Mayer

I. Introduction

This appeal arises out of plaintiff Scott R. Mayer’s wrongful termination by defendant Multistate Legal Studies, Inc. Plaintiff contends that the trial court awarded inadequate damages. We agree and reverse for further proceedings. Specifically, we conclude that the trial court incorrectly ruled that plaintiff was precluded as a matter of law from recovering any contract damages for the period during which he received disability benefits. We further conclude in the unpublished portion of this decision that plaintiff may recover as part of his breach of contract damages the present value of any pension benefits to which he would be entitled under his contract notwithstanding the preemption provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ( 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.) (hereafter ERISA).

II. Factual and Procedural Background

In August of 1990, defendant, the third largest bar review company in California, hired plaintiff away from BarPassers, a major competitor, to be its regional sales manager in Northern California. Although plaintiff never passed the California Bar Examination despite numerous tries, he was a successful sales manager for…