Gastineau v. Murphy, 24800.

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina
• Citation: 331 S.C. 565,503 S.E.2d 712
• Docket Number: No. 24800.,24800.
• Parties: James E. GASTINEAU, Respondent, v. Leigh MURPHY, Individually, and as Executive Director of the Beaufort County Mental Retardation Board, the Beaufort County Mental Retardation Board, Beaufort County Council, the State Department of Mental Retardation, Defendants, Of whom the Beaufort County Mental Retardation Board is Petitioner.
• Decision Date: 08 June 1998

331 S.C. 565
503 S.E.2d 712

James E. GASTINEAU, Respondent,
v.
Leigh MURPHY, Individually, and as Executive Director of the Beaufort County Mental Retardation Board, the Beaufort County Mental Retardation Board, Beaufort County Council, the State Department of Mental Retardation, Defendants, Of whom the Beaufort County Mental Retardation Board is Petitioner

No. 24800.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Heard November 19, 1997.

Decided June 8, 1998.

Rehearing Denied September 3, 1998.

331 S.C. 567

Charles E. Carpenter, Jr., and Deborah Harrison Sheffield, of Richardson, Plowden, Carpenter & Robinson, P.A., Columbia, and James S. Gibson, of Howell, Gibson & Hughes, P.A., Beaufort, for petitioner

V.M. Manning Smith, of Moss & Kuhn, P.A., Beaufort, for respondent.

WALLER, Justice:

We granted certiorari to review the Court of Appeals' opinion in Gastineau v. Murphy, 323 S.C. 168, 473 S.E.2d 819 (Ct.App.1996). This is a Whistleblower action in which the Court of Appeals affirmed the jury's verdict for respondent, James Gastineau (Gastineau), finding he had been dismissed from his job in retaliation for reporting his employer's illegal conduct. We reverse.

BACKGROUND/FACTS

In 1988, the General Assembly enacted the South Carolina Whistleblower Act to protect public employees from retaliation for reporting violations of law by public bodies or their officials. Act No. 354, 1988 S.C.Acts 2648 (codified at S.C.Code Ann. §§ 8-27-10 to -50 (Supp.1989)) (amended 1993). At the time Gastineau's claim arose, the Act created a rebuttable presumption of retaliatory discharge if an employee was terminated within one year of reporting any violation or wrongdoing. S.C.Code Ann. § 8-27-30 (Supp.1989) (amended

331 S.C. 568

1993).¹ An employer could rebut this presumption by showing the employee was discharged for reasons other than whistleblowing. S.C.Code Ann. § 8-27-40 (Supp.1989) (amended 1993); Gamble v. City of Manning, 304 S.C. 536, 537, 405 S.E.2d 829, 829 (1991)

In this case, Gastineau showed he was fired within one year of reporting conduct which he believed was illegal. Petitioner, the Beaufort County Department of Mental Retardation Board (Board), then offered evidence showing Gastineau was fired for poor job performance. Furthermore, petitioner offered evidence showing Gastineau could not have been fired in retaliation for making a report because Gastineau's supervisor was unaware of Gastineau's report when she fired him. After the jury returned a verdict for Gastineau, Board moved for judgment non obstante veredicto (JNOV). The trial judge refused to grant Board's motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed his decision.

ISSUE

Did the Court of Appeals err in denying Gastineau's motion for JNOV?

DISCUSSION

A motion for JNOV may be granted only if no reasonable jury could have reached the challenged verdict. Crossley v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 307 S.C. 354, 357, 415 S.E.2d 393, 395 (1992). In deciding a motion for JNOV, the evidence and all reasonable inferences must be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party; if more than one inference can be drawn, the case must be submitted to the jury. Id.

The evidence viewed in the light most favorable to Gastineau shows he was hired by the Board as a Qualified Mental Retardation Professional (QMRP) and Residential Director of a facility which housed mentally handicapped individuals. He began working on April 2, 1990, under the supervision of Leigh Murphy, Executive Director of the Board.

331 S.C. 569

On July 16, 1990, Gastineau's wife, Christy Gastineau, also began working for the Board; she was hired as a trainer/driver for the Day Program at the Beaufort County Rehabilitation Center, a sheltered work program for the mentally and physically handicapped. Within two weeks of starting her job, Mrs. Gastineau drove several clients to work at a construction site owned by Murphy's husband. After seeing the site and asking questions concerning the clients' wages, Mrs. Gastineau became concerned the clients were working in unsafe conditions and being underpaid. She voiced these concerns to her husband. She also confided in her superiors, Barbara Greenberg and Susan Muckenfuss. According to Mrs. Gastineau, Muckenfuss told Greenberg that "this is something we need to talk to [Murphy] about."

Two or three weeks later, Gastineau reported Murphy's husband's possible wage violations to Alice Shook, who worked for the South Carolina Department of Mental Retardation (SCDMR). Shook repeated Gastineau's concerns to her immediate supervisor, Wilson Inabinet, and his supervisor, Brant Coyle. Inabinet and Coyle consequently decided to send a staff member from SCDMR to review the Day Program in Beaufort. Gary Hudson, who annually inspected programs licensed by SCDMR and had already performed his annual inspection of Beaufort's program, was sent back to Beaufort to perform a follow-up visit.

On October 31, 1990, Murphy discharged Gastineau from his position as a QMRP. Gastineau subsequently brought this suit alleging he was discharged in retaliation for whistleblowing. According to Gastineau, he was fired because he reported Murphy's husband to SCDMR for improperly paying clients of his facility.

No reasonable jury could have concluded from the evidence introduced at trial that Gastineau was fired in retaliation for reporting conduct which he believed to be illegal. First, the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to Gastineau does not support a finding that Murphy was even aware of Gastineau's report at the time she discharged him. No direct evidence was introduced; in fact, Murphy testified she did not learn about Gastineau's report until November of 1990. Furthermore, the circumstantial evidence surrounding

331 S.C. 570

Gastineau's report is insufficient to find Murphy was aware of the report.² According to the Gastineaus, they informed three people of their suspicions; Gastineau introduced no evidence that any of these three discussed the Gastineaus' concerns with Murphy.³ One of these three did convey Gastineau's concerns to two other people, but these two were not called to testify, and no evidence showed they informed Murphy of Gastineau's report

The Court of Appeals held the jury may have inferred that Murphy learned about Gastineau's report during Gary Hudson's review. 473 S.E.2d at 824. We disagree.

The jury could not...