Business Law 16th Edition by Jane Mallor,James Barnes ,Arlen Langvardt,Jamie Darin Prenkert,Martin McCrory

تمرين 9

Jude Medical S.C., Inc., is a medical device manufacturer. In July 2001, Jennifer Schaadt began working as a product manager in St. Jude's Cardiac Rhythm Management Division. By all accounts, she performed well. Eventually, however, she became frustrated by what she regarded as sexual harassment and other sex discrimination within her division, so she applied for and obtained a position in St. Jude's U.S. Sales Division (USD). Schaadt began working in USD as a field marketing manager in May 2004. Shortly after she started her new position, upper management in USD asked Schaadt and all other field marketing managers to sign a written contract containing non-solicitation and confidentiality provisions. In return for agreeing to those provisions, the field marketing managers-who otherwise would have been employees at will-were to be given oneyear terms of employment. The contract required St. Jude to employ Schaadt for a minimum of one year and prohibited Schaadt from soliciting St. Jude's employees for one year after the termination of her employment with St. Jude. USD provided the agreement to Schaadt and asked her to sign it. Schaadt alleged in the litigation referred to below that she signed the agreement, but there was no proof that any representative of St. Jude signed it.
After Schaadt had conflicts with her supervisor in USD, she began looking for another job. Before Schaadt could obtain other employment, however, she was fired. The firing occurred less than one year from the time of the agreement referred to above. Schaadt sued St. Jude for breach of contract. St. Jude moved for summary judgment on the ground that Schaadt's breach of contract claim was barred by the statute of frauds. How did the court rule?