Foreign Academic & Cultural Exchange Services, Inc., Appellant, v. Daniela Tripon, Respondent., 394 S.C. 197

Summary

The employer was in the business of hiring teachers from foreign countries and placing them with schools within the state pursuant to the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Program, 22 U.S.C.S. § 2451 et seq. The employee became a teacher for the employer and signed a contract, which provided that she would return to Romania after two years. Instead, the employee married in the United States and did not return as required. The court held that there were material questions of fact whether the employee breached the contract by not returning to her home country and accepting another job, whether the employer suffered any actual as opposed to liquidated damages, and whether the employee breached the duty of loyalty implied in every employment contract. Even though the trial court could not compel the employee to return to Romania, there was still an issue as to whether her refusal to leave constituted a breach of the contract. The liquidated damages clause for $ 36,000 constituted an...