Inspired by an odd dream: In a state such as PA which is an “at will” state, what would be the legal aspects of this scenario:
Say I were gainfully employed. A different company offered me a job (with a formal written offer.) I quit my job and on the day I showed up, the new company told me that they were no longer interested.
Now, in PA, we can let people go “at will” and a person may leave “at will.”
But in this case, I would have given up a good job based on their promise of employment. Would they have any liability?
OK, this seems unlikely and I have weird dreams, but it did make me wonder.
Not enough facts given to tell. Most important: the terms of the offer, any discussions you have had about the job with the company before the day you are supposed to show up, and the reason that they decide not to actually employ you. 
I suspect this situation would end up in court. Having just had the experience of sitting on a jury where there was an employment dispute involved, I can attest that anything can happen despite the existence of agreements once it is in the hands of a jury with widely varying degrees of experience.
It does happen and does result in lawsuits. The term that is used for these cases is promissory estoppel. As far as I know, “at will” doesn’t come into it much. It’s more about demonstrating that the employee relied in good faith on a job offer to his detriment, resulting in actual damages. An employer luring an employee away “to his doom” like that [presumably due to some unforeseen business downturn] would probably approach the situation by offering some severance in exchange for a promise not to sue. The actual results of such a lawsuit would depend on the specific facts and jurisdiction.
As usual, Harriet the Spry has it. Some jurisdictions permit plaintiffs to recover under a theory called promissory estoppel, others don’t:
http://academic.udayton.edu/caseslawecon/Contracts/leonardi%20v%20hollywood.pdf (reviewing cases going both ways)
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=ne&vol=sc/4-19990129&invol=1 (ditto)
http://labor-employment-law.lawyers.com/Promises-and-Rescinded-Job-Offers.html (lawyer says same thing)
Let me also point out that every state in the US is an “at-will” state, with a couple of minor exceptions: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/01/art1full.pdf (Montana and Arizona law is a bit different)
Thanks for indulging me guys! If I posted all the odd questions that come up in my dreams you all would get (even) more bored with me…
I actually had that happen to me not once but TWICE.
One time the company offered me the job and then two days later said the guy who was quitting took his resignation back.
The other time the company said they were going to send the job to corporate in another state.
I asked a friend about it, and he was a lawyer, basically the general rule would be you would have to prove damage done by the offer.
In my case I was already unemployed so not getting a job in either case did not put me any worse off than if I had never gotten the offer.
If you quit your job and couldn’t get it back or moved, you might be able to get the actual or estimated cost. Also you’d have to prove minimized damages to collect. For instance, if you quit and the company recinded the offer you’d have to prove you asked for your old job back and they wouldn’t give it to you. And you’d also have to prove that you looked for another job as soon as the offer was recinded
I recall when I worked for Starwood, we had a whole mess of people give notice before 9/11 and then everyone of them had their job offer recinded by the end of the week and we didn’t take any of them back 'cause the company was trying to cut positions anyway.
I’ve had sort of the reverse of this happen to me. I was off sick and decided to investigate an offer from another company. I took 2 days to see what it was all about. In the meantime, my former employer caught wind of where I was and wouldn’t let me return when I decided that it wasn’t for me. The difference, I guess, is that i was an agreement employee and I thought I was protected in a sense. It went to a formal investigation and the result was that I was dismissed. I’m currently appealing that through the union I belong to. I don’t expect to win the appeal, but eventually it’ll go to a third party arbitrator where I hope I have a fair shot.
When they wouldn’t let me return I had no choice but to accept the new job.
I have been told (but I have no idea if this is true) that this is the reason that offer letters always state a monthly, not a yearly, salary–that if they have to back out, it limits their liability.