ed and uncontested that Saturn never expressly ratified Early’s alleged oral contract for lifetime employment. Rather, Early relies upon the fact that Saturn used his EA System software program as evidence that Saturn impliedly ratified the alleged oral contract by accepting its benefits.
For a corporation to ratify an alleged oral contract for lifetime employment, the terms of the contract must be definite. “Such contracts at least should be specific and definite, with little or no room for misunderstanding, even if they are not required to be in writing.” Balto. & Ohio R. Co. v. King, 168 Md. 142, 149, 176 A. 626 (1934) (citations omitted). See also Winand, 154 F.Supp. at 542-45.
In King, the Court of Appeals reversed, without a new trial, a jury award based on an alleged oral contract for life because the terms were too indefinite to be enforceable. The Court observed the following deficiencies:
If life employment was intended to be guaranteed, no specific task seems to have been contemplated for it, and no wages were mentioned or agreed upon. Tests of performance appear therefore to be lacking. The parties provided no means by which a court could determine their differences on either subject. While it is true that such informal conversation as that reported might naturally be lacking in specification, the fact does not provide an escape from the requirement of definiteness; it rather tends to indicate that no contract was in the contemplation of the parties.
King, 168 Md. at 148-49, 176 A. 626.
In its motion for summary judgment, Saturn argued, inter alia, that there was no evidence that Early entered into an oral contract for lifetime employment. The motion was supported by the affidavit of Yost. In his opposition to Saturn’s motion for summary judgment, Early included his affidavit which made the following statements:
• In anticipation of starting a new business, I created a series of new computer programs called the “EA System”. The EA System was created by me on my own