How Policies Can Defeat a Breach of Contract Claim
Employees often seek to use an employer’s handbook, code of conduct, or policies as the basis for a breach of contract claim, writes John J. Buckley in a blog on the site of Norris McLaughlin & Marcus.
He describes a recent case in which a company was sued after an employee discovered he had been the victim of identify theft. It was suspected that the compromise came after another employee gave away some of the de-commissioned company computers.
The plaintiff claimed that the company breached its contract to secure the personal information that he submitted in his job application. But the federal district court. The court found that no contractual promise was made in the company’s policies because those policies “existed for the purpose of protecting the company from harm,” not to benefit employees.