Pine River State Bank v. Mettill

333 N.W.2d 622 (1983)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Bank (P) offered Mettille (D) a job and D accepted and started work as a loan officer. This job was given under an oral at-will contract. After six months of employment, P distributed an employee handbook that contained sections on job security and disciplinary policy. The Bank President, who wrote the book, testified that he never intended the book to become part of an employee’s contract with the bank. Eventually in 1979, after an extensive audit of P's portfolio files, P discovered that there were serious technical problems with more than 60% of the loans that D was responsible for. All but one of these were discovered to have been made by D. D was fired. The disciplinary procedures outlined in the handbook were not followed, nor was the handbook even mentioned. D was given two months severance pay. D disputed the seriousness of the problems and noted that all were corrected within a month after his firing. D then defaulted on some personal notes due P and P sued. D countersued for breach of his employment contract. D prevailed, and after deducting what was owed to P, D was awarded $24,141.07. P appealed.