California employment case index

Tameny v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (1980) 27 Cal.3d 167 created California’s public-policy wrongful-discharge tort: an employee fired for refusing to commit an illegal act may sue in tort, recovering tort and punitive damages, not just contract remedies.

The Tameny claim failed because Foley’s report about a coworker served the employer’s private interest, not a fundamental public policy. Foley nonetheless adequately pleaded an implied-in-fact contract to discharge only for good cause — based on longevity of service, promotions, raises, assurances, and the employer’s…

Yes. The longevity of Pugh’s service, together with the employer’s commendations and assurances and its acknowledged practices, supported an implied-in-fact promise that he would not be discharged except for good cause; the nonsuit was therefore error and the judgment was reversed (id. at p. 330).

A probationary deputy sheriff was fired, told the reasons, and then had to repeat those reasons to every police agency he applied to. He sued for libel and slander on the theory that his own republication was compelled and foreseeable – a question the First District called one of first impression in California. Adopting an exception recognized in other states, the court held that the causal link justifying liability for foreseeable republication is no weaker when the republisher is the defamed person acting under strong compulsion, so long as the employer knew of the compelling circumstances when it spoke. The ruling is a narrow one: the claims were merely 'not without merit,' the plaintiff had to amend to plead foreseeability, and the rest of his case remained barred by res judicata.