Appeal of court decision in wrongful dismissal case thrown out

An appeal of a wrongful dismissal lawsuit at Valley Volkswagen has been rejected.

Gary Wilfred Kerr had attempted to claim damages for wrongful dismissal at the car dealership, where he previously was employed as a parts manager. Valley Volkswagen denied Kerr’s version of events, saying that Kerr had given the dealership an ultimatum to raise his pay by $100 per week or he would quit. After waiting three weeks to see if he would change his mind – which he did not – management accepted his resignation.

However, Kerr later changed his mind and asked for his job back at Valley Volkswagen, but was denied.

Kerr appealed Valley Volkswagen’s decision through the initial court case heard in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court by Justice Gregory Warner, arguing that he was not bound by the ultimatum he had given his employer and that if his words amounted to a resignation, he was entitled to change his mind unless his employer had acted upon it to its detriment.

Warner ruled this was not the case and the lawsuit was dismissed. Kerr was also ordered to pay $2,000 in costs to his former employer.

Kerr filed an appeal to Warner’s decision with the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals, which was heard Dec. 1 in Halifax. His appeal was dismissed.

In his written decision, the appeal court judge, Justice Jamie Saunders, wrote, “After carefully considering the record and counsels’ submissions, I am satisfied that Justice Warner did not err in his application of the law to the evidence and the issues before him; or in his evaluation of credibility; or in his factual findings and inferences drawn from those facts. In short, there is nothing here which would warrant our intervention.”

He added that Kerr’s argument that he was not bound by the ultimatum that he had given his employer was not the case.

“Under the appellant’s view, an employee has the right to resile from a resignation up to the point that the employer relies upon that resignation to its detriment,” Saunders wrote.

“With respect, the appellant’s ment of the law is wrong.”

He added that an employee can only resile from a resignation that is not accepted by the employer.

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