## Facts

- Talladega College employed Linda Hill, Belinda G. Heglar, and Howard L. Rogers as teachers under one-year contracts running from August 1984 to August 1985.
- In May 1985, each teacher received a letter stating the teacher’s “services at the College shall no longer be required,” citing board policies and institutional changes.
- Talladega College paid each teacher the full compensation due under the one-year contract through August 1985.
- Institutional materials, including a faculty handbook, referenced AAUP “Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings,” which set hearing-type safeguards for dismissals of tenured faculty or term appointees whose appointment “has not expired.”
- The teachers sued Talladega College and its president for breach of contract and wrongful termination, alleging the AAUP procedures were part of their contracts and were triggered by the May letters.
- The trial court entered summary judgment for the defendants; the appeals were consolidated.

## Issues

1. Whether references in the faculty handbook and related materials incorporated AAUP dismissal procedures into the teachers’ one-year employment contracts.
2. Whether AAUP dismissal procedures apply when a college gives advance notice it will not continue employing a non-tenured teacher after a fixed term ends, while paying the teacher through the contract term.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Alabama affirmed summary judgment for Talladega College and its president.
- The court held the AAUP dismissal procedures were not contract terms enforceable by the teachers to challenge the college’s decision not to continue their employment after the one-year term.
- The court treated the May letters as notice of nonrenewal, not a mid-term dismissal, because the college paid the full amounts due under the contracts.
- Because the contracts were for a fixed one-year term and were fully performed by the college, the teachers’ breach-of-contract and wrongful-termination claims failed.

## Legal Principles

- AAUP-style “dismissal” procedures apply, if at all, to dismissal of tenured faculty or termination of a term appointment before the appointment expires; they do not automatically govern nonrenewal of a fixed-term contract.
- References to external policy statements in a faculty handbook do not create enforceable contractual procedures for renewal decisions absent clear incorporation and applicability to the employment action at issue.
- A decision not to renew a fixed-term employment contract, coupled with payment of all compensation due for the term, is not a breach of contract or wrongful termination merely because notice is given before the term ends.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that the college’s advance notice of nonrenewal did not trigger AAUP dismissal procedures and did not breach the teachers’ one-year contracts where the college paid the full contractual compensation through the end of the term; summary judgment for the defendants was affirmed.


Hill v. Talladega Coll., 502 So. 2d 735 (Ala. 1987)