Angelo Gianaculas Ernest Buck and James Gregg v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., a Corporation, AKA Twa, Defendants

761 F.2d 1391 119 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3246 , 104 Lab.Cas. P 55,585 , 1 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 938 Angelo GIANACULAS; Ernest Buck and James Gregg, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, INC., a corporation, aka TWA, et al., Defendants- Appellees. No. 84-1589. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Dec. 12, 1984. Decided May 24, 1985. Frank R. Ubhaus, Pitto, Ubhaus, Waite, & Fedeli, San Jose, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellants. Michael A. Katz, New York City, for defendants-appellees. On Appeal from a Judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before MERRILL, CANBY and NORRIS, Circuit Judges. MERRILL, Circuit Judge: 1 Angelo Gianaculus, James Gregg, and Ernest Buck, discharged employees of Trans World Airlines (TWA), appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291 from a grant of summary judgment in their suit against TWA for breach of contract and breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Appellants claim that as management employees they were protected by TWA's Management Policy and Procedure Manual (MP & P) from discharge without the opportunity to displace into certain other positions. 2 *…

Angelo Gianaculus, James Gregg, and Ernest Buck, discharged employees of Trans World Airlines (TWA), appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 from a grant of summary judgment in their suit against TWA for breach of contract and breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Appellants claim that as management employees they were protected by TWA’s Management Policy and Procedure Manual (MP & P) from discharge without the opportunity to displace into certain other positions.

I

TWA is an interstate and international air carrier with its executive offices in New York. Angelo Gianaculus was hired by TWA on April 17, 1956 at San Francisco. Ernest Buck was hired by TWA on March 2, 1967 at St. Louis, Missouri. James Gregg was hired by TWA on June 8, 1964 at Dayton, Ohio. Each appellant completed *1393 an employment application which set forth several conditions of employment. The fourth condition stated, “[i]f given employment, I hereby agree that such employment may be terminated by the company at any time without advance notice and without liability to me for wages or salary____” Other than the conditions stated in the employment application, there was no written employment…

dissenting:

I dissent because I cannot distinguish this case in any meaningful way from Cleary v. American Airlines, Inc., 111 Cal.App.3d 443 , 168 Cal.Rptr. 722 (1980). 1 The issue here is not whether TWA can reduce its workforce for economic reasons but whether it can effect that reduction without complying with its own established bumping policy.

In Cleary , the California Court of Appeal considered under what circumstances an at-will, long-term employee could recover on a theory of wrongful discharge. Id. at 446 , 168 Cal.Rptr. at 724 . The court held that although the plaintiff was an at-will employee, he stated a cause of action because of two alleged facts: (1) he was a long-term employee of eighteen years, and (2) the employer adopted a written regulation, which expressed the employer’s policy and procedure with respect to employee grievances and discharge. Id. at 447-48 , 168 Cal.Rptr. at 724 . The court concluded that longevity of employment, “together with the expressed policy of the employer, operate as a form of estoppel, precluding any discharge of such an employee by the employer without good cause.” Id. at 456 , 168 Cal.Rptr. at 729 (emphasis added).

I read…