Bernard

Plaintiff William Bernard (Bernard) had a longstanding insurance agency, representing the group of defendants State Farm insurance companies. He claims that two of his State Farm supervisors misrepresented the job requirements for a sales program to which he was assigned, requirements that he physically could not carry out following injuries sustained in a car collision. As a result, Bernard alleges that he was forced to resign.

Bernard sued State Farm and the two supervisors (collectively, State Farm) for intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of the contractual covenant of good faith and fair dealing, all directed to the supervisors’ misrepresentations that resulted in his constructive (forced) termination. 1 The trial court granted summary judgment for State Farm.

In the unpublished portion of this opinion, we conclude that the result of the alleged misrepresentations was indistinguishable from an ordinary constructive wrongful termination, thereby precluding a tort-based cause of action for misrepresentation. (Hunter v. Up-Right, Inc. (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1174 [ 26 Cal.Rptr.2d 8 , 864 P.2d 88 ] (Hunter); see also Lazar v. Superior Court…