Court Opinion

ID: 9849158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:35:28.996336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:03.067118
License: Public Domain

*577Ryan, J.
(concurring). I concur with the plurality’s determination that appellant Cornell was fired for her refusal to comply with the discriminatory dress code and that she is entitled to back pay. However, I cannot subscribe to a number of statements in my brother’s plurality opinion and, therefore, I concur separately.
Specifically, I do not agree with the criticism of the rationale that underlies the doctrine of constructive discharge. The constructive-discharge doctrine performs the useful function among others of weeding out frivolous claims.1 In a proper case, it may be appropriate for this Court to adopt the constructive-discharge doctrine as the standard to be used to determine whether back pay is due an employee who has voluntarily resigned. This is not such a case.
Additionally, I concur with the award of back pay to Ms. Cornell, but only to the extent that she was determined to have been fired. Some of the language of the plurality opinion suggests, in dicta, that back pay should ordinarily be awarded whether the employment is terminated by discharge or by resignation. I do not concur in this broad language. I agree with the plurality only to the extent that it would hold that, save for exceptionable circumstances not presented in this case, back pay is awardable when an employee is discharged for refusal to comply with a discriminatory condition of employment.
*578Riley, J., concurred with Ryan, J.

 See, e.g., Junior v Texaco, 688 F2d 377 (CA 5, 1982) (constructive-discharge claim dismissed where employee voluntarily resigned after he received a low performance evaluation; working conditions were more than tolerable); Nolan v Cleland, 482 F Supp 668; 55 ALR Fed 411 (ND Cal, 1979) (constructive-discharge claim dismissed; resignation was not the product of duress where employee accepted other employment prior to resignation); Neale v Dillon, 534 F Supp 1381 (ED NY, 1982) (no constructive discharge where employee’s resignation was not the product of an intolerable work situation, but rather her own personal embarrassment at being passed over for promotion).