Evening News Association v. Peterson
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
477 F. Supp. 77 (D.D.C. 1979)
Gordon Peterson (defendant) anchored the news at WDVM-TV (Channel 9) under a personal-services contract with the station's original owner, Post-Newsweek, which contained no clause about assignment but did have a merger clause. Post-Newsweek sold Channel 9 to Evening News Association (plaintiff) while Peterson was still under contract, and Peterson then resigned. Evening News sued for a declaration that the contract was assignable without Peterson's consent; Peterson argued it was an unassignable personal-services contract.
Whether a contract right to receive an employee's personal services is assignable to a new employer when it is the employer's duty to pay -- not the employee's duty to perform -- that would be transferred by the assignment.