Court Opinion

ID: 9694972
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:02:20.386544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:07.324958
License: Public Domain

Corrigan, P.J.
(concurring). I concur in the majority opinion, but write separately because the question of the scope and nature of wrongful discharge remedies available to public sector employees warrants Supreme Court review. Manning v City of Hazel Park, 202 Mich App 685; 509 NW2d 874 (1993), recently held that a wrongful discharge claim based on Toussaint v Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan, 408 Mich 579; 292 NW2d 880 (1980), is available to public sector employees. Pursuant to Administrative Order No. 1990-6, extended by Administrative Orders Nos. 1991-11, 1992-8, and 1993-4, I am constrained to follow Manning. Moreover, in an unpublished opinion in this case, our Court directed the circuit court to apply Toussaint. I would not deviate from the law of this case.
Were this question still open, I would follow the analytic approach recommended by Judge Avern Cohn in Willoughby v Village of Dexter, 709 F Supp 781 (ED Mich, 1989). Judge Cohn reasoned in Willoughby that because of the unique characteristics of public employment, the Toussaint doctrine of implied just-cause employment contracts should not extend to public or municipal employees, citing Johnson v City of Menominee, 173 Mich App 690; 434 NW2d 211 (1988). I would prefer to restrict Toussaint claims to private sector employees and to employ the due process analysis of Perry v Sinderman, 408 US 593; 92 S Ct 2694; 33 L Ed 2d 570 (1972), to wrongful discharge claims of public sector employees.
*706The majority here has prudently construed Toussaint in harmony with the school board’s and the superintendent’s statutory rights. The School Code provides:
The contract with the superintendent shall be for a term, not to exceed 3 years, fixed by the board. Notification of nonrenewal of contract shall be given in writing at least 90 days before the contract termination date or the contract is renewed for an additional 1-year period. [MCL 380.132(1); MSA 15.4132(1).]
However, in a broader framework, recognition of Toussaint claims in the public sector would have significant and adverse policy ramifications. Extension of Toussaint could lead to denial of the right of the people, through their elected representatives, to decide crucial political questions, such as who shall serve as the chief executive officer of a school district. One board of education should not, through the device of a "just cause” employment contract, be able to bind another board, elected later, to a contract it would not originally have approved. Extension of Toussaint will inevitably lead to lengthy court battles. If the courts of this state are to shoulder this burden, the Supreme Court should declare it.
The imposition of Toussaint remedies in situations where a web of statutes and ordinances already affects the employment of public sector employees is a question worthy of Supreme Court attention.