58 N.Y.2d 293 | NY | 1983
Lead Opinion
OPINION OF THE COURT
This court has not and does not now recognize a cause of action in tort for abusive or wrongful discharge of an employee; such recognition must await action of the Legislature. Nor does the complaint here state a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress, for prima facie tort, or for breach of contract. These causes of action were, therefore, properly dismissed. Appellant’s cause of action based on his claim of age discrimination, however, should be reinstated. The period of time for commencement of a judicial action for unlawful discrimination in employment is the three-year period of CPLR 214 (subd 2) and "not the one-year period prescribed in subdivision 5 of section 296 of the Executive Law.
Plaintiff, Joseph Murphy, was first employed by defendant, American Home Products Corp., in 1957. He thereafter served in various accounting positions, eventually attaining the office of assistant treasurer, but he never had a formal contract of employment. On April 18,1980, when he was 59 years old, he was discharged.
Plaintiff claims that he was fired for two reasons: because of his disclosure to top management of alleged ac
As to the second basis for his termination, plaintiff claims that defendant’s top financial officer told him on various occasions that he wished he could fire plaintiff but that, because to do so would be illegal due to plaintiff’s age, he would make sure by confining him to routine work that plaintiff did not advance in the company. Plaintiff also asserts that a contributing factor to his dismissal was that he was over 50 years of age.
On April 14, 1981, plaintiff filed a summons in the present action with the New York County Clerk pursuant to CPLR 203 (subd [b], par 5). The summons described the action as a suit “to recover damages for defendant’s wrongful and malicious termination of plaintiff’s employment”. Another summons and a complaint were served on defendant on June 5, 1981. The complaint set up four causes of action. As his first cause of action, plaintiff alleged that his discharge “was wrongful, malicious and in bad faith” and that defendant was bound “not to dismiss its employees for reasons that are contrary to public policy”. In his second cause of action, plaintiff claimed that his dismissal “was intended to and did cause plaintiff severe mental and emotional distress thereby damaging plaintiff”. His third claim was based on an allegation that the manner of his termination “was deliberately and viciously insulting, was designed to and did embarrass and humiliate plaintiff and was intended to and did cause plaintiff severe mental and emotional distress thereby damaging plaintiff”. In his
Following a stipulation extending defendant’s time to answer or to move with respect to the complaint, defendant moved on July 27, 1981 to dismiss the co'mplaint on the grounds that it failed to state a cause of action and that the fourth cause of action was barred by the Statute of Frauds. Defendant contended that plaintiff was an at-will employee subject to discharge at any time, that New York does not recognize a tort action for abusive or wrongful discharge, and that the prima facie tort and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims were unavailable and insufficient.
On October 16, 1981, plaintiff served an amended complaint with his opposing papers on the motion. The amended complaint, among other things, added a fifth cause of action, alleging that plaintiff was denied advancement due to his age which constituted “illegal employment discrimination on the basis of age in violation of New York Executive Law § 296”.
Special Term denied defendant’s motion to dismiss the wrongful discharge tort claim but granted the motion as to the causes of action for breach of contract, prima facie tort, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and age discrimination. Although the court noted that New York had not yet adopted the doctrine of abusive discharge, it- declined to put plaintiff out of court before he had had opportunity by means of disclosure procedures to elicit evidence which might put his claim on firmer footing. Special Term held the cause of action for breach of contract barred by the Statute of Frauds. As to the second and third causes of action the court ruled that plaintiff’s allegations as to the manner of his dismissal were not sufficient to
On cross appeals, the Appellate Division modified, to the extent of granting the motion to dismiss the first cause of action, and otherwise affirmed the order of Special Term. The court noted that it does not appear that New York recognizes a cause of action for abusive discharge and that, in any event, plaintiff had failed to show the type of violation of penal law or public policy that has been held sufficient in other jurisdictions to support a cause of action for abusive discharge. According to the appellate court, plaintiff’s charge that the corporation’s records were not kept in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles appeared to involve a dispute over a matter of judgment as to the proper accounting treatment to be given the terms involved and not a dispute over false book entries. As to the other causes of action, the court ruled that Special Term had properly dismissed them either for failure to state a cause of action, failure to comply with the Statute of Frauds or, regarding the age discrimination claim, failure to assert it within the statutory time period (88 AD2d 870). We modify the order of the Appellate Division from which plaintiff appeals by reinstating the fifth cause of action for age discrimination and otherwise affirm.
