In Hall v. UBS, the South Carolina Supreme Court recently issued definitive answers on three certified questions in the employment law context. The opinion clarifies the following S.C. employment law issues:

1. At-will employment in South Carolina is contractual in nature.
   1. The implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing (“covenant”) exists in at-will employment contracts in South Carolina, as it does in other contracts.
2. A former employee does not have a claim for breach of the covenant against her former employer based on termination of an at-will employment agreement.
3. A former at-will employee may have a claim against a third party for intentional interference with contractual relations.

The Hall lawsuit was filed after alleged actions during a work happy hour and an eventual termination of an at-will employee. During the federal lawsuit and with the district court’s permission, the parties asked the S.C. Supreme Court to answer three questions related to at-will employment.

At-will employment relationships are contractual

The Court first clarified that in South Carolina, an at-will employment relationship—whether there is a formal written agreement or no written agreement at all—can be a contract between the employer and employee. The Court also decided that because “there exists in every contract an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” the covenant also “exists in at-will employment contracts,” overruling prior precedent.

No claim for breach of the...

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