Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Tennessee
can you sue on verbal contract
I am an auto technician. 3 months ago my father in law was requested to get me to meet with a shop owner. At the time I was making 23.00 an hour book rate (get paid for what I do). He made me a generous offer of 1000.00 dollars a week salary to be his shop foreman. He seemed very busy and I took the job.
My crew and I finished all the repairs and now business got slow for the winter. He came to me and said ''He could handle the shop now'' and demoted me to 16.00 dollars a book hour. I now have to find a job because that cant support my family at this time. I beleive he knew he would use my expertise to help him then take control.
Is there anytyhing I can do
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: can you sue on verbal contract
You can try to sue based on the oral contact, but it will be your word against his. It will be tough for you to prove your case. You could argue that you would never have given up a job paying $23/hour for one paying $16/hour, but he will argue you wanted the short term pay of $1000/week. I recommend that you start your own shop or find a new job -- that would be a better use of your resources than paying an attorney to litigate on your behalf.
Re: can you sue on verbal contract
It would be a tough case. One of the details that may be overlooked was what was the term of the contract? If there was no set term (length), Tennessee law says that it is a contract for no definite term and you default to employment at-will. This means that the other party would win because in at-will employment the terms, conditions and even status of your employment can be terminated at anytime and for any reason that is not illegal.
If you would like to talk to an attorney about your situation, I can be contacted at [email protected].
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