Court Opinion

ID: 9640134
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:58:10.065584+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:27.104751
License: Public Domain

KIDD, Justice,
dissenting.
The dissenting opinion issued herein on October 30, 1997, is withdrawn, and the following is filed in lieu thereof.
*108The appellee Cindy Schlapper was ordered by her employer to perform a dishonest and fraudulent act. She was asked to prepare a “phony” invoice to bill a customer for goods and services that she and her employer both knew had never been delivered. She refused and was fired from a job that she had held for over six years. The majority reverses a jury verdict and trial-court judgment on the basis that these facts do not fit within the Sabine Pilot exception to the Texas employment-at-will doctrine. Because I believe that this ease fits within the policy rationale, if not within the precise language of Sabine Pilot, I would uphold the jury verdict and judgment. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
Although I do not strongly disagree with the factual recitation in the majority opinion, I do have a completely different viewpoint regarding the saliency of certain facts. The majority focuses almost exclusively on whether the requested action was illegal or not. It overlooks, even in the hypotheticals it posits, the fraud and dishonesty demanded by this employer of its employee.
Cindy Sehlapper’s job title was advertising director. She was ordered by her supervisor, a corporate officer, to prepare an invoice for printing table tents.1 Knowing that no such table tents had been prepared for this particular customer, Remy-Amerique, Ms. Schlapper inquired about the purpose for the invoice. Without informing her that the “phony” invoice had already been discussed with Remy, her supervisor told Ms. Schlap-per that the invoice would allow Ran Ken to be reimbursed for the Las Vegas trip-prize which had cost the company $630. However, Ms. Schlapper was instructed to make the invoice out in the uneven amount of $631.80 to make the invoice “look good, make it look real.” Ms. Schlapper was even ordered to include some phony sales tax to make the invoice look authentic. Recognizing that this whole transaction did not pass the “smell test,” Ms. Schlapper expressed discomfort and refused to prepare the invoice.2 After her supervisor called her a “bitch” and ordered her to take the matter up with the company vice-president, Ms. Schlapper’s inquiry, which ultimately got her fired was, “Exactly what are the legalities of doing this?” The trial testimony reveals that at this point in time both Ran Ken and Remy thought this reimbursement violated the Alcoholic Beverage Code. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for preparing a phony invoice. It seems only as an afterthought that the defense lawyers for Ran Ken devised the defense used in this case: the invoice scheme did not technically violate the Code because Remy distributed hard liquor rather than beer.3 I believe that by focusing so minutely on the ultimate question of “illegality” the majority narrows the Sabine Pilot exception. In Sabine Pilot, the employee was asked to perform an affirmative act that he believed to be illegal4 Here, the employee was asked to perform a dishonest and fraudulent act that at the time everyone connected with the scheme believed to be illegal.
I would follow as persuasive authority a case strikingly similar to ours, Johnston v. Del Mar Distributing Co., 776 S.W.2d 768 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1989, writ denied). In Johnston, the employee was instructed to package for shipment a semiautomatic weapon for delivery to a grocery store in Brownsville, Texas, and to label the contents of the package as “fishing gear.” The employee was required to sign her name to the shipping documents and feared this might be a violation of either federal firearms or postal rules and regulations. The *109employee subsequently sought “advice” from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. A few days after contacting the Bureau the employee was fired.
In overturning a summary judgment in favor of the employer, the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals held that the above facts fell within the Sabine Pilot exception even though the employee was discharged before refusing to perform the dishonest act.
I agree with the holding of the Corpus Christi court as follows:
We hold that since the law recognizes that it is against public policy to allow an employer to coerce its employee to commit a criminal act in furtherance of its own interest, then it is necessarily inferred that the same public policy prohibits the discharge of an employee who in good faith attempts to find out if the act is illegal. It is important to note that we are not creating a new exception to the employment-at-will doctrine.
Johnston, 776 S.W.2d at 771 (emphasis added). Based upon the holding in Johnston, I would affirm this case.
Sabine Pilot was decided over a decade ago. The Texas Supreme Court noted then that twenty-two jurisdictions had created exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine over the preceding thirty years. See Sabine Pilot, 687 S.W.2d at 735 (Kilgariin, J., concurring). Recognizing that the Texas exception announced in Sabine Pilot is a narrow one, I refuse to narrow it even further. Believing that this is exactly what the majority opinion does, I respectfully dissent.

. “Táble Tents” are the industry term for printed sales brochures placed on the bar or restaurant tables encouraging customers to buy food or drink.

. Ms. Schlapper even explained to her supervisor that her advertising department did not prepare invoices and did not have invoice forms. This work was done by the bookkeeping department of Ran Ken.

. Of course, the scheme had the potential to violate laws other than the Code. Although potential violations of the postal laws through mail fraud were discussed, possible sales tax violations were not, i.e., whether it is illegal to collect a stated sales tax without remitting it to the State Comptroller's office.

. Because Sabine Pilot was decided in the context of a summary judgment case, the Texas Supreme Court assumed the act to be illegal.