Boyle v. Petrie Stores Corp

In Boyle v. Petrie Stores Corp., 136 Misc 2d 380 (Sup. Ct. NY County 1985) the court had to determine whether the plaintiff had been fired "for cause" within the meaning of the contract. If there was no cause, the plaintiff was entitled to damages. The court there determined that the omissions, mistakes and irregularities at issue did not constitute dishonesty, one of the permitted causes of termination. (Id. at 388.) In Boyle the court found that the plaintiff, who improperly charged personal expenses to his business account and was fired before he had the opportunity to reimburse the company, was not dishonest largely because "there was no blatant attempt at . . . concealment by Mr. Boyle, there was no submission of nonexistent items, there was no misrepresentation or concealment." (Id. at 389.)