Firestone Textile Co. Div., Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. v. Meadows

• Decision Date: 23 November 1983
• Citation: 666 S.W.2d 730
• Parties: 114 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3559, 103 Lab.Cas. P 55,540, 1 IER Cases 1800 FIRESTONE TEXTILE COMPANY DIVISION, FIRESTONE TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY, Appellant, v. Tom MEADOWS, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 730

666 S.W.2d 730

114 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3559, 103 Lab.Cas. P 55,540,

1 IER Cases 1800

FIRESTONE TEXTILE COMPANY DIVISION, FIRESTONE TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY, Appellant, v. Tom MEADOWS, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

Nov. 23, 1983.

Rehearing Denied April 19, 1984.

Wells T. Lovett, Mark R. Hutchinson, Lovett, Lamar & Hutchinson, Owensboro, for appellant.

Joseph R. Huddleston, Huddleston Brothers & Duncan, Bowling Green, for appellee.

Edward Katze, William K. Principe, Constangy, Brooks & Smith, Atlanta, Ga., Tommy Chandler, Providence, for amicus curiae, Pyro Mining Co.

LEIBSON, Justice.

Tom Meadows was employed as a maintenance specialist at Firestone Textile Company in Bowling Green, Ky. He suffered a back injury and was off work for a substantial period of time. Thereafter, according to his testimony, he was first assigned light duty, then assigned duties beyond his capacity, and then terminated for seeking workers' compensation benefits.

Meadows seeks damages alleging he was wrongfully discharged. The trial court held that if he was discharged in retaliation for seeking workers' compensation benefits the discharge was wrongful, and submitted the question of the truthfulness of the allegation to a jury. The jury found for Meadows and assessed damages. The Court of Appeals affirmed. We granted discretionary review and now affirm both the judgment in the trial court and the decision of the Court of Appeals.

The issue is does a complaint seeking damages for wrongful discharge because an employee was terminated for pursuing a claim under KRS Chapter 342 for workers' compensation state a cause of action?

Meadows concedes that ordinarily an employer may discharge his at-will employee for good cause, for no cause, or for a cause that some might view as morally indefensible. Production Oil Co. v. Johnson, Ky., 313 S.W.2d 411 (1958); Scroghan v. Kraftco Corp., Ky.App., 551 S.W.2d 811 (1977). But the question before us is not whether the "terminable at-will" doctrine should be discarded. It is much narrower: (1) should there be any exceptions, and, (2) if so, is the Workers' Compensation Act grounds for recognizing such an exception?

Brockmeyer v. Dun & Bradstreet, 335 N.W.2d 834, 835 (Wis.1983), is an excellent treatise on the first question, whether to permit "any judicial exceptions to the employment at-will doctrine." The Wisconsin Supreme Court concludes "that in the interests of employees, employers and the public, a narrow public policy exception should be adopted," and then adopts the following rule:

"(A)n employee has a cause of action for wrongful discharge when the discharge is contrary to a fundamental and well-defined public policy as evidenced by existing law.... The public policy must be evidenced by a constitutional or statutory provision. An employee cannot be fired for refusing to violate the constitution or a statute. Employers will be held liable for those terminations that effectuate an unlawful end." 335 N.W.2d at 840.

We have already recognized a cause of action for wrongful discharge based on public policy implicit in an act of the legislature. Pari-Mutuel Clerks' Union v. Ky. Jockey Club, Ky., 551 S.W.2d 801 (1977). In that case an at-will employee alleged he was discharged because he authorized a labor union to represent him for purposes of collective bargaining. The employee rested his claim for wrongful discharge on KRS 336.130(1), which provides in pertinent part that "Employees may, free from restraint or coercion by the employers or their agents, associate collectively for self-organization and designate collectively representatives of their own choosing to negotiate" for them.

KRS 336.130, the collective bargaining statute, neither refers specifically to wrongful discharge nor provides a private remedy. Nevertheless, we held that the employee was entitled to assert a claim for wrongful discharge and recover whatever damages he sustained.

"The complaint herein, ... adequately raises the issue of whether the termination of Wilson's employment was in violation of KRS 336.130, which, if proved before the trial court, entitles Wilson under KRS 446.070 to recover from his former employer whatever damages he has sustained by reason of the violation." 551 S.W.2d at 803.

KRS 446.070 provides that "A person injured by the violation of any statute may recover from the offender such damages as he sustained by reason of the violation."

Is termination for pursuing a claim under the Workers' Compensation Act a violation of that Act in the same sense that termination for pursuing collective bargaining rights was considered a violation of the collective bargaining statute? The Kentucky Court of Appeals thought so. In its opinion in this case it held:

"The Workers' Compensation Act has no provisions specifically restricting an employer from discharging an employee for the latter's exercise of his rights thereunder. Nevertheless, it does plainly exhibit a policy that employees should be free to accept or reject coverage without coercion by their employers, KRS 342.395, and that they should not be deceived into foregoing lawful claims for benefits or into accepting less than is due them. KRS 342.335."

Implicit in these sections, and in the Act as a whole, is a public policy that an employee has a right to be free to assert a lawful claim for benefits without suffering retaliatory discharge. Speaking through Judge Wilhoit, the Court of Appeals states:

"If it were otherwise, the beneficent purposes of the Act could often be effectively frustrated by merely threatening employees with discharge. A statute need not expressly state what is necessarily implied. National Surety Co. v. Commonwealth ex rel. Coleman, 253 Ky. 607, 69 S.W.2d 1007 (1934)."

KRS Chapter 446 covers "Construction of Statutes." KRS 446.080(1) provides that:

"All statutes of this state shall be liberally construed with a view to promote their objects and carry out the intent of the legislature, and the rule that statutes in derogation of the common law are to be strictly construed shall not apply to the statutes of this state."

The mandate of KRS 446.080 is particularly applicable to the Workers' Compensation Act which is often cited as an act to be liberally construed to effect its remedial purpose. All presumptions will be indulged in favor of those for whose protection the enactment was made. See cases cited in Kentucky Digest, Vol. 19B, Workmen's Compensation, Secs. 51-52.

We do not abandon the "terminable at-will" doctrine. We adhere to the policy of the law as stated by the Kentucky Court of Appeals in Scroghan v. Kraftco Corp., supra. Scroghan claimed he was wrongfully discharged because he "announced his intention to attend law school at night." The court held there was no cause of action; that protection of the employee should not extend beyond "constitutionally protected activity" or "public policy" as established by "legislative determination." Scroghan, supra at 812. But the legislature need not expressly create a private remedy before the courts can recognize public policy as established by legislative determination.

The common law is not a stagnant pool but a "mighty" stream. City of Louisville v. Chapman, Ky., 413 S.W.2d 74, 77 (1967). We should provide a remedy where the wrong and the damages are clearly defined and commonly recognized. To paraphrase Mr. Justice Holmes, "the law embodies beliefs that have triumphed in the battle of ideas;" when the battle of ideas is over, "the time for law" has come. Holmes, Law and the Court, in Collected Legal Papers, 294-95 (1920).

To quote Mr. Justice Brandeis:

"The unwritten law possesses capacity for growth; and has often satisfied new demands for justice by invoking analogies or by expanding a rule or principle." International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215, 262, 39 S.Ct. 68, 80, 63 L.Ed. 211 (1918).

The question remains whether the cause of action for wrongful discharge should be maintained in tort or contract or both. The cause of action is inconsistent with the law of contracts where duties are established by the terms of the contract, but perfectly consistent with the law of torts. It is but another facet of compensation for outrageous conduct as described in Restatement (Second) of Torts, Sec. 46...