Leach v. