Mudd v. Hoffman Homes for Youth, Inc.

543 A.2d 1092, 374 Pa. Super. 522, 1988 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1358

• Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
• Decided: May 6, 1988
• Docket: 107
• Status: Published

Opinions

TAMILIA, Judge:

This case was originally commenced before the Court of Common Pleas of York County on or about May 16, 1984 with appellant’s filing of a complaint. On March 20, 1986, the court sustained appellees’ preliminary objections grounded on a question of venue and directed that the action be transferred to the Court of Common Pleas of Adams County. On April 25, 1986, appellant filed an amended complaint in Adams County along with a concurrent motion for leave to file the amended complaint, which motion was granted on May 30, 1986, leaving appellees twenty days to respond to the amended complaint. Appellees filed timely preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer on June 19, 1986, claiming all three counts of appellant’s amended complaint failed to state a cause of action upon which relief could be granted. After argument, the trial court, by Order dated January 12, 1987, sustained appellees’ preliminary objections and granted appellant twenty days to amend its previously-amended complaint. Appellant purposely elected not to amend and by praecipe filed February 6, 1987 requested judgment in favor of appellees and against herself be entered. In response to appellant’s praecipe, the trial court entered judgment in favor of appellees and dismissed the original amended complaint on February 10, 1987. Appellant timely appeals the judgment.

Appellant claims the trial court improperly applied the proper standard of review'in evaluating all three counts of her amended complaint and, consequently, erred in sustaining appellees’ demurrer. Appellant contends her amended complaint alleges sufficient facts to state a cause of action and dismissal was improper.

In County of Allegheny v. Commonwealth, 507 Pa. 360, 372, 490 A.2d 402, 408 (1985), our Supreme Court set forth the proper scope of review to a challenge to the sustaining of a preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer:

A demurrer can only be sustained where the complaint is clearly insufficient to establish the pleader’s right to relief. Firing v. Kephart, 466 Pa. 560, 353 A.2d 833 (1976). For the purpose of testing the legal sufficiency of the challenged pleading a preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer admits as true all well-pleaded, material, relevant facts, Savitz v. Weinstein, 395 Pa. 173, 149 A.2d 110 (1959); March v. Banus, 395 Pa. 629, 151 A.2d 612 (1959), and every inference fairly deducible from those facts, Hoffman v. Misericordia Hospital of Philadelphia, 439 Pa. 501, 267 A.2d 867 (1970); Troop v. Franklin Savings Trust, 291 Pa. 18, 139 A. 492 (1927). The pleader’s conclusions or averments of law are not considered to be admitted as true by a demurrer. Savitz v. Weinstein, supra.

Since the sustaining of a demurrer results in a denial of the pleader’s claim or a dismissal of his suit, a preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer should be sustained only in cases that clearly and without a doubt fail to state a claim for which relief may be granted. Schott v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 436 Pa. 279, 259 (1969); Botwinick v. Credit Exchange, Inc., 419 Pa. 65, 213 A.2d 349 (1965); Savitz v. Weinstein, supra; London v. Kingsley, 368 Pa. 109, 81 A.2d 870 (1951); Waldman v. Shoemaker, 367 Pa. 587, 80 A.2d 776 (1951). If the facts as pleaded state a claim for which relief may be granted under any theory of law then there is sufficient doubt to require the preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer to be rejected. Packler v. State Employment Retirement Board, 470 Pa. 368, 371, 368 A.2d 673, 675 (1977); see also Schott v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., supra, 436 Pa. at 291, 259 A.2d at 449.

See also Whitmer v. Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, 361 Pa.Super. 282, 522 A.2d 584 (1987); Brown v. Taylor, 90 Pa.Commw. 23, 494 A.2d 29 (1985) (quoting County of Allegheny). With these principles in mind, we review appellant’s claims.

