Re:Non-Compete Can Be Imposed Mid-Employment with No New Con...
by Lawtonfogle on Monday August 17, 2015 @03:38PM
(#10075543)
At will means you aren't owed the job you currently have. You are owed pay for all work currently done, but you aren't owed being employed tomorrow.
Say I have a contract with you so that every week I give you 50 and you paint my chicken coup (I want it to be a different color every week to confuse the chickens). Now one day, you say you will terminate my contract unless I pay 55 instead.
Is this you getting 5 for nothing (this is the delta between the old contract and the purposed one) or is it you getting 55 and I getting a painted coup? Well, as long as the contract allowed you or I to end the arrangement at any time, I'd say it was the latter.
There is a doctrine called the preexisting duty rule that says that something already owed doesn't count as consideration. If you owe me 50 bucks, and you make me sign a paper that says if you pay me back the 50 bucks I'll paint your chicken coup, that isn't a contract. You already owe me the 50 bucks. It's a way to stop people from changing a deal halfway through. <insert VaderAtCloudCity.JPEG>
The issue here isn't whether the company can terminate you for refusing to sign. They can. But if you sign it, does it become a legal contract?
One side argues no, because your consideration is keeping the same job you already had. The other side says at will employment can be terminated at any time and keeping your job isn't a duty the employer already had. This court went with the later.