Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing Exceptions (aka. "Implied-in-law" Contracts)
See also: Quasi-contractOnly eleven U.S. states have recognized a breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as an exception to at-will employment. These 11 states are:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- California
- Delaware
- Idaho
- Massachusetts
- Montana
- Nevada
- Utah
- Wyoming
This exception for a covenant of good faith and fair dealing represents the most significant departure from the traditional employment-at-will doctrine. Rather than narrowly prohibiting terminations based on public policy or an implied contract, this exception – at its broadest – reads a covenant of good faith and fair dealing into every employment relationship. It has been interpreted, by some courts, to mean either that employer personnel decisions are subject to a “just-cause” standard or that terminations made in bad faith or motivated by malice are prohibited.
Read more about this topic: At-will Employment
Famous quotes containing the words covenant, faith, fair, dealing and/or exceptions:
“Happy is the house that shelters a friend! It might well be built, like a festal bower or arch, to entertain him a single day. Happier, if he know the solemnity of that relation, and honor its law! He offers himself a candidate for that covenant comes up, like an Olympian, to the great games, where the first- born of the world are the competitors.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The sun set; but set not his hope:
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:
Fixed on the enormous galaxy,
Deeper and older seemed his eye:
And matched his sufferance sublime
The taciturnity of time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He only fair, and what he fair hath made;
All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade.”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“A second-class mind dealing with third-class material is hardly a necessity of life.”
—Harold Laski (1893–1950)
“Every declaration of love contains an unstated list of exceptions and demands.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)