Duties of Employees
Directors and officers of U.S. corporations have duties and thus face potential liabilities to corporate employees and prospective employees in the context of hiring, firing, promoting, paying, and providing reasonable accommodations for them. Employment-related claims against directors and officers can take the form of lawsuits for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination of various forms, as well as possible violations of such U.S. statutory provisions such as: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a variety of Washington State statutory and regulatory provisions, found in Title 49 WRC, “Labor Regulations.”
Often, these liabilities are combined with contractual obligations owed directly by the corporation to its corporate employees. In many jurisdictions, contractual obligations don’t directly extend to corporate directors and officers. Rather, breach of contract claims will indirectly impact the liability of corporate directors and officers through such common law principles as wrongful interference with contractual relationships, breaches of fiduciary duty, intentional or negligent misrepresentations, common law frauds, and tortious inducements. The tort of “wrongful interference with economic relationship” is a recognized tort under Washington law, and applies when individual defendants, who can act as controlled persons within a company uses improper means that cause injury to the contractual relationship.[1]
[1] Pleas v. City of Seattle, 77 P.2d 1158 (1989).
Often, these liabilities are combined with contractual obligations owed directly by the corporation to its corporate employees. In many jurisdictions, contractual obligations don’t directly extend to corporate directors and officers. Rather, breach of contract claims will indirectly impact the liability of corporate directors and officers through such common law principles as wrongful interference with contractual relationships, breaches of fiduciary duty, intentional or negligent misrepresentations, common law frauds, and tortious inducements. The tort of “wrongful interference with economic relationship” is a recognized tort under Washington law, and applies when individual defendants, who can act as controlled persons within a company uses improper means that cause injury to the contractual relationship.[1]
[1] Pleas v. City of Seattle, 77 P.2d 1158 (1989).