Opinion

Ex Parte McNaughton

  • 728 So. 2d 592
  • 1998 WL 544926
Court
Supreme Court of Alabama
Filed
Aug 28, 1998
Status
Published
Author
Lyons
On the bench
Almon, Cook, Lyons, See
Cited by
110 cases
Authority
More cited than 15.2%

The Alabama Supreme Court “has consistently held that an employer’s providing continued at-will employment is sufficient consideration to make an employee’s promise to his employer binding.”

How later courts described this case

  • The Alabama Supreme Court “has consistently held that an employer’s providing continued at-will employment is sufficient consideration to make an employee’s promise to his employer binding.”
  • under Alabama law, continued at-will employment sufficient consideration even when employer reserved right to amend arbitration agreement at any time

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

I write specially to state that I join in the main opinion without reservation. Upon reading Justice Almon moving dissent, I am compelled to observe that I can detect no sense of glee or smug satisfaction on the part of any member of the majority in the difficult task of applying the Federal Arbitration Act to cases pending in the courts of this state. I hasten to add that I do not read in the dissent any insinuation that the majority relishes the task of implementing the Federal Arbitration Act, but I wish to eliminate any doubt.

In his dissent, Justice Almon invokes the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution as he passionately protests what he sees as injury to fundamental rights resulting from the application of the Federal Arbitration Act. I am reminded of the spirit in which I wrote a concurring opinion in Ex parte Dan Tucker Auto Sales, Inc. , 718 So.2d 33 (Ala. 1998), where I expressed an apparently divergent view as to the availability of the Tenth Amendment in the context of federal power derived from the Commerce Clause (Art. I, § 8), further discussed what I see as mixed signals in this area from the Alabama Constitution of 1901, and offered what I consider to be a defensible role for the doctrine of unconscionability. I do not believe this case presents such facts as would be essential for a finding of unconscionability.

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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