Cisco v. United Parcel Services, Inc.

• Decision Date: 11 May 1984
• Citation: 476 A.2d 1340,328 Pa.Super. 300
• Parties: , 116 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2514 Joseph CISCO, Appellant, v. UNITED PARCEL SERVICES, INC.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 1340

476 A.2d 1340

328 Pa.Super. 300, 116 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2514

Joseph CISCO, Appellant, v. UNITED PARCEL SERVICES, INC.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Nov. 21, 1983.

Filed May 11, 1984.

Joseph A. Malley, III, Media, for appellant.

Philip J. Katauskas, Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before MONTEMURO, WATKINS and CERCONE, JJ.

CERCONE, Judge:

This appeal is taken from an order sustaining preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer to appellant Joseph Cisco's complaint in trespass. The trial court held that the criminal charges which were filed against Cisco provided his employer, United Parcel Service, appellee herein, with a plausible and legitimate reason for terminating his employment, and that no public policy was violated thereby. It, therefore, found that no cause of action was possible and dismissed the complaint. We affirm.

The averments of the complaint disclose that appellant, Joseph Cisco, was employed by United Parcel Service, hereinafter U.P.S., from October of 1973 until May of 1980. On a particular day in May, Cisco made a routine delivery of parcels to the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Chaplan. As a result of that delivery, appellant argues that malicious and unfounded charges of theft and trespass were brought against him, from which he was subsequently acquitted by a jury. However, prior to acquittal and while the charges were pending, representatives of U.P.S. questioned him continually about them and informed him that if he did not resign, that he would be terminated. Cisco then resigned in June 1980. After his acquittal, Cisco made repeated unsuccessful requests to be reinstated. He then filed this action in trespass and requested lost wages in the amount of Twenty-five Thousand Dollars and damages for emotional trauma, and, in the alternative, reinstatement to his former position.

These facts and all reasonable inferences therefrom have been admitted by appellee's demurrer. Gekas v. Shapp, 469 Pa. 1, 5, 364 A.2d 691, 693 (1976); Buchanan v. Brentwood Federal Savings and Loan Association, 457 Pa. 135, 139, 320 A.2d 117, 120 (1974). In determining whether a complaint is sufficient to state a cause of action, we are guided by the rule that a demurrer may be sustained only in clear cases, and all doubts must be resolved in favor of the sufficiency of the complaint. Martin v. Little, Brown and Co., 304 Pa.Super. 424, 428-9, 450 A.2d 984, 987 (1981).

Appellant was an at-will employee of U.P.S. "In general, there is no non-statutory cause of action for an employer's termination of an at-will employment relationship." Reuther v. Fowler and Williams, Inc., 255 Pa.Super. 28, 31, 386 A.2d 119, 120 (1978). However, with the case of Geary v. U.S. Steel Corp., 456 Pa. 171, 319 A.2d 174 (1974), our Supreme Court established the principle that an employee at-will may have a cause of action against the employer for wrongful discharge when the discharge threatens public policy. ¹ In Geary, the Court held that where the complaint itself discloses a plausible and legitimate reason for terminating an at-will employment relationship and no clear mandate of public policy is violated thereby, an employee at-will has no right of action against his employer for wrongful discharge. While in that case the employee's actions in vigorously expressing his reservations about a certain product of his employer were termed "praiseworthy" by the Court, it inferred that he had become a nuisance which disrupted his employer's normal operational procedures. Therefore, the Court affirmed the order of the trial court sustaining U.S. Steel's demurrer. The Court did add:

It may be granted that there are areas of an employee's life in which his employer has no legitimate interest. An intrusion into one of these areas by virtue of the employer's power of discharge might plausibly give rise to a cause of action, particularly where some recognized facet of public policy is threatened. The motion that substantive due process elevates an employer's privilege of hiring and discharging his employees to an absolute constitutional right has long since been discredited. (footnote omitted) Geary at 184, 319 A.2d at 180.

These words have been the authority for the public policy exception to at-will employment relationships in Geary's progeny.

In Reuther v. Fowler and Williams, Inc., supra, we reversed the trial court's grant of a non-suit in an action in trespass by a former employee against his employer for having terminated him for serving on jury duty. The trial court held that the employee did indeed have a cause of action, but granted the non-suit on the ground that appellant's evidence disclosed that his employer fired him, not because of the jury duty, but because he had been discourteous and inconsiderate in failing to notify his employer that he would definitely be away from his post for one week. We reversed because a jury could have drawn two contradictory inferences from appellant's testimony: one, that the employer was so inconvenienced by the employee's inconsiderate behavior that discharge was appropriate; or two, that the employer was irked by the employee's declining to be excused from jury duty that he fired him. Under the first inference, the employee would probably not recover damages; but, the second inference, because it impinged on the important public policy of promoting the citizen's responsibility to serve on juries, could have resulted in recovery for the employee. Thus, the exception of Geary was evident.

In Hunter v. Port Authority of Allegheny County, 277 Pa.Super. 4, 419 A.2d 631 (1980), the appeal was from the trial court's order dismissing an employee's complaint for failure to state a cause of action, as in the instant case. Hunter had been convicted of assault arising from a domestic dispute thirteen years prior to his application for employment as a bus driver with a public employer. He had been unconditionally pardoned by the governor prior to his application. Hunter argued that Article I, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution guaranteed him the right to be fairly considered for public employment. We agreed, distinguishing Geary because that case did not involve constitutional rights, a public employer, or a claim involving a refusal to hire a job applicant. In addition, we found a deeply ingrained public policy of the State to avoid unwarranted stigmatization of former offenders. Thus, because a cause of action was possible in Hunter, we reversed, finding that the trial court improperly sustained the employer's demurrer by considering facts not averred in the complaint. We took exception to the Court's conclusion that an assault conviction supports a refusal to hire because a bus driver is constantly dealing with the public under stressful situations. We found it was important for the trial court to know why Hunter was pardoned in order to connect the assault with the prospective employment. ²

"We hold ... that when a public employer denies employment to an individual because of his criminal record, the employer's denial of employment must be reasonably related to the furtherance of a legitimate public objective." Id. at 17, 419 A.2d at 638.

Because the employer's reasonableness was not apparent on the face of the complaint, its demurrer was erroneously sustained.

Then, in Yaindl v. Ingersoll-Rand Co. Standard Pump Aldrich Division, 281 Pa.Super. 560, 422 A.2d 611 (1980), we observed that "the precise extent to which the employer's interest in running his business is limited by considerations of public policy cannot be stated but must be worked out on a case-by-case basis," Id. at 572, 422 A.2d at 617. The trial court granted summary judgment to both counts in trespass, wrongful discharge and interference with prospective employment. Our court affirmed the dismissal of the...