DISCHARGE OF EMPLOYEE BASED ON ACCUSATIONS OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT DOES NOT FALL WITHIN PUBLIC POLICY EXCEPTION TO AT-WILL EMPLOYEE STATUS
Commonwealth courts have consistently held that discharges of existing employees based on accusations of criminal conduct do not fall within the public policy exception to the bar on such claims by at-will employees; thus, the trial court did not err in granting defendant summary judgment on plaintiff’s wrongful discharge claim. The appellate court affirmed an order granting defendant summary judgment.
Plaintiff was employed by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from 1999 to 2015. She also accepted work outside of her employment at the Hospital in August 2013, when plaintiff was hired to provide home care for James Mooney, the father of a neighbor. Mooney, who was terminally ill, died on Oct. 12, 2013. In August 2015, the Delaware County District Attorney charged plaintiff with theft and related offenses arising out of a change to Mooney’s investment account beneficiaries and, inter alia, checks that plaintiff wrote on Mooney’s estate account. Thus, the Hospital placed plaintiff on 90-day unpaid administrative leave on Sept. 9, 2015. However, the criminal charges against plaintiff were not resolved within this 90-day period. Accordingly, the Hospital terminated plaintiff on Jan. 8, 2016. Plaintiff was acquitted of the criminal charges in May 2017. She filed this suit against the Hospital asserting a claim of wrongful discharge. The trial court granted the Hospital’s motion for summary judgment based on its finding that plaintiff was an at-will employee. On appeal, the superior court noted that under Pennsylvania law, employment is presumed to be at-will unless it is shown that the parties contracted to restrict the right to terminate employment. An at-will employment relationship may be terminated by either the employer or the employee at any time, for any reason or for no reason. The undisputed evidence established that plaintiff’s employment was at-will, the court conclude. Generally, an at-will employee has no common law cause of action for wrongful discharge against her employer. A limited exception exists, and an action for wrongful discharge can be brought, only where the termination of employment implicates a clear mandate of Pennsylvania public policy. This public policy exception applies where an employer discharges an employee for complying with a statutorily imposed duty or where the employer is specifically prohibited from discharging the employee by statute. Here, plaintiff claimed she was discharged based on the criminal charges against her, which allegedly violated the public policy of the presumption of innocence. Such claims do not satisfy the requirements of the public policy exception to at-will employment, the court observed, noting that neither article I, section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution nor the Pennsylvania State Constitution and Criminal History Record Information Act apply to an employer’s discharge of an employee. Rather, commonwealth courts have consistently held that discharges of existing employees based on criminal charges or accusations of criminal conduct do not fall within the public policy exception, the court observed in its opinion denying plaintiff relief.
REF: Digests of Recent Opinions, Pennsylvania Law Weekly, 42, PLW 1150, Tuesday, December 3, 2019, Deal v. Children’s Hosp. of Philadelphia, PICS Case No. 19-1396 (Pa. Super. Nov. 19, 2019)
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