At-will employment is a contract in state, South Carolina Supreme Court says

The South Carolina Supreme Court recently responded to three questions about the state’s at-will employment doctrine (i.e., an employee can be fired at any time for any legal reason or no reason at all). Employees’ attorneys will like the answers.

3 questions

A federal court can certify questions to a state court when a state law issue hasn’t been decided. So, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina sent the following three sets of questions to the state supreme court:

• Are terminable-at-will employment relationships contractual in nature as a matter of law?
• Does the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing arise in the context of terminable-at-will employment relationships, and can an employer's discharge of an at-will employee constitute a breach of the relationship allowing the individual to file suit?
• Suppose an employer fires an at-will employee after receiving a report from a coworker. Does the breach of the relationship give rise to a claim by the former employee against the coworker for tortious (wrongful) interference with a contractual relationship?

3 answers

In response, the court discussed the background for each case and provided a detailed analysis and development of (1) at-will employment in answer to the first question, (2) the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in contracts in answer to the second question, and (3) third-party tortious interference with a contractual relationship in answer to the third question.