Wright v. Shriners Hosp. for Crippled Children

• Decision Date: 16 April 1992
• Citation: 412 Mass. 469,589 N.E.2d 1241
• Parties: , 60 USLW 2699, 7 IER Cases 553 Anita WRIGHT v. SHRINERS HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN & et al. 1
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1241

589 N.E.2d 1241

412 Mass. 469, 60 USLW 2699, 7 IER Cases 553

Anita WRIGHT v. SHRINERS HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN & et al.¹

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Suffolk.

Argued Oct. 7, 1991.

Decided April 16, 1992.

William F. Joy, Jr., Boston (Benjamin Smith with him), for defendants.

Kevin G. Powers, Boston, for plaintiff.

Before LIACOS, C.J., and WILKINS, LYNCH, O'CONNOR and GREANEY, JJ.

O'CONNOR, Justice.

In this case, which is here on direct appellate review, we consider the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant a jury's verdict of $100,000 in favor of the plaintiff, Anita Wright against her employer, the defendant Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children (Shriners Hospital), on Wright's claim that Shriners Hospital wrongfully terminated her at-will employment in violation of public policy. We also consider the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant the jury's verdict of $50,000 against the defendant Salvatore Russo, the hospital administrator, for tortious interference with Wright's employment relationship with Shriners Hospital. We hold that the evidence was insufficient to warrant either verdict and that the trial judge should have allowed the defendants' motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. We reverse the judgments for the plaintiff and remand this case to the Superior Court for the entry of judgments for the defendants.

We summarize the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Smith-Pfeffer v. Superintendent of the Walter E. Fernald State Sch., 404 Mass. 145, 146, 533 N.E.2d 1368 (1989). Shriners Hospital hired Wright, a registered nurse, in 1976. Subsequently, she became assistant director of nursing, and she held that position until she was discharged in late February of 1987. At all times, she was an employee at will. Wright received excellent evaluations throughout her employment, including an evaluation in December, 1986, two months before her discharge. In June, 1986, a former assistant head nurse wrote a letter to the director of clinical affairs for the Shriners national headquarters detailing her concerns about the medical staff and administration at Shriners Hospital. Shriners Hospital is a separate corporation, but it is one of many Shriners facilities that are affiliated with the national headquarters. As a result of the letter, the national headquarters notified the defendant hospital administrator, Russo, that a survey team would visit Shriners Hospital in November, 1986. Russo was visibly upset. He spoke to the director of nursing about the letter and asked her: "Are you behind this? Is Anita Wright behind this?" The director of nursing denied that she was responsible for the letter. She did not address the question whether Wright was "behind" the letter.

The survey team visited the hospital in November and interviewed Wright and other employees. Wright told the survey team that there were communication problems between the medical and nursing staffs. She detailed problems with the assistant chief of staff and gave specific examples of patient care problems. The survey team reported Wright's comments to the assistant chief of staff.

Two members of the survey team prepared reports. In his report issued on December 22, 1986, Dr. Newton C. McCollough, director of medical affairs for the national organization, wrote: "The relationships between nursing administration, hospital administration, and chief of staff are much less than satisfactory, and significant friction exists both as regard nursing/administration relationships and nursing/medical staff relationships. Communication and problem solving efforts in this relationship are poor to nonexistent." A report issued on January 5, 1987, by Jack D. Hoard, executive administrator for the national Shriners organization, also documented the problematic relationship between the nursing and medical staff. Both reports recommended a follow-up site survey to determine the impact of this conflict on patient care. McCollough's report stated that during her interview, Wright had made severe criticisms of the medical staff and had expressed concern over a lack of consistent procedures and standards for patient care. Hoard's report stated that Wright discussed the breakdown in communication between the nursing staff and the attending medical staff, which she said was leading to deteriorating morale among nurses.

Upon reading the survey team's reports, Russo again became upset and told the director of nursing that it was the nursing department's fault that the team was making another visit. He also stated at a department managers' meeting in December, 1986, "It seems there are people who spend their time trying to find fault with everything that everyone does, and those kinds of people we don't need here." Russo testified that, when he said that, he "possibly" was referring to statements made to the survey team. After the survey team's November, 1986, visit, Russo stopped speaking to Wright or even acknowledging her presence. The survey team returned on February 18 and 19, 1987, specifically to review the problems between the medical and nursing staffs. On February 26, after consulting with the chairman and several officers of the board of governors of Shriners Hospital and with national corporate counsel, Russo ordered that Wright's employment be terminated for "patient care issues that had arisen as a result of the surveys."

