Court Opinion

ID: 9597736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:02:31.490436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:39.261793
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice
(concurring):
I concur in Parts I, II, and III. I concur only in the results in Parts IV and V, deeming it not necessary or appropriate here to go beyond the written policy manual of the employer, which I view as being part of the total employment contract. Rose v. Allied Dev. Co., 719 P.2d 83 (Utah 1986). The manual stated:
Except in the situations listed below, an employee may not be dismissed unless a verbal and a written warning have been issued and a reasonable opportunity to improve performance has been provided.
The plaintiff was terminated without warning. I would remand the case to the trial court for a determination of whether the employer’s discharge of her violated its own policy manual or whether she was properly discharged for unreasonably refusing to take a polygraph test or for failing a polygraph test, which grounds do not require a previous warning.
HALL, C.J., concurs in the concurring opinion of HOWE, Associate Chief Justice.