Otero-Burgos v. Inter American University

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

This case requires us to decide whether Puerto Rico Law 80, which provides a severance pay remedy for an employee “contracted without a fixed term, who is discharged from his/her employment without just cause,” applies to a university professor who claims to have been terminated in violation of his tenure contract. Appellee Inter American University (“IAU” or “the University”), a private educational institution, argues that the tenure contract at issue here is a contract “with out a fixed term,” and is subject to Law 80 and its exclusive severance pay remedy. Appellants…