Permenter v. Crown Cork & Seal Co., Inc., CIVIL ACTION NO. 98-3937 (E.D. Pa. 2/26/1999), CIVIL ACTION NO. 98-3937.
| Decision Date | 26 February 1999 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. 98-3937. |
| Parties | James C. PERMENTER, Plaintiff, v. CROWN CORK & SEAL CO., INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Arnold Y. Steinberg, Pittsburgh, PA, for plaintiff.
Vernon L. Francis, Dechert, Price & Rhoads, Philadelphia, PA, for defendant.
Before the court is the defendant's motion for summary judgment and plaintiffs cross-motion for partial summary judgment. Because there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding plaintiffs claims of breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, or invasion of privacy, the complaint must be dismissed.
The basis of this suit is an employment relationship between plaintiff James Permenter and defendant Crown Cork & Seal (Crown). After being referred to Crown by a headhunter, see Ex. A at 18 (Dep. of James Permenter),1 Mr. Permenter met with Carl Armand and Ed Richter, two individuals at Crown's Alsip, Illinois facility, to discuss two employment positions, one of which was in South Africa. See id. at 19-20.2 After other interviews, see id. at 23-27, Mr. Permenter was hired by Crown as a project manager with the duty of supervising a plant start-up operation in South Africa. See Ex. B (assignment letter).3 Although he remained a United States employee of Crown, he was considered "on loan" to Crown Cork Company S.A. Ltd., a joint venture between Crown and a South African company. See id.; see also Ex. D at 9 (Dep. of James Sadler).
Mr. Permenter began his work in South Africa in 1995 when he performed an audit of a Crown manufacturing plant. After returning to the United States in the late fall, see Ex. A at 40-41, 45, Mr. Permenter moved to South Africa with his family in January 1996. See id.; see also Ex. H 9 12 (response to interrogatory). Prior to this move to South Africa, Mr. Permenter sold his home in the United States, and his wife quit her job. See Ex. H ¶ 16-17, 15(d)-(e), (k); Compl. ¶ 28(g), (k). Many disagreements eventually sprung up between Mr. Permenter and the South African managers. In particular, Mr. Permenter and a manager named Roger Morgan clashed.4 In mid-October 1996, Mr. Morgan called Mr. Permenter into his office and informed him that he was no longer needed in South Africa. See Ex. A at 80. Following discussion with his superior, Jim Sadler, Mr. Permenter agreed to leave South Africa, believing that he was to be reassigned in the United States. Upon Mr. Permenter's return to the United States, Mr. Sadler attempted to find another position for Mr. Permenter but was unable to do so. See Ex. D at 17, 20, 56, 66-67.
A. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment
Mr. Permenter's lawsuit alleges that 1) Crown breached the employment contract it made with him, 2) Crown fraudulently induced him to take the position in South Africa and thereby damaged him, and 3) Crown, through its employee Roger Morgan, defamed him and painted him in a false light. The defendant requests summary judgment on each of these claims.
Mr. Permenter is a citizen of Florida and was a citizen of Florida at the time of all events in the complaint. The corporate defendant is a citizen of Pennsylvania. The contract of employment was negotiated and finalized in Alsip, Illinois, and the employees of Crown whose actions are most relevant to this case worked at Crown's Illinois facility. Plaintiff, however, contends that he took the job with Crown's Philadelphia office. See Resp. to Mot. for Summ. J. at 25. Based on these facts, the defendant believes that the court should apply the law of Illinois; plaintiff believes that the court should apply the law of Pennsylvania.
In a diversity action, the court should look to the conflicts regime of the forum state. See Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941); LeJeune v. Bliss-Salem, Inc., 85 F.3d 1069, 1071 (3d Cir. 1996). Under Pennsylvania's choice of law rules, the court must first look to see whether a true conflict exists. If there is no true conflict, and the law of either state may be applied without impairing the interests of the other, the court should generally apply the law of the forum state. See Austin v. Dionne, 909 F. Supp. 271, 274 (E.D.Pa. 1995). Only if a true conflict is present should the court continue to consider the appropriate choice of law by combining elements of both the governmental interest approach and the significant contacts test. See Griffith v. United Air Lines, Inc., 416 Pa. 1, 203 A.2d 796 (1964).