With respect to his first cause of action, plaintiff urges that the time has come when the courts of New York should recognize the tort of abusive or wrongful discharge of an at-will employee. To do so would alter our long-settled rule that where an employment is for an indefinite term it is presumed to be a hiring at will which may be freely terminated by either party at any time for any reason or even for no reason (see Martin v New York Life
Those jurisdictions that have modified the traditional at-will rule appear to have been motivated by conclusions that the freedom of contract underpinnings of the rule have become outdated, that individual employees in the modern work force do not have the bargaining power to negotiate security for the jobs on which they have grown to rely, and that the rule yields harsh results for those employees who do not enjoy the benefits of express contractual limitations on the power of dismissal. Whether these conclusions are supportable or whether for other compelling reasons employers should, as a matter of policy, be held liable to at-will employees discharged in circumstances for which no liability has existed at common law, are issues better left to resolution at the hands of the Legislature. In addition to the fundamental question whether such liability should be recognized in New York, of no less practical importance is the definition of its configuration if it is to be recognized.
Additionally, if the rights and obligations under a relationship forged, perhaps some time ago, between employer and employee in reliance on existing legal principles are to be significantly altered, a fitting accommodation of the competing interests to be affected may well dictate that any change should be given prospective effect only, or at least so the Legislature might conclude.
For all the reasons stated, we conclude that recognition in New York State of tort liability for what has become known as abusive or wrongful discharge should await legislative action.
Plaintiff’s third cause of action was also properly dismissed. If considered, as plaintiff would have us, as intended to allege a prima facie tort it is deficient inasmuch as there is no allegation that his discharge was without economic or social justification (Morrison v National Broadcasting Co., 24 AD2d 284, 287, revd on other grounds 19 NY2d 453; see Drago v Buonagurio, 46 NY2d 778, 779). Moreover, we held in James v Board of Educ. (37 NY2d 891, 892), which also involved the exercise of an unrestricted right to discharge an employee, that: “Plaintiff cannot, by the device of an allegation that the sole reason for the termination of his employment by these public officials acting within the ambit of their authority was to harm him without justification (a contention which could be advanced with respect to almost any such termi
Plaintiff’s fourth cause of action is for breach of contract. Although he concedes in his complaint that his employment contract was of indefinite duration (inferentially recognizing that, were there no more, under traditional principles his employer might have discharged him at any time), he asserts that in all employment contracts the law implies an obligation on the part of the employer to deal with his employees fairly and in good faith and that a discharge in violation of that implied obligation exposes the employer to liability for breach of contract. Seeking then to apply this proposition to the present case, plaintiff argues in substance that he was required by the terms of his employment to disclose accounting improprieties and that defendant’s discharge of him for having done so constituted a failure by the employer to act in good faith and thus a breach of the contract of employment.
