Court Opinion

ID: 9595090
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:35:38.366379+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:25.875574
License: Public Domain

Judge LEWIS
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion regarding the issue of wrongful discharge and I would vote to affirm the trial court’s entry of summary judgment. I believe that the majority’s opinion takes the public policy exception to the employment at will doctrine substantially beyond the rationale proclaimed in Sides v. Duke University, 74 N.C. App. 331, 328 S.E.2d 818, disc. rev. denied, 314 N.C. 331, 335 S.E.2d 13 (1985) and Williams v. Hillhaven Corp., 91 N.C. App. 35, 370 S.E.2d 423 (1988). In Sides, this Court first recognized the public policy exception when a nurse was discharged when she refused to commit perjury to protect her employer from liability in a civil suit. In reaching its decision, this Court said that encouraging perjury or incomplete testimony was an affront to our legal system. Sides, 74 N.C. App. at 338, 328 S.E.2d at 823-24. In Williams, we extended the public policy exception to a situation where an individual was harassed and eventually discharged after she testified truthfully. The Williams Court characterized the public policy exception as a “narrow exception” and again reaffirmed the rationale in Sides by stating: “[t]he law must encourage and not discourage truthful testimony.” Williams, 91 N.C. App. at 40, 370 S.E.2d at 426, quoting Petermann v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 344 P.2d 25, 27 (Cal. App. 1959). This Court now seeks to extend the public policy exception to a situation where an employee was discharged for expressing a willingness to testify honestly, even though she was not called upon to do so. Although I agree with the majority that it is immaterial as to whether the plaintiff actually testified, I would still be compelled to say that even in the light most favorable to the plaintiff the facts of this case do not raise a genuine issue of material fact.
*385The majority concludes that “a reasonable finder of fact might draw the inference that Pfohl engineered plaintiff’s discharge because he believed she was prepared to testify truthfully in the Gentry lawsuit.” It is this conclusion with which I disagree. All of the evidence shows that it was plaintiff who sought out Pfohl once she was subpoenaed, and not the other way around. Pfohl told plaintiff that she would need to obey the subpoena and that she should tell the truth. Pfohl also told plaintiff that she was free to meet with Gentry’s attorney. Nowhere in the record does any evidence appear that Pfohl or any of his employees encouraged plaintiff to commit perjury or to testify in a manner other than truthfully. Thereafter Pfohl never called plaintiff in nor even mentioned her testimony. I can hardly see how encouraging truthful testimony is an affront to our legal system and contrary to the public policy of this State.
The majority seems to rely heavily on the statement Pfohl made to plaintiff that she needed to remember for whom she worked and that she should say as little as possible. Plaintiff says that from this statement she felt threatened, and to the majority this seems to be enough to avoid summary judgment. However, if such innocuous statements as this are sufficient to support a claim for wrongful discharge, then employers will have to stand mute when faced with a similar situation for fear that no matter what they say their employees may perceive it as a threat. Surely an eggshell sensitivity of perception should not override the rule of reasonable application. Such a result would take the public policy exception too far, and what was characterized as a “narrow exception” to the employment at will doctrine will virtually swallow the rule.
I would also vote to affirm the trial court’s entry of summary judgment on the basis that plaintiff has failed to demonstrate a sufficient causal connection between the actions of Pfohl and her discharge. Plaintiff received the subpoena in January of 1988. The Gentry lawsuit was settled in May of 1988 and it was not until June of 1989 that plaintiff was finally discharged. Thus seventeen months elapsed from the time plaintiff was subpoenaed until she was finally discharged. A full thirteen months transpired from the date the Gentry case was settled until plaintiff’s discharge. In both Sides and Williams, the lapse of time was much less, with no more than three months transpiring between the truthful testimony of the employee and their termination, leaving no doubt a direct causal relationship existed. However, on the facts of this *386case, the lapse of at least thirteen months between the settlement of the Gentry case and plaintiff’s discharge shows a complete lack of any causal connection, and precludes plaintiff’s claim as a matter of law.
For the foregoing reasons I respectfully dissent and would vote to affirm the trial court on the issue of wrongful discharge.