Opinion ID: 1140983
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether the circuit court erred in dismissing the plaintiffs' wrongful discharge claims.

Text: ¶ 10. It is undisputed in this case that the plaintiffs were at-will employees of Fluor Daniel. An at-will employment contract may be terminated at any time, by either party to the contract. However, two narrow exceptions exist to this longstanding, common-law rule. Where an employee is terminated because: (1) he or she has refused to participate in an illegal activity, or (2) he or she has reported an illegal activity of the employer to the employer or to anyone else, a suit for wrongful discharge may be maintained despite the at-will status of the employee. Lee v. Golden Triangle Planning & Dev. Dist., Inc., 797 So.2d 845 (Miss.2001). The plaintiffs claim that the latter of these two exceptions applies in this case. ¶ 11. Plaintiffs claim that they were discharged for reporting the illegal activities of Fluor Daniel. In support of this allegation, the plaintiffs cite two statutes which they claim Fluor Daniel violated. The first of these is a disturbance of the peace statute, Miss.Code Ann. § 97-35-15 (Rev.2006). [3] The second is a provoking breach of peace statute, Miss.Code Ann. § 97-35-3 (Rev.2006). [4] The plaintiffs claim that the alleged conduct of Rudy Amaro violated these statutes, that each of them was terminated for reporting that conduct, and therefore, the exception to the at-will employment doctrine should apply. ¶ 12. In support of their claim, Plaintiffs cite McArn v. Allied Bruce-Terminix Co., 626 So.2d 603 (Miss.1993). In McArn, the plaintiff, a former at-will employee of Terminix, alleged that he was terminated because he reported conduct of Terminix which constituted a crime under Miss.Code Ann. § 97-19-39 (Rev.2006) and Miss.Code Ann. § 69-23-19 (Rev.2005). [5] The plaintiff claimed that he was required to falsify reports and that he was required to charge customers the full price for treatment and tell them it was complete when he and the company both knew that the treatment was incomplete and not up to the required standards. Id. at 605. This Court reversed the summary judgment in favor of Terminix and remanded the issue of wrongful discharge to the trial court. Id. at 607. ¶ 13. As in McArn, the reporting of illegal acts exception to the at-will employment doctrine has been applied only when the illegal act actually had something to do with the business itself. See Willard v. Paracelsus Health Care Corp., 681 So.2d 539 (Miss.1996) (employees fired for reporting forgeries and financial irregularities in business records). In this case, even if it was found that Amaro had violated one of the statutes cited by the plaintiffs, this issue does not rise to the level necessary to fit into the very narrow exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine. The alleged breach of the peace had nothing to do with the business of Fluor Daniel. ¶ 14. Furthermore, there is no evidence that Amaro's conduct was reported because it was illegal. The deposition testimony makes very clear that Amaro's comments and behavior merely bothered the plaintiffs, not that they ever considered the conduct to be criminal. We find that this is not a situation which would merit an exception to the longstanding employment-at-will doctrine. Therefore, this issue has no merit.