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Baylor University v. Sonnichsen

The statute of frauds bars a fraud claim for benefit-of-the-bargain damages when the claim arises from a contract that has been held to be unenforceable. Texas Supreme Court, 04-0851

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Baylor University hired Tom Sonnichsen as its women’s volleyball coach in 1989. At that time, Baylor did not have written contracts with Sonnichsen or most of its coaches. At a May 29, 1995 meeting, Baylor administrators informed its coaching staff, including Sonnichsen, that Baylor planned to provide written contracts to the coaches. The subsequent employment dispute between Baylor and Sonnichsen is the subject of this case.

Sonnichsen pleads that in late May 1995, Baylor’s general counsel announced that Baylor would enter into two-year written contracts with its head coaches and one-year written contracts with the assistant coaches beginning with the 1995-1996 fiscal year. The general counsel’s office prepared a one-year written contract for Sonnichsen for the 1995-1996 year but never delivered the contract to Sonnichsen. On December 29, 1995, Baylor advised Sonnichsen by letter that he would not be given a contract for the 1996-1997 year, but that he would be paid in full through May 31, 1996.

Sonnichsen sued Baylor in December 1997 for breach of contract and fraud. He alleged that by terminating him in 1996, Baylor breached an oral promise to enter a two-year written employment contract with him for the years 1995-1997 and committed fraud by representing that it would issue a two-year written contract to him. Baylor filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that the statute of frauds barred Sonnichsen’s claims. Sonnichsen raised the counter-defense of promissory estoppel. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Baylor, and Sonnichsen appealed.

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