Opinion ID: 867587
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: ¶ 7 If the employees' claim is cognizable under the statute, the trial court erred in granting dismissal. Motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim are not favored and should not be granted unless it appears that the plaintiff should be denied relief as a matter of law given the facts alleged. [3] State ex rel. Corbin v. Pickrell, 136 Ariz. 589, 594, 667 P.2d 1304, 1309 (1983) (citations omitted). ¶ 8 We begin our analysis with the statute. We review de novo the interpretation of a statute. Arizona Dep't of Revenue v. Dougherty, 200 Ariz. 515, 517, 29 P.3d 862, 864 ¶ 7 (2001). When doing so, our foremost goal is to discern and give effect to legislative intent. Mail Boxes, Etc., U.S.A. v. Industrial Comm'n, 181 Ariz. 119, 121, 888 P.2d 777, 779 (1995). ¶ 9 The AEPA, which became law in 1996, allows, inter alia, wrongful discharge claims against employers who terminate employees in retaliation for [t]he exercise of the right to be free from the extortion of fees or gratuities as a condition of employment as protected by § 23-202. A.R.S. § 23-1501(3)(c)(viii). This language clearly was adopted to preserve an employee's right not to be victimized by an employer's extortion. Where an employee is terminated by an employer for refusal to accept extortionate demands by the employer, in violation of A.R.S. § 23-202, the employee has a wrongful termination cause of action under the AEPA.
¶ 10 A.R.S. § 23-202 makes it a class 2 misdemeanor for employers or their agents to extort money or property from employees: It is unlawful for a person charged or entrusted by another with the employment or continuance in employment of any workmen or laborers to demand or receive, either directly or indirectly, from a workman or laborer employed or continued in employment through his agency or under his direction or control, a fee, commission or gratuity of any kind as the price or condition of the employment of the workman or laborer, or as the price or condition of his continuance in such employment. Prior to this case, section 23-202 had never been interpreted by an appellate court. [4] In discerning legislative intent, we look to the statute's policy, the evil it was designed to address, its words, context, subject matter, and effects and consequences. Calvert v. Farmers Ins. Co. of Arizona, 144 Ariz. 291, 294, 697 P.2d 684, 687 (1985). ¶ 11 By its language, section 23-202 applies specifically to persons charged ... with employment or continuance in employment of workmen or laborers.... The person charged may be a foreman or a person acting as an agent of the employer, or the person may be the employer himself. For purposes of the AEPA, section 23-202's reference to agents of an employer is by no means exclusive and was not, in our judgment, intended to insulate from the reach of the AEPA employers who engage in extortionate conduct by sending their agents to extort on the employer's behalf. ¶ 12 The protection given to employees to be free from extortion in the workplace under section 23-202 is one of the express purposes of the AEPA. Reading the two statutes together, a proper interpretation is that an employer who by his agent or by his own action terminates an employee for refusing to be the victim of workplace extortion is subject to a wrongful termination suit. ¶ 13 The statute is designed to prevent employers from exacting fees, gratuities, commissions, kickbacks, or other forms of remuneration from employees as a condition of continuing employment or as a condition to obtaining employment in the first instance. On this record, the Logans were victimized by the clear equivalent of a demand for gratuities. A demand for property at a price well below its potential worth is a demand for a gratuity. The Logans' continued employment was expressly conditioned on it. ¶ 14 We note further that the language of section 23-202 does not indicate to whom the fee, commission, or gratuity is ultimately to be paid. It may be destined for a foreman or agent and be actually pocketed by him. Or, as in this case, it may be claimed by the employer. Because the statute does not specify who ultimately receives the ill-gotten gain, it encompasses either scenario. ¶ 15 For purposes of wrongful termination claims under the AEPA, it is not necessary that an actual violation of a statute occur. Wagenseller v. Scottsdale Mem. Hosp., 147 Ariz. 370, 380, 710 P.2d 1025, 1035 (1985). In Wagenseller, there was no statutory violation; rather, the employee alleged she was discharged for refusing to violate a statute. ¶ 16 The same is true here. Accepting the facts stated in the complaint as true, the Logans refused to sell their land at less than a third of what they believed it was worth. For this, they were fired. Subsection (3)(c)(viii) of the AEPA focuses on the employer's reasons for terminating the employee and permits a wrongful termination claim where the employer terminates the employee for rejecting an extortion attempt under section 23-202. Because we find that the Logans' claim exists under the statute as a matter of law and the motion to dismiss was improperly granted, [5] we need not reach the question, raised by our associate in a separate concurring opinion, whether a common law cause of action of the kind asserted by the Logans may still be asserted independent of the AEPA. [6]