Opinion

Gates v. Life of Montana Insurance

  • 196 Mont. 178
  • 638 P.2d 1063
  • 118 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2071
  • 1982 Mont. LEXIS 694
Court
Montana Supreme Court
Filed
Jan 5, 1982
Status
Published
Author
Weber
On the bench
Daly, Haswell, Morrison, Sheehy, Weber
Cited by
78 cases

holding that the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing applied to employment contracts

How later courts described this case

  • holding that the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing applied to employment contracts
  • “an employer needs flexibility in the face of changing circumstances” (internal quotation marks omitted)
  • employee handbook distributed after the employee commenced employment did not become contractually binding

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

JUSTICE WEBER

specially concurs:

I concur with the holding of the foregoing majority opinion in all respects. In addition, I would point out that in the course of further proceedings the employee handbook would be properly admissible as evidence to be considered in determining whether the respondent had breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing owing to the appellant.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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