No New York case upholding any such broad proposition is cited to us by plaintiff (or identified by our dissenting colleague), and we know of none. New York does recognize that in appropriate circumstances an obligation of good faith and fair dealing on the part of a party to a contract may be implied and, if implied will be enforced (e.g., Wood v Duff-Gordon, 222 NY 88; Pernet v Peabody Eng. Corp., 20 AD2d 781). In such instances the implied obligation is in aid and furtherance of other terms of the agreement of the parties. No obligation can be implied, however, which would be inconsistent with other terms of the contractual relationship. Thus, in the case now before us, plaintiff’s employment was at will, a relationship in which the law accords the employer an unfettered right to terminate the employment at any time. In the context of such an employment it would be incongruous to say that an
Of course, if there were an express limitation on the employer’s right of discharge it would be given effect even though the employment contract was of indefinite duration. Thus, in Weiner v McGraw-Hill, Inc. (57 NY2d 458), cited by plaintiff, we recently held that, on an appropriate evidentiary showing, a limitation on the employer’s right to terminate an employment of indefinite duration might be imported from an express provision therefor found in the employer’s handbook on personnel policies and procedures. Plaintiff’s attempts on this appeal to bring himself within the beneficial scope of that holding must fail, however. There is here no evidence of any such express limitation. Although general references are to be found in his brief in our court to an employer’s “manual”, no citation is furnished to any provision therein pertinent to the employer’s right to terminate his employment, and the alleged manual was not submitted with his affidavit in opposition to the motion to dismiss his complaint.
Accordingly, the fourth cause of action should have been dismissed for failure to state a cause of action.
Initially it is to be observed that a civil action is. not instituted by the “filing of a complaint”. Rather a civil action is commenced by service, delivery, or filing of a summons (or in some instances by an order for a provisional remedy) (CPLR 203, subd [b]). More significant, there are persuasive reasons why provision should be made for different periods of time within which claims for unlawful discrimination may be made — one for administra
In enacting subdivision 9 of section 297, the Legislature created a new cause of action not previously cognizable, but, in doing so, provided no specific period of limitations for such action. Consequently the institution of civil actions to recover damages for unlawful discriminatory practices under subdivision 9 is governed by the three-year period of limitations prescribed in CPLR 214 (subd 2) applicáble to “an action to recover upon a liability, penalty or forfeiture created or imposed by statute” (emphasis added; contrast State of New York v Cortelle Corp., 38 NY2d 83, 86 [holding that statutory provisions did not create “new claims but only provide particular remedies and standing in a public officer”]). It was, therefore, error to dismiss plaintiff’s cause of action for age discrimination as barred by the one-year period prescribed in subdivision 5 of section 297.
For the reasons stated, the order of the Appellate Division should be modified, with costs, to reinstate plaintiff’s fifth cause of action for age discrimination.
. Employees in New York have already been afforded express statutory protection from firing for engaging in certain protected activities (e.g., Judiciary Law, § 519 [prohibiting discharge of employee due to absence from employment for jury service]; Executive Law, § 296, subd 1, par [e] [barring discharge of employees for opposing unlawful discriminatory practices or for filing a complaint or participating in a proceeding under the Human Rights Law]; Labor Law, § 215 [proscribing discharge of employee for making a complaint about a violation of the Labor Law or for participating in a proceeding related to the Labor Law]).
In fact, legislation has been proposed but not adopted which would protect employees who have been terminated for taking actions which benefit the general public or society in general (e.g., 1981 NY Assembly Bill A 2566), for disclosure of violations of law or
. [4] Both courts below dismissed this cause of action under the Statute of Frauds. This appears to have been error, inasmuch as the contract of employment was not one which by its terms could not have been performed within one year (General Obligations Law, § 5-701, subd a, par 1) and does not otherwise come within the reach of the Statute of Frauds (Weiner v McGraw-Hill, Inc., 57 NY2d 458, 463).
We reject the view of the dissenter that a good faith limitation should now be judicially engrafted on what in New York has been the unfettered right of termination lying at the core of an employment at will (Weiner v McGraw-Hill, Inc., 57 NY2d 458,467 [dissenting opn]). We do so for precisely the reasons which persuade him as well as the other
. Subdivision 9 provides “Any person claiming to be aggrieved by an unlawful discriminatory practice shall have a cause of action in any court of appropriate jurisdiction for damages and such other remedies as may be appropriate, unless such person had filed a complaint hereunder or with any local commission on human rights, or with the superintendent pursuant to the provisions of section two hundred ninety-six-a of this chapter, provided that, where the division has dismissed such complaint on the grounds of administrative convenience, such person shall maintain all rights to bring suit as if no complaint had been filed. No person who has initiated any action in a court of competent jurisdiction or who has an action pending before any administrative agency under any other law of the state based upon an act which would be an unlawful discriminatory practice under this article, may file a complaint with respect to the same grievance under this section or' under section two hundred ninety-six-a.”
