Horton v. Prepared Media Laboratory, Inc.

**What happened:** In Horton v. Prepared Media Laboratory, Inc., an employee claimed her company owed her severance benefits under a company policy. The employer argued they didn't have to pay because they had changed or cancelled the severance policy. The worker maintained she had already earned the right to those benefits through her continued employment before the policy was revoked. **What the court decided:** The court ruled in favor of the employee. It found that she had already earned her severance benefits under the original policy before the company revoked it. The court reversed an earlier decision that favored the employer and sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings. Essentially, the court said the company couldn't take away benefits the worker had already earned just by changing their policy later. **Why this matters for workers:** This decision protects employees from having earned benefits stripped away retroactively. If your employer has a severance policy and you've worked under that policy, you may have already "earned" those benefits even if the company later changes or cancels the policy. Companies cannot simply revoke policies to avoid paying benefits workers have already accrued through their service.