misunderstanding and dispute than definite terms in an employment contract is not, under the circumstances of this case, the province of a court of law. Even assuming that Muller's subjective expectations in this case were justified, to wit, that he had been a good employee and that the performance of good employees should be rewarded, that would not warrant a holding in his favor which would create a precedent of uncertainty in the law of Florida governing employment relationships. Mere expectations are insufficient to create a binding term of employment. Roy Jorgenson Associations Inc. v. Deschenes, 409 So.2d 1188 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982).

Similarly, even if we were to assume "bad motives" on the part of the employer in this case in failing to grant more substantial salary increases to, and then terminating, plaintiff, that in itself would not justify the relief requested. See Catania v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 381 So.2d 265 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).

The appellant directs the court's attention especially to American Agronomics Corp. v. Ross, 309 So.2d 582 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975), cert. den., 321 So.2d 558 (Fla.1975), in which a letter sent to employee Ross confirming his employment specified several dates over the next year on which his performance would be reviewed. The letter further stated that the achievement of certain sales goals would be "the factor" in determining his continued employment. Although Ross met his sales goals, he was terminated after only four months. In his suit for breach of employment contract, Ross was awarded damages for unpaid salary. The appellate court affirmed the award, applying the rule of construction that an ambiguous contract is construed against the party who wrote the contract, i.e., the employer. The court specifically noted that at trial both Ross and the employer's vice president testified that the contract was for a term of one year.

American Agronomics is distinguishable from the instant case principally because Ross was given a document which purported to set out the terms of his employment which, while found to be possibly ambiguous, were more definite than the employment arrangement in the instant case and which were supported by oral testimony as to the specific term of employment. Muller, on the other hand, has not alleged that any specific agreement existed between him and Stromberg Carlson, only that the policy of the company should be determined to give rise to a contract.

Concededly, American Agronomics did involve a finding of an enforceable employment contract when no written contract established a specific duration of employment and the writing involved only established periodic reviews of performance relative to achievement of goals. However, the achievement of specific goals during a particular period was, according to the writing, to be the factor in determining the future continuation of employment, whereas in the instant case there were not shown to be objective criteria taking the matter out of the discretionary judgment of the employer. Also, in American Agronomics the testimony of both employee and employer showed agreement upon a specific term.

As to salary increases, not only does the employment arrangement alleged in this case fail to promise particular increases, but its terms establish that increases were to be in the judgment of...