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting in part).The harshness of a rule which permits an employer to discharge with impunity a 30-year employee one day before his pension vests (see
I do not gainsay that Martin v New York Life Ins. Co. (148 NY 117), however questionable its origin and continued existence, is the New York rule concerning employment contracts of unspecified duration. So in Haines v City of New York (41 NY2d 769, 772) we took pains to point out that unlike other contracts of unspecified duration, as to which the law will imply that the parties “intended performance to continue for a reasonable time”, that rule “[f]or compelling policy reasons * * * has not been, and should not be, applied to contracts of employment”. But the policy reasons behind refusing to read a durational term into
I refer not to the promise that each party will use reasonable efforts to carry out the contract purpose, which may be implied-in-fact from the contract negotiations to establish consideration though the writing be “imperfectly expressed” in that respect (Wood v Duff-Gordon, 222 NY 88, 91), but to the covenant implied by the law that the parties will not “frustrate the contracts into which they have entered” and that one party will “not intentionally and purposely do anything to prevent the other party from carrying out the agreement on his part” (Grad v Roberts, 14 NY2d 70, 75) or that may hinder or obstruct his doing that which the contract stipulates he should do (Patterson v Meyerhofer, 204 NY 96, 101).
Under this principle it was held in Meyerhofer that by entering into a contract to purchase from plaintiff property which defendant knew plaintiff would have to buy at a foreclosure sale in order to convey, defendant impliedly agreed that she would do nothing to prevent him from acquiring the property at such sale and, having outbid him at the sale, was liable to him for the difference between the contract price and the price she paid to the referee in foreclosure. Indeed, more than 100 years ago we applied the principle to a broker’s commission contract, though terminable at will, holding in Sibbald v Bethlehem Iron Co. (83 NY 378, 384) that “Where no time for the continuance of the contract is fixed by its terms, either party is at liberty to terminate it at will subject only to the ordinary requirements of good faith” (emphasis supplied; see, also, Goodman v Marcol, Inc., 261 NY 188; Carns v Bassick, 187 App Div 280). And though a broker’s employment is occa
The principle, moreover, is espoused by the Restatement of Contracts, Second (§ 205), which flatly states that “Every contract imposes upon each party a duty of good faith and fair dealing in its performance and its enforcement,” and which in Comment e and the Reporter’s Notes thereto indicates its application to the “abuse of a power * * * to terminate the contract” (at p 102) including “an express power to terminate a contract at will” (at p .104). It is recognized as well in section 1-203 of the Uniform Commercial Code and by Williston, Contracts (3d ed, §§670, 1295), which tells us in section 1295 (vol 11, p 39) that: “Wherever, therefore, a contract cannot be carried out in the way in which it was obviously expected that it should be carried out without one party or the other performing some act not expressly promised by him, a promise to do that act must be implied.” The same reasoning that reads into an output contract the requirement that the manufacturing plant continue to perform in good faith (Feld v Levy & Sons, 37 NY2d 466, 471) and into the contract of an employee hired to invent that the resulting patent belongs to the employer (Cahill v Regan, 5 NY2d 292, 296) though no express provision to such effect be contained in the contract requires reading into the contract the present plaintiff alleges a provision that he will not be terminated for doing that which the parties have expressly contracted he shall do.
