Court rejects employee's claim of entitlement to severance pay, despite express written assurance in letter

In Klein v. HP Pelzer Auto Sys, Inc., the Plaintiff husband and wife sued to recover the one-year "minimum" severance pay promised them in a letter by the defendant at the time the defendant "radically restructured" its business.  The trial judge granted them each one year's salary (about $95,000.00) based on the explicit language of the letter written to them by the Defendant's President at the time of the restructuring.

The Court of Appeals' Republican judges overturned the trial judge's decision and held that the Defendant was not bound by this "gratuitous" offer because it did not create a binding contract.