Count one of the amended complaint is an action for wrongful discharge and counts two and three are grounded on alleged breach of contract claims. Accepting as true all well-pleaded material facts in the complaint as well as all Inferences reasonably deducible therefrom, we find appellant was first employed by appellee, Hoffman Homes for Youth, Inc. (“Hoffman Homes”), in 1973 as a social worker. She alleges her terms of employment consisted of oral representations made to her as well as the provisions of Hoffman Homes’ employee personnel handbook. Appellant avers her job performance was to be reviewed annually with written evaluations and that she was promised she would be retained as long as her job performance and her written evaluations were satisfactory.

In August 1981, appellant learned that two fellow employees had delivered by mail “illicit drugs” to a child who was residing at Hoffman Homes’ York County facility. The amended complaint (paragraphs 9,10, and 11) is not clear as to whether appellant notified Hoffman Homes’ management of this incident or whether management learned of the incident on its own, but appellant avers that upon learning the two employees were merely “reprimanded” for the incident, she took it upon herself to meet with appellee Gerald W. Hagmayer, executive director of Hoffman Homes at its Gettysburg premises, and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade him to terminate their employment. At that, meeting, appellant also notified Hagmayer of other drug “problems” she had perceived on Hoffman Homes’ campus. Appellant was dissatisfied with Hagmayer’s response and contacted the Hoffman Homes’ Board of Directors directly to alert them to the alleged “drug use and child abuse” she perceived as being allegedly “tolerated” by Hoffman Homes.

Appellant avers that in direct retaliation to her actions she was reprimanded and subjected to continual harassment by Hagmayer and other co-workers acting at Hagmayer’s behest. Further, appellant avers that in direct retaliation, Hagmayer notified her on February 1, 1982 that he would fire her unless she voluntarily resigned. Subsequently, appellant was given notice of termination on March 1, 1982, to be effective April 30, 1982. In addition to averring her termination was in retaliation to her prior actions concerning the alleged drug problems, appellant avers “Hagmayer maliciously terminated her from her job at [Hoffman Homes] in April, 1982 to prevent her pension benefits from vesting, as further punishment for her having appeared before the [Hoffman Homes] Board of Directors” (Amended Complaint at paragraph 20). At the time of termination, appellant was two months short of the service requirement of ten years for vesting of pension benefits. Although appellant eventually received a hearing and review of her termination by an outside hearing examiner, the Board of Directors voted to uphold her termination and refused to grant her pension benefits.¹

In her first count for wrongful discharge, appellant avers her discharge violated the Hoffman Homes’ personnel policies and the public policy of Pennsylvania, specifically citing the Child Protective Services Law, 11 P.S. § 2201 et seq., in paragraph 13.² On appeal, in addition to the Child Protective Services Law, appellant claims appellee’s actions violated public policy enunciated in various other federal and state laws regarding unlawful use of drugs (appellant’s brief at 14-15), however, no mention of these laws were made in the amended complaint. Appellant also claims that count one avers Hoffman Homes discharged her with specific intent to harm her.

As we recently stated in Reilly v. Stroehmann Brothers Company, 367 Pa.Super. 411, 532 A.2d 1212 (1987):

The well-settled rule in Pennsylvania is that: ‘[a]bsent a statutory or contractual provision to the contrary, the law has taken for granted the power of either party to terminate an employment relationship for any or no reason.’ Geary v. United States Steel Corporation, 456 Pa. 171, 175, 319 A.2d 174, 176 (1974); Betts v. Stroehmann Brothers, 355 Pa.Super. 195, 512 A.2d 1280 (1986); Banas v. Mathews International Corporation, 348 Pa.Super. 464, 502 A.2d 637 (1985). The at-will presumption, uniquely present in employment contracts, is that an employment agreement is presumptively terminable at will by either party; meaning, an employee may leave a job for any or no reason and an employer may discharge an employee for any or no cause. Greene v. Oliver Reality, Inc., 363 Pa.Super. 534, 526 A.2d 1192 (1987); Darlington v. General Electric, 350 Pa.Super. 183, 504 A.2d 306 (1986).

