Podgurski v. Pennsylvania State University
Decision Date | 22 December 1998 |
Citation | 722 A.2d 730 |
Parties | Sandra PODGURSKI, Appellant, v. The PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, Graham Spanier, Ph.D. and David E. Stormer, Appellees. |
Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Joseph M. Devecka, State College, for appellant.
James M. Horne, State College, for appellees.
Before JOYCE and HESTER, JJ., and CIRILLO, President Judge Emeritus.
Appellant, Sandra Podgurski, appeals from the order of the trial court granting Appellees', the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Graham Spanier, Ph.D. and David E. Stormer's, preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse. The relevant facts and procedural history of this case are as follows.
Appellant, a staff assistant in PSU's Department of Safety Services, filed the instant complaint on May 19, 1997. In her action, she alleged Appellees violated the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law, 43 P.S. § 1421-§ 1427 by retaliating against her for reporting various incidents of "wrongdoing" by her co-workers.
Appellees filed preliminary objections to Appellant's complaint in the nature of a demurrer. The trial court granted the objections and dismissed Appellant's complaint with leave to amend within twenty (20) days. Appellant filed an amended complaint on August 27, 1997. In addition to her initial allegations, Appellant attached two (2) electronic messages to the amended complaint.
Appellees filed preliminary objections to the amended complaint. The trial court sustained these objections, dismissing Appellant's complaint without leave to amend. This timely appeal followed.
The sole issue raised on appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting Appellees' demurrer and dismissing Appellant's complaint without leave to amend.
A demurrer can only be sustained where the complaint is clearly insufficient to establish the pleader's right to relief. For the purpose of testing the legal sufficiency of the challenged pleading a preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer admits as true all well-pleaded, material, relevant facts, and every inference fairly deducible from those facts.
MacGregor v. Mediq, Inc., et al., 395 Pa.Super. 221, 576 A.2d 1123, 1125 (Pa.Super.1990). "Where a doubt exists as to whether a demurrer should be sustained, this doubt should be resolved in favor of overruling it." Gray v. Hafer, 168 Pa.Cmwlth. 613, 651 A.2d 221, 223 n. 2 (Pa.Cmwlth.1994). In the case at bar, doubt exists as to whether such a serious measure, i.e., dismissal of the complaint, should have been employed.
In her complaint Appellant alleges:
Amended Complaint, 8/27/97, at 2.
The November 21, 1996 electronic message, incorporated within the complaint, lists a myriad of complaints Appellant lodged against her fellow co-workers. Among these complaints are expenditures of unnecessary funds, dismissal of workers absent any reason, hiring of workers without proper qualification, false reporting of hours worked, and improper conduct by employees while at work, i.e., babysitting children, making personal long-distance phone calls and refusing to perform job functions. This conduct, if proven, falls well within the ambit of the statute defining wrongdoing, as these actions would relate to the employer's duty to enforce administrative policies protecting their interest.
Wrongdoing is defined under the Act as "[a] violation which is not of a merely technical or minimal nature of a Federal or State statute or regulation, of a political subdivision ordinance or regulation or of a code of conduct or ethics designed to protect the interest of the public or the employer." Riggio v. Burns, 711 A.2d 497 (Pa.Super.1998) (en banc); 43 P.S. § 1422. As the Commonwealth Court suitably stated when faced with similar allegations:
Rodgers v. Pa. Department of Corrections, 659 A.2d 63, 66 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995). In Rodgers, the Commonwealth Court found that where an officer reported irregularities at the facility where he worked, including expenditure of unnecessary...
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