Kiedrowski v. Citizens Bank’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 10 district · 10 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “handbook contains detailed disciplinary procedures which Bank managers must follow when disciplining employees. Depending on the severity of an employee’s performance problem, the handbook requires managers to respond with progressive discipline, in a gradually escalating fashion, first with an oral warning, then a written warning, written probation, suspension, and finally, termination. Plaintiff stated in her affidavit, based on her own management experience, that the Bank instructed their managers to follow the disciplinary procedures outlined in the handbook. Plaintiff herself, followed those same procedures when disciplining other employees, and the Bank applied those same procedures to Plaintiff in terms of a gradually escalating response to its alleged problems with her. Therefore, Plaintiff can reasonably maintain that she relied on more than just a custom or vague inferences of not terminating employees at will. The Bank’s systematic application of its termination policies could reasonably create an expectation in Plaintiff that the same would be done in her case. There is at least a genuine issue of material fact, for resolution by the jury, as to whether the Bank’s handbook, combined with the Bank’s actual practices and representations, created an expectation of “an implied-in-fact contract term limiting the employer’s right to terminate at will.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Clifton D. Baucom v. Amtech Systems Corporation, a Foreign Corporation · 762 F. Supp. 2d 1254 - Negrete v. Maloof Distributing L.L.C.

2. “an implied contract can still exist in spite of a [handbook] disclaimer, where the employer's conduct reasonably leads employees to believe that they will not be terminated without just cause and a fair procedure.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Clifton D. Baucom v. Amtech Systems Corporation, a Foreign Corporation · Miller v. Automobile Club of New Mexico, Inc.

3. “they must satisfy a certain threshold of objectivity. 27 Id. (citations omitted). Oral representations made by an employer may be sufficient to overcome the presumption of termination”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Clifton D. Baucom v. Amtech Systems Corporation, a Foreign Corporation · Ruegsegger v. WESTERN NM UNIVERSITY