There is, moreover, no compelling policy reason to read the implied obligation of good faith out of contracts impliedly terminable at will. To do so belies the “universal force” of the good faith obligation which, as we have seen, the law reads into “all contracts.” Nor can credence be given the in terrorem suggestion that to limit terminable-at-will contracts by good faith will drive industry from New York (see Weiner v McGraw-Hill, Inc., 57 NY2d 458, 469 [dissenting opn]). That is no more than speculation and hardly appears acceptable in the face of (1) the recognition without apparent industrial exodus of the even more burdensome tort remedy for discharge of at-will employees by such industrial States as California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (see Committee Report, at p 211, n 130; and De Giuseppe, 10 Ford Urban LJ, at p 23, n 101), and (2) the responses reported in Ewing, What Business Thinks About Employee Rights, a Harvard Business Review survey of employers reprinted in Individual Rights In The Corporation: A Reader On Employee Rights (Western & Salisbury eds), at page 21. The more particularly is this so because collective bargaining “just cause” provisions, which impose a greater burden on employers than does a good faith limitation (see Toussaint v Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mich., 408 Mich 579) have not done so, and
The fact that the Legislature has limited at-will discharge in the several ways listed in footnote 5 above but has not expressly established a breach of contract action for termination of at-will employment which violates the implied-in-law obligation of good faith provides no reason to await action by the Legislature. The at-will rule was created by the courts and can properly be changed by the courts but, more importantly, as demonstrated above, the rule has for at least a century been subject to the “universal force” of the good faith rule. The Legislature, therefore, had no reason before the present decision to believe that action on its part was required.
Nor ought we succumb to any “floodgates” argument. “This court has rejected as a ground for denying a cause of action that there will be a proliferation of claims. It suffices that if a cognizable wrong has been committed that there must be a remedy, whatever the burden on the courts” (Tobin v Grossman, 24 NY2d 609, 615; accord Prosser, Torts [4th ed], p 51). The argument is, moreover, specious. It is plaintiff’s burden if he is to avoid summary judgment to come forward with admissible evidence that he was terminated because he reported, as required, a deviation from proper accounting practice (Gelder Med. Group v Webber, 41 NY2d 680, 684) and it will be his burden to establish that fact before the jury (see Goodman v Marcol, Inc., 261 NY 188, supra; Sibbald v Bethlehem Iron Co., 83 NY 378, 390, supra; McDonnell Douglas Corp. v Green, 411 US 792). And though the burden of going forward, once plaintiff establishes a prima facie case, will shift to defendant (see Matter of Axel v Duffy-Mott Co., 47 NY2d 1, 9; cf. Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Educ. v Doyle, 429 US 274, 287; Committee Report, at p 195), it will remain the plaintiff’s burden to convince the jury that he was fired for the reason he alleged, not the employer’s burden to convince them that he had other good cause to fire the employee (see
It may well be that plaintiff’s fourth cause of action will not survive a motion for sunimary judgment or, if it does, will not succeed before a jury. To dismiss it at this stage, on the pleadings alone, is, however, wholly inconsistent with the prior holdings of this and other courts with respect to the implied-in-law obligation of good faith. I therefore, cannot vote for doing so.
Chief Judge Cooke and Judges Jasen, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Simons concur with Judge Jones; Judge Meyer dissents in part and votes to further modify by reinstating the fourth cause of action in a separate opinion.
Order modified, with costs to appellant, by reinstating the fifth cause of action and, as so modified, affirmed.
. Martin v New York Life Ins. Co. (148 NY 117, 121) accepted as correct the rule stated in section 136 of Wood, Master and Servant (2d ed) that “the fact that the compensation is measured at so much a day, month or year does not necessarily make such hiring a hiring for a day, month or year, but that in all such cases the contract may be put an end to by either party at any time, unless the time is fixed”. Though later stated to have been “deliberately adopted, all the judges concurring, to settle the differences of opinion which had prevailed in the lower courts” (Watson v Gugino, 204 NY 535, 541-542), Martin’s adoption of the rule may fairly be characterized as bizarre in light of (1) Wood’s concession that “In England it is held that a general hiring, or a hiring by the terms of which no time is fixed, is a hiring by the year”, (2) the contrary statement of the rule in Adams v Fitzpatrick (125 NY 124) in reliance upon the English cases cited at pages 128 and 130 and the New York cases cited at page 130 (see, also, Davis v Gorton, 16 NY 255; and Bleeker v Johnson, 51 How Prac 380), (3) the fact, documented in the Annotation at 11 ALR 469, 476, and in a number of the articles referred to in footnote 4 below, that Wood’s rule was not supported by any of the cases cited by him, and (4) the logical inconsistency of a rule the ultimate statement of which is that “permanent employment means nothing more than that the employment is to continue indefinitely and until one or the other of the parties wishes for some good reason to sever the relation” (Arentz v Morse Dry Dock & Repair Co., 249 NY 439, 444).
