Lytle v. Malady · 458 Mich. 153

explaining that written policy in employee handbook that “[n]o employee will be terminated without proper cause or reason and not until management has made a careful review of the facts” was insufficient to overcome express disclaimer that “[t]he contents of this booklet are not intended to establish . . . any contract between . . . [the employer] and any employee, or group of employees”

How later courts described this case

explaining that written policy in employee handbook that “[n]o employee will be terminated without proper cause or reason and not until management has made a careful review of the facts” was insufficient to overcome express disclaimer that “[t]he contents of this booklet are not intended to establish . . . any contract between . . . [the employer] and any employee, or group of employees”
holding “that provisions in a handbook will not create enforceable rights when the handbook expressly states that such provisions are not intended to create an employment contract” (citing Heurtebise v. Reliable Bus. Computers, 452 Mich. 405, 550 N.W.2d 243 (1996))
explaining that at the pretext stage, “mere disproof of an employer’s proffered [legitimate] reason [for the adverse action] is insufficient to survive summary [judgment], unless such disproof also raises a triable question of [unlawful] motive, not mere falsity”
explaining that Michigan’s four-part test is an “adaptation of the United States Supreme Court’s McDonnell Douglas test”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Brickley, J.

I concur with the majority to the extent that it dismisses plaintiff’s claims of age and sex discrimination. However, for the reasons set forth in my opinion in Lytle v Malady, 456 Mich 1, 67-68 ; 566 NW2d 582 (1997), I dissent from the majority’s rationale regarding plaintiff’s wrongful-termination claim. I would uphold summary disposition for the defendant because “plaintiff failed to raise a question of material fact that the defendant had just cause to terminate the plaintiff as part of its reduction in force.”