Court Opinion

ID: 9856881
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 07:04:33.073632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:31.021474
License: Public Domain

EAGLES, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that plaintiff failed to state a cause of action for wrongful discharge.. First, I believe the public policy exception to the employment at will doctrine is more broad than the majority has stated.
The discharge of an at will employee generally will not support an action for wrongful termination of employment in North Carolina. However, our courts have developed a public policy exception to this general rule. Public policy has been defined as “the principle of law that holds no citizen can lawfully do that which has a tendency to be injurious to the public or against the public good." Johnson v. Mayo Yarns Inc., 126 N.C. App. 292, 296, 484 S.E.2d 840, 842-43, disc. rev. denied, 346 N.C. 547, 488 S.E.2d 802 (1997).
In Amos v. Oakdale Knitting Co., 331 N.C. 348, 353, 416 S.E.2d 166, 169 (1992), our Supreme Court discussed the limits of the public policy exception, stating that although
the definition of “public policy” approved by this Court does not include a laundry list of what is or is not “injurious to the public or against the public good,” at the very least public policy is violated when an employee is fired in contravention of express policy declarations contained in the North Carolina General Statutes.
(Emphasis added). Contrary to the majority’s opinion, my reading of the case law indicates that the courts of this State have declined to *323create a “bright line” test for determining when the termination of an at will employee violates public policy. Teleflex Information Systems v. Arnold, 132 N.C. App. 689, 691, 513 S.E.2d 85, 87 (1999). I do not believe we should decree such a “bright line” test in this case, but we should continue to analyze wrongful termination cases on a case by case basis. Therefore, I disagree with the majority’s holding that an at will employee may only bring a wrongful discharge claim based on a violation of an express public policy declaration contained in our General Statutes or Constitution.
The majority opinion, by affirming the trial court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6), has effectively precluded in-house counsel from bringing his claim for wrongful termination in violation of North Carolina public policy. Whether in-house counsel may pursue a claim for wrongful termination under any circumstances is an issue which has yet to be decided in North Carolina. This case presents the opportunity to address this issue of first impression.
“A fundamental principle in the client-lawyer relationship is that the lawyer maintain confidentiality of information relating to the representation.” N.C. Rules of Prof. Conduct, Rule 1.6, Comment. I believe that had plaintiff stated his cause of action for wrongful termination in greater particularity in his complaint, he would have risked breaching client confidences in violation of Rule 1.6.
In a formal ethics opinion approved 18 January 2001, the North Carolina State Bar addressed the following issue: “May Attorney A reveal information and documents of Corporation C to establish a claim for wrongful termination in his own lawsuit against Corporation C?” In answering this question, the State Bar concluded that
[g]iven the competing public policies . . ., a lawyer may reveal no client confidences in a complaint for wrongful termination except as necessary to put the opposing party on notice of the claim. Prior to disclosing any other confidential information of the former employer and client, the lawyer must obtain a ruling from a court of competent jurisdiction authorizing the lawyer to reveal confidential information of the former client, and even then may only reveal such confidential information as is necessary to establish the wrongful termination claim. Requesting in camera review of the confidential information the plaintiff intends to proffer to establish the wrongful termination claim would be an *324appropriate procedure for obtaining the court’s ruling. There may be other similarly appropriate procedures.
2000 N.C. Eth. Op. 11 (2001) (emphasis added).
I would follow the standard laid out in Ethics Opinion 11, as well as the standard established by a number of other jurisdictions who have addressed this issue and reverse the trial court’s order. See generally, General Dynamics Corp. v. Superior Court, 876 P.2d 487 (Cal. 1994); GTE Products Corp. v. Stewart, 653 N.E.2d 161 (Mass. 1995); Nordling v. Northern State Power Co., 478 N.W.2d 498 (Minn. 1991). Plaintiff should be provided the opportunity to establish the proof necessary to pursue his wrongful discharge claim while plaintiff continues to abide by Ethics rules protecting client confidences.
To decide as the majority has ruled will deny in-house attorney-employees the ability to allege with particularity their wrongful termination of employment claims and will frustrate the possible cessation of employers’ conduct which is or may be “injurious to the public or against the public good.” While every client, corporate or otherwise, should be able to confer freely and openly with their attorney, clients should not be able to use the shield of attorney-client confidentiality to defend a possibly meritorious wrongful discharge suit by former in-house attorney-employee.