. The concept that a restriction upon an employer's right to terminate was a violation of due process (Adair v United States, 208 US 161; Coppage v Kansas, 236 US 1) has long since given way to decisions upholding the constitutionality not only of various labor acts but also of restrictions upon discharge for reasons of race, sex, age, political affiliation and the like (see n 5 below).
. (Report of Committee on Labor and Employment Law, At-Will Employment and the Problem of Unjust Dismissal, 36 Record of Assn of Bar of City of New York [hereafter “Committee Report”] 170, 175 ff.)
. (Committee Report, op. cit.; Blades, Employment. At Will vs. Individual Freedom: On Limiting The Abusive Exercise of Employer Power, 67 Col L Rev 1404; Blumrosen, Workers’ Rights Against Employers and Unions: Justice Francis — A Judge For Our Season, 24 Rutgers L Rev 480; Christiansen, A Remedy for The Discharge Of Professional Employees Who Refuse To Perform Unethical Or Illegal Acts: A Proposal In Aid
The judicial writings are too numerous to list, but see Committee Report (at p 211, n 130) and De Giuseppe (10 Ford Urban U, at p 23, n 101).
. (E.g., Civil Rights Law, §§ 47-a, 79-i; Civil Service Law, §§ 75-76; CPLR 5252; Election Law, § 17-154, subd 3; Executive Law, §§ 292, 296; General Obligations Law, § 5-301; Labor Law, § 27-a, subd 10; § 662, subd 1; § 704, subd 8; §§ 736, 880, subd 3; Military Law, §§ 317, 318; Workers’ Compensation Law, § 120.) A “whistle-blower” bill (A 12451; S 9566) failed to pass the 1982 Legislature, but has been reintroduced at the present session (Legislative Gazette, Feb. 7, 1983, p 9).
. (Pugh v See’s Candies, 116 Cal App 3d 311; Cleary v American Airlines, 111 Cal App 3d 443; Magnan v Anaconda Inds., 37 Conn Sup 38; Higdon Food Serv. v Walker, 641 SW2d 750 [Ky]; Fortune v National Cash Register Co., 373 Mass 96; Toussaint v Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mich., 408 Mich 579; Gates v Life of Mont. Ins. Co., 638 P2d 1063 [Montf]; Cloutier v Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 121 NH 915; Pierce v Ortho Pharm. Corp., 84 NJ 58; Rees v Bank Bldg. & Equip. Corp. of Amer., 332 F2d 548 [applying Mo law]; but see Whittaker v Care-More, Inc., 621 SW2d 395 [Tenn].) For discussion of the implied obligation of good faith as a limitation upon the right to terminate an at-will employee see Committee Report (at p 182 if; De Giuseppe, 10 Ford Urban LJ, at p 24; Glendon and Lev, 20 BC L Rev, at pp 471-472; Madison, 6 Employee Relations LJ, 422; Note, 93 Harv L Rev 1816; Comment: Employment Contracts — Implied Covenant of Good Faith, 62 Mass LQ 241).
. Ironically, the employer’s implied absolute right to terminate at-will employment for any reason or for no reason had its origin in the necessity of according the employer mutuality with the right of the employee to quit his job at any time (Blades, 67 Col L Rev, at p 1419). Logically, of course, the same principle of mutuality requires that if, as
. Such a contract is not per se unconscionable (Zapatha v Dairy Mart, 381 Mass 284).