McIntosh v. Murphy
Supreme Court of Hawaii
469 P.2d 177 (1970)
On a Saturday, George Murphy (defendant) verbally offered Los Angeles resident Dick McIntosh (plaintiff) an assistant-manager job at a Honolulu car dealership, to begin the following Monday. McIntosh accepted, moved some of his belongings to Honolulu, and gave up other employment opportunities, but was fired about two and a half months later for supposedly being unable to close deals. McIntosh sued for breach of the oral employment contract and won a jury verdict of $12,103.40; Murphy appealed, arguing the statute of frauds barred enforcement of an oral contract that could not be performed within a year.
Whether an oral employment promise is enforceable, notwithstanding the statute of frauds, if the injured party seriously changes his position in reliance on the promise and failing to enforce the promise would result in unconscionable injury.