I have a question about my husband. He's in management and accepted a written offer of employment from a large F500 company in Denver in early/mid-December for a start date of Feb 1. He is currently employed at another company. He put in his resignation two weeks ago Friday as we were leaving on vacation and by the time he was back, he wouldn't have two weeks to submit, so as a courtesy to his employer, he had verbally given 3 weeks (he never submitted the resignation in writing, although I doubt that's material). On Tues. of this week (5 weeks after his acceptance), a week and a half after he resigned, he was informed that the offer was rescinded b/c the company didn't have the budget for his position after all. For a variety of reasons, his current position is no longer available to him. I do know that Colorado is an at-will state, but now he is unemployed and all the other company said was, well we were hoping you hadn't submitted your resignation yet.

I have two questions - in other states, people have successfully made 'detrimental reliance' claims on these types of employment cases, suing for lost wages because they relied on their written letter, made actions on it, and now don't have a position. By the way - the offer letter had no at-will safeguard in it which in other states can be then construed as an implied contract but I don't know if that's the case in Colorado. Does anyone know if we can make this claim if we choose to pursue it?

Secondly, would he qualify for unemployment benefits as a result of this?

Only an attorney in your state who has reviewed all the relevant documentation can tell you if you have a detrimental reliance claim. To the best of my knowledge, no Colorado attorneys follow these boards.

As far as unemployment goes, he can certainly apply. I can't tell you what the state will decide since he did quit, but I do know there is no penalty for applying if you don't qualify, and you certainly won't receive benefits if you don't.