Pugh

Following retrial of his action for wrongful discharge, appellant, an at-will employee, again appeals from the judgment entered after the jury returned a general defense verdict for See’s and the union and after the court denied appellant’s motion for a new trial. In the first appeal, a judgment for defendants was reversed by this court in a published opinion, Pugh v. See’s Candies, Inc. (1981) 116 Cal.App.3d 311 [ 171 Cal.Rptr. 917 ] (hereafter Pugh I), holding that the trial court erroneously granted defendants’ motion for nonsuit.

Appellant now contends that the court committed prejudicial error in its evidentiary rulings and in instructing the jury in the second trial, in which he urged both contract and tort theories to support recovery for wrongful discharge. We find no reversible error and affirm the judgment.

I. The First Trial

Appellant, after 32 years of employment with See’s, occupied a managerial position as a corporate officer and member of the board of directors of the subsidiary corporation when he was summarily discharged without prior notice. (Pugh I, supra, 116 Cal.App.3d at pp. 315-319.) Asserting that his involuntary termination was a breach of…