However, our courts have recognized a cause of action for wrongful discharge for at-will employees beginning with the seminal case of Geary, supra, in which the Supreme Court acknowledged that if the discharge was made with a specific intent to harm the employee or if the discharge was contrary to public policy an action will lie. Tourville v. Inter-Ocean Insurance Company, 353 Pa.Super. 53, 508 A.2d 1263 (1986), allocatur denied, 514 Pa. 619, 521 A.2d 933 (1986); see Darlington, supra.

We agree with the trial court that appellant’s amended complaint does not support a discharge violative of public policy. Because appellant did not include the federal and state laws regarding illegal drugs cited to in her brief in the amended complaint, we will not address their possible application, but we do recognize a public policy exists prohibiting activity involving illegal drugs and controlled substances. Appellant asserts in paragraph 13 that her actions of going to the Board of Directors were in accordance with her fulfilling her moral and professional duties as a social worker and in accordance with the legal duties imposed upon her by the Child Protective Services Law, supra. As did the plaintiff in Geary, appellant by-passed her immediate superiors and pressed her views to higher officials. We find the Supreme Court’s analysis in Geary to control here. “The praiseworthiness of [appellant’s] motives does not detract from [Hoffman Homes’] legitimate interest in preserving its normal operational procedures from disruption.” Geary, supra 456 Pa. at 183, 319 A.2d at 180. As in Geary, the amended complaint discloses a plausible and legitimate reason for appellant’s termination, i.e. the preservation of normal management operating procedures. Appellant was not dismissed for seeking the disclosure and punishment of the improper actions of co-workers, but with respect to public policy grounds was terminated for pursuing the matter outside normal management operating procedures. This alone cannot give rise to a non-statutory cause of action for wrongful discharge. By appellant’s averments the alleged harassment and retaliatory actions did not occur until after appellant went outside normal operating procedures leading us to conclude that no public policy mandate was violated because the complained of actions were not in response to appellant’s attempts of fulfilling her duty, but instead were a direct result of her method of reporting the co-workers activities and seeking what she deemed to be appropriate action regarding them.

Turning now to appellant’s claim that her termination was performed with specific intent to harm her, we disagree with the trial court’s conclusion that the amended complaint does not support a wrongful discharge action on that ground. Accepting, as we must all well-pleaded material facts in the complaint as true, we find the assertions set forth in paragraph 20, where appellant claims her termination was done in order to prevent her pension benefits from vesting, clearly avers a specific intent on the part of Hoffman Homes to harm appellant. Such an allegation meets both the “disinterested malevolence” and “ulterior purpose” criteria the Supreme Court in Geary intended as guidance. Tourville, supra 353 Pa.Super. at 56-58, 508 A.2d at 1265-6. Discharging an employee to prevent the vesting of pension benefits demonstrates a malicious desire to harm that will give rise to an action for wrongful discharge. Reviewing the sustaining of a demurrer does not require us to speculate or consider the merits of appellant’s claim and we do not do so at this time.

Appellant’s remaining claims concern the demurrer as to counts two and three for breach of contract. In both counts, appellant avers that the personnel policies embodied in Hoffman Homes’ employee personnel handbook constitute an employment agreement between the parties. Simply put, appellant claims appellees intended to be contractually bound by the terms and conditions of the handbook. In Reilly, supra 367 Pa.Super. at 415, 532 A.2d at 1214, we stated that in order for a handbook to be construed as a contract it “must contain unequivocal provisions that the employer intended to be bound by it, and, in fact renunciated the principle of at-will employment.” We find no such provisions in the instant handbook and find that appellant is an at-will employee.