In the present case, the court will apply Pennsylvania law because there is no true conflict on any of the relevant issues. The law applied by Pennsylvania and Illinois regarding the at-will status of employment contracts is virtually identical, and neither state's interests would be impaired by applying that of the other. Pennsylvania and Illinois law regarding the elements of fraudulent inducement are also almost indistinguishable. Finally, the determination of the invasion of privacy claim is unaffected by the choice of law issues. Under all plaintiffs causes of actions, the states have displayed an attention to the same policy goals and have utilized similar legal structures to accomplish these aims. Consequently, the default choice of law is that of the forum state.6
Pennsylvania law presumes that all employment is at-will unless the employee is able to prove otherwise by showing with "clarity and specificity that the parties contracted for a definite period." See Maier v. Police and Fire Fed. Credit Union, 813 F. Supp. 326, 332 (E.D.Pa. 1993), quoting DiBonaventura v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 372 Pa.Super. 420, 539 A.2d 865, 867 (1988); see also Raines v. Haverford College, 849 F. Supp. 1009, 1011 (E.D.Pa. 1994) (same). An at-will employee can be discharged for any or no reason. See Raines, 849 F. Supp. at 1011. The presumption will not be overcome absent either an express contract between the parties or an implied in-fact contract plus additional consideration passing from the employee to the employer "from which the court can infer the parties intended to overcome the at-will presumption." Id. at 1012 (citations omitted). In the present case, Mr. Permenter cannot demonstrate that he was anything but an at-will employee because he cannot use his employer's estimates of the time he would be needed to overcome the presumption.
Two documents are crucial in this determination. First, the application for employment filled out by Mr. Permenter includes a place for the applicant to sign underneath an "Applicant Statement." That statement includes the following:
I understand that neither this application, nor any offer of employment from Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc. constitute an employment contract, unless a specific document to that effect is executed in writing by both an officer of the Company and the employee.
I understand that my at will employment is for no specified period of time, and may be ended by either myself or the Company at any time with or without notice.
Ex. F. Mr. Permenter's signature is immediately below this disclaimer, see id.,7 and Mr. Permenter does not dispute its authenticity. See Ex. A at 38.
The second document is Mr. Permenter's international assignment letter detailing his salary, various allowances, benefits, and duties. See Ex. C. The first sentence of this letter states that "[t]his is not a contract of employment." Id. On the fourth page, under the heading "Termination of International Assignment," the letter states:
In the event of your re-assignment, your voluntary resignation, or the company's termination of your service with or without cause, this International Assignment will be considered terminated and the compensation package as outlined above will cease to apply.
If you should resign voluntarily, the Company is not obligated to pay your transfer expenses back to the U.S. Otherwise the Company will pay the following expenses to transfer you back to Brandon, Florida.
Id. at 4 (emphasis added). The next section says that "nor does the fact that you are recorded as an employee of CSA in Alrode, South Africa affect your continued status as an at will Company employee."
Id. Mr. Permenter's signature of acknowledgment is also on this document. See id. at 5. Mr. Permenter agrees that the signature is his, although he suggests that he did not thoroughly read the document, pointing out at least one factual error it contained. See Ex. A at 32-34.
These disclaimers are not hidden or obscured, and they were presented to and signed by Mr. Permenter very early in the employment process. While the plaintiff suggests that the assignment letter as a whole led him to believe that he was being hired for at least two years, see, e.g., id. at 29, 30-31; Resp. to Mot. for Summ. J. at 6, this claim is untenable as a matter of law. An employee handbook or analogous document will not change the employee's status unless it contains a "clear indication that the employer intends to overcome the at-will presumption." Raines, 849 F. Supp. at 1012; see also Ruzicki v. Catholic Cemeteries Ass'n, 416 Pa.Super. 37, 610 A.2d 495, 497 (1992) (same). A handbook is only enforceable as a contract if a reasonable person in the same position as the employee would interpret its provisions as evidencing an intent by the employer to overcome the presumption. If a handbook or manual contains disclaimers or specifically states that there was no employment contract, the presumption will not be defeated. A plaintiff may not claim ignorance of such provisions in an attempt to downplay their significance. See Raines, 849 F. Supp. at 1012, Ruzicki, 610 A.2d at 496, 498; Maier, 813 F. Supp. at 332. Consequently, the plaintiff cannot maintain that a reasonable person would have viewed the letter as offering anything but at-will employment.8
Mr. Permenter raises...
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