School Must Pay $429,000 for Taking Back Job Offer

A Montréal vocational college had second thoughts about hiring a former city official as director after newspaper reports came out linking her husband, who also worked for the city, to unsavory individuals. The college asked and received from the director reassurances that she never had any conflicts of interest while working for the city. But the school was still worried about its reputation and publicly announced its decision to withdraw her 5 year contract before she even started the job. The court ruled that the college didn’t have just cause to terminate the contract and awarded the director $429,000 for lost wages, benefits and damage to her reputation [Senécal c. Cégep du Vieux Montréal, 2012 QCCS 1995 (CanLII), May 11, 2012].