Additionally, we find neither an express or implied “just cause” provision in the handbook as spoken of in Banas, supra 348 Pa.Super. at 483-84, 502 A.2d at 647-648. Our summary of the law in Reilly supra, 367 Pa.Superior Ct. at 417, 532 A.2d at 1215, is directly applicable in the present case:

In Richardson v. Charles Cole Memorial Hospital, 320 Pa.Super. 106, [108] 466 A.2d 1084, 1085 (1983), we held that an employer’s ‘unilateral act of publishing its policies’ in an employee handbook ‘did not amount to the “meeting of the minds” required for a contract’ when ‘[t]he terms of the handbook were not bargained for by the parties and any benefits conferred by it were mere gratuitous.’ See Muscarella v. Milton Shoe Manufacturing Company, Inc., 352 Pa.Super. 158, [162] 507 A.2d 430, 432 (1986) (‘[I]t is well established that failure to adhere to a company personnel policy does not create a cause of action for breach of an employment contract’); Darlington, supra (quoting Richardson with approval). In Martin v. Capital Cities Media, Inc., 354 Pa.Super. 199, [210-214] 511 A.2d 830, 836-38 (1986), we affirmed our holding in Richardson when concluding that a handbook should not be accorded contractual significance, stating that:

We believe that the holding in Richardson, supra, is more in keeping with the philosophy of the at-will presumption than is the line of cases finding contractual significance in handbooks. And, we might add, it is more in keeping with our analysis in Darlington, supra, wherein we cautioned against further burdening of the judicial process with expanding the bases for recovery in this field. Richardson held that handbooks are not contracts because they lack consideration. We need not analyze whether there is consideration here because we find that a reasonable employee in appellant’s position would not have understood that in distributing the handbook, the employer intended to be legally bound.

We also believe that cases which find contractual significance in handbooks have bypassed an important inquiry. Before we can decide whether there is a valid offer and acceptance with the distribution of a handbook, a threshold question must be asked: With the distribution of the handbook, does the at-will employee reasonably understand that the employer intended to alter the pre-existing at-will status?

In analyzing an employer’s publication and distribution of an employee handbook, we should not necessarily presume that the employer intended to alter the previous existing contractual relationship between the parties; nor should we assume that the employee believed that the handbook was a legally binding instrument____

... [I]n deciding whether the employer newspaper intended to recontract with all employees who received the handbook, we must ask whether the employment handbook evidences an intent that it became a legally binding contract that replaces the pre-existing at-will status. This is a question of interpretation and is therefore left to the court.

Reading the handbook provisions as a whole, we do not believe a reasonable person in appellant’s position would have interpreted it as converting appellant from an at-will employee to an employee with an indefinite contract who could never be dismissed without objective cause. Therefore, we affirm the sustaining of the demurrer as to the counts two and three of the amended complaint.

Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part and remand for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion. We affirm the trial court’s sustaining of a demurrer as to the amended complaint’s count one argument concerning a cause of action for wrongful discharge violative of public policy and reverse the sustaining of a demurrer as to the count one claim that the discharge was performed with specific intent to harm. Further, we affirm the granting of the demurrer as to counts two and three. In view of appellant’s earlier election not to file a second amended complaint, but electing to appeal, and considering that from the face of the complaint already once-amended, any further attempt to amend would be unavailing, we do not grant appellant an opportunity to further amend her amended complaint.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded for proceedings consistent with this Opinion.

Jurisdiction relinquished.

Concurring and Dissenting Opinion by CERCONE, J.

1 . The amended complaint does not state what recommendation the outside hearing examiner gave to the Board of Directors.

2 . Appellant’s reliance on the Child Protection law as justification of her actions cannot prevail. Her duty ended when she reported the suspected abuse to her employer. Section 2204(b) provides:

[A] member of the staff ... shall immediately notify the person in charge of such institution, school, facility or agency____ Upon notification, such person in charge or his designated agent, if any, shall assume the responsibility and have the legal obligation to report or cause a report to be made in accordance with section 6. (Emphasis added)