James v Royal Bank of Scotland; McKeith v Royal Bank of Scotland [2015] NSWSC 243

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: James v Royal Bank of Scotland; McKeith v Royal Bank of Scotland [2015] NSWSC 243 Hearing dates: 24 November 2014 to 10 December 2014 Date of orders: 19 March 2015 Decision date: 19 March 2015 Jurisdiction: Equity Division - Commercial List Before: McDougall J Decision: James v RBS: judgment to be for plaintiff for $2,932,692.31 plus interest; reserve costs. McKeith v RBS: judgment to be for defendants; reserve costs. Catchwords: CONTRACT - employment - termination - arising from takeover of employer by consortium - where employer's redundancy policy required making of severance payments and of giving good faith consideration to making of bonus payments - whether redundancy policy expressly incorporated into contract of employment - effect of contractual term stating that employee is bound by a policy containing bilateral obligations - whether redundancy policy alternatively incorporated into contract of employment by course of dealing

CONTRACT - deed of release - whether redundancy policy permitted requiring a deed of release as a precondition to making of severance or bonus payments - whether legitimate for deed of release to be unilateral and broad in its terms

CONTRACT - unilateral contracts - whether representations that redundancy policy would remain in place amounted to a contractual offer - where no clear and unequivocal mode of acceptance of such offer - where no evidence of reliance on offer in any event - whether representations that new chief executive officer would be selected through a fair appointment process based on merit amounted to a contractual offer - representations not promissory in nature - where not shown in any event that the appointment process lacked fairness or transparency