Wright contends, and the defendants dispute, that the jury would have been warranted in finding that Shriners Hospital fired her from her employment at will in retaliation for her having criticized the hospital, specifically in regard to the quality of care rendered to patients, to the Shriners national headquarters survey team. Wright further asserts that such a retaliatory firing violates public policy and is therefore actionable. See Hobson v. McLean Hosp. Corp., 402 Mass. 413, 416, 522 N.E.2d 975 (1988); DeRose v. Putnam Management Co., 398 Mass. 205, 210, 496 N.E.2d 428 (1986). It is a question of law for the judge to decide whether a retaliatory firing in these circumstances would violate public policy. Mello v. Stop & Shop Cos., 402 Mass. 555, 561 n. 7, 524 N.E.2d 105 (1988). We hold that a termination of Wright's employment at will in reprisal for her critical remarks to the survey team would not have violated public policy. Therefore, we need not address the disputed matter of the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant a finding that the firing was indeed in retaliation for the criticism.

We begin with the general rule that "[e]mployment at will is terminable by either the employee or the employer without notice, for almost any reason or for no reason at all." Jackson v. Action for Boston Community Dev., Inc., 403 Mass. 8, 9, 525 N.E.2d 411 (1988). We have recognized exceptions to that general rule, however, when employment is terminated contrary to a well-defined public policy. Thus, "[r]edress is available for employees who are terminated for asserting a legally guaranteed right (e.g., filing workers' compensation claim), for doing what the law requires (e.g., serving on a jury), or for refusing to do that which the law forbids (e.g., committing perjury)." Smith-Pfeffer v. Superintendent of the Walter E. Fernald State Sch., supra, 404 Mass. at 149-150, 533 N.E.2d 1368. We have also held that redress was available to an at-will employee who was discharged in retaliation for his cooperation with a law enforcement investigation concerning his employer. Flesner v. Technical Communications Corp., 410 Mass. 805, 811, 575 N.E.2d 1107 (1991). Although the employee in Flesner was not required by law to cooperate, we reasoned that the Legislature had clearly expressed a policy encouraging cooperation with criminal investigations as indicated by statutes providing for reimbursement of expenses for persons assisting in investigations and immunity for witnesses testifying in grand jury investigations. Id. at 810, 575 N.E.2d 1107.

The trial judge's view of the law was that public policy was violated if Shriners Hospital fired Wright in reprisal for her having criticized the hospital in interviews with the survey team. As is clear from his instructions to the jury, the judge's view was based in part on "the duty of doctors and nurses, found in their own code of ethics, to report on substantial patient care issues." We would hesitate to declare that the ethical code of a private professional organization can be a source of recognized public policy. We need not consider that question, however, because no code of ethics was introduced in evidence in this case.

It is also clear from his instructions that the judge's view was based in part on "various state laws of the commonwealth, requiring reports on patient abuse." The judge did not identify the State laws he had in mind. General Laws c. 119, § 51A (1990 ed.), requires nurses and others to make a report to the Department of Social Services concerning any child under eighteen years of age who they have reason to believe is suffering from physical or sexual abuse or neglect. Similarly, G.L. c. 19A, § 15(a) (1990 ed.), requires nurses and others who have reasonable cause to believe that an elderly person is suffering from abuse to report it to the Department of Elder Affairs. Subsection (d ) of that provision provides that no employer or supervisor may discharge an employee for filing a report. Finally, G.L. c. 111, § 72G (1990 ed.), requires nurses and others to report to the Department of Public Health (department) when they have reason to believe that any patient or resident of a facility licensed by the department is being abused, mistreated, or neglected and provides a remedy of treble damages, costs, and attorney's fees for any employee who is discharged in retaliation for having made such a report. None of these statutes applies to Wright's situation, however, and we are unaware of any statute that does. Also, ...