Court Opinion

ID: 9722103
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:16:50.261367+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:06:15.751750
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Chief Justice
(concurring in result).
It is important to reiterate that the cause of action for wrongful discharge today must be founded on SDCL 62-3-18, as the public policy expression of the South Dakota Legislature concerning worker’s compensation. After all, it is the legislature’s role to set public policy.
The courts of only five states have refused to judicially recognize a cause of action for retaliatory discharge for filing a worker’s compensation claim. Mississippi and New Mexico remain the two holdout states. Kelly v. Mississippi Valley Gas Co., 397 So.2d 874 (Miss.1981); Williams v. Amax Chem. Corp., 104 N.M. 293, 720 P.2d 1234 (1986); Bottijliso v. Hutchison Fruit Co., 96 N.M. 789, 635 P.2d 992 (1981). Legislatures in Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina eventually enacted statutes creating remedies for wrongfully discharged employees. Meeks v. Opp Cotton Mills, 459 So.2d 814 (Ala.1984), (superseded by statute 1984); Dockery v. Lampart Table Co., 36 N.C.App. 293, 244 S.E.2d 272 (1978) cert. denied, 295 N.C. 465, 246 S.E.2d 215 (1978) (superseded by statute 1979); Raley v. Darling Shop, Inc., 216 S.C. 536, 59 S.E.2d 148 (1950) (superseded by statute 1986).
Arizona has a constitutional provision prohibiting an employer from contracting for the release of liability for an employee’s personal injury. Ariz. Const, art. 18, § 3. The majority of states have in place statutory schemes — some of which allow tort claims in addition to remedies available under worker’s compensation, some of which provide statutory worker’s compensation remedies are exclusive. 2A Arthur Larson, Larson’s Workmen’s Compensation § 68.36(a) n. 51.2, § 68.-36(b) (1993).
*785The Supreme Courts of Kansas and Tennessee recognized the cause of action judicially despite their respective legislatures’ failure to pass statutory remedies. Murphy v. City of Topeka-Shawnee Co. Dep’t of Labor Serv., 6 Kan.App.2d 488, 630 P.2d 186 (1981); Clanton v. Cain-Sloan Co., 677 S.W.2d 441 (Tenn.1984). Courts in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota and Oregon first recognized the cause of action judicially — several now have legislation in place as well. 2A Larson, supra at § 68.36(a) n. 51.1. The seminal case in this area is Frampton v. Central Indiana Gas Co., 260 Ind. 249, 297 N.E.2d 425 (1979). In Frampton, the Indiana Supreme Court held that an employer’s firing of an employee because she filed a worker’s compensation claim was a violation of public policy. Id., 297 N.E.2d at 428. The court determined the threat of discharge was a “device” in clear contravention of a statute which set forth Indiana’s public policy on worker’s compensation. Ind.Code § 22-3-2-15 (1971) provided:
No contract or agreement, written or implied, no rule, regulation or other device shall, in any manner, operate to relieve any employer in whole or in part of any obligation created by this act.
The Supreme Court of Iowa found a similar statute was a clear expression of Iowa’s public policy concerning worker’s compensation. Springer v. Weeks & Leo Co., 429 N.W.2d 558 (Iowa 1988). Iowa Code § 85.18 (1987) provided:
No contract, rule, or device whatsoever shall operate to relieve the employer, in whole or in part, from any liability created by this chapter except as herein provided.
The court then determined that an employer’s discharge of an employee for filing a worker’s compensation claim would be “tor-tious interference with a contract for hire” and would violate the above statute. Id., 429 N.W.2d at 560-61; see also Springer v. Weeks & Leo Co., 475 N.W.2d 630, 633 (Iowa 1991) (reference to tortious interference with contract confuses the issue and in the future this claim will be referred to as retaliatory or wrongful discharge).
Similarly, the Supreme Court of North Dakota based its recognition of the tort of retaliatory discharge on its Workmen’s Compensation Act, N.D.Cent.Code § 65-01-01 et seq. (1985), which provided in part:
North Dakota ... declares that the prosperity of the state depends in a large measure upon the well-being of its wage workers, and, hence, for workmen injured in hazardous employments, and for their families and dependents, sure and certain relief is hereby provided[.]
The court found North Dakota’s public policy was set forth in the statute and, therefore, a worker’s “well-being” and “sure and certain relief’ would be “illusory” if a worker could be fired for claiming benefits. Krein v. Marian Manor Nursing Home, 415 N.W.2d 793, 794 (N.D.1987).
South Dakota has a worker’s compensation statute 'similar to Indiana’s and Iowa’s. SDCL 62-3-18 provides:
No contract or agreement, express or implied, no rule, regulation, or other device, shall in any manner operate to relieve any employer in whole or in part of any obligation created by this title except as herein provided.
Our recognition of the tort of retaliatory discharge should be based directly on the South Dakota Legislature’s stated public policy as set forth in this statute. To leave an employee without a remedy for retaliatory discharge means employment-at-will would “operate to relieve any employer” of his obligation to provide worker’s compensation. Therefore, the cause of action for retaliatory discharge is a public policy exception to the doctrine of employment-at-will.
Additionally, in my opinion, the burden of proof is on the employee to prove the dismissal was in retaliation for filing a worker’s compensation claim. See Johnson v. Kreiser’s, Inc., 433 N.W.2d 225, 227 (S.D.1989); 2A Larson, supra at § 68.36(c).
I am authorized to state that Justice WUEST joins in this concurrence in result.