Written Assignment
Cases

Rump Case
Hypothetical

The Rump Organization

The Rump Organization
(“Rump”), an SEC registrant, is a commercial real estate

company that purchases
and constructs commercial property. On the basis of the

corporate restructuring
plan, Rump’s CEO, Ronald Rump, and Rump’s board of directors approve a plan to
terminate 100 of the company’s employees.

The plan provides for
each terminated employee to receive a lump-sum cash payment equal to one
month’s salary only if the employee voluntarily signs a waiver of any right to
legal action against Rump. Consistent with Rump’s past practice, employees that
refuse to sign the litigation waiver will not receive any of the severance
benefits.

Consider the following
additional facts:

The corporate
restructuring plan identifies the number of employees to be terminated (i.e.,
100), the job classifications and locations of each employee to be terminated,
and the expected completion date of January 31, 2015.

The plan was approved
on December 27, 2014, by Rump’s board of directors and Rump’s CEO, Ronald Rump.

The plan allows
employees to leave Rump at any time, but no later than January 31, 2015. The
employees must sign the waiver no later than January 31, 2015.

On December 31, 2014,
each affected employee was e-mailed a summary of all the plan’s terms, which
included the amount of severance benefits the employee would receive upon
termination, subject to signing the litigation waiver by January 31, 2015. In
addition, Ronald Rump personally visited all 100 employees just to tell them,
“You’re fired!”

Rump believes it is
unlikely that significant changes will be made to the plan or that the plan
will be withdrawn before its execution.

Rump does not have a
general policy regarding severance payments made to employees terminated
without cause; however, it has in the past offered one-time severance benefits
to employees being terminated as a result of workforce reduction plans. The
amounts and terms of the past one-time severance benefits varied according to
the specific facts and circumstances at the time of the

terminations and were
limited to a specified termination event or specified future period.

Required:

1) As
the attorney representing the 100 plaintiff employees, give the presiding judge
three reasons why the company should be held liable for wrongful termination.

2) As
the attorney representing the company, give the presiding judge three reasons
why the company should not be held liable for wrongful termination.

3) After
you have discussed the arguments for both sides, discuss the position you
believed was easier for you to argue, and why.

Specifications: APA
paper, double spaced, 12 font, 1 inch margin (top, bottom, left and right), and
at least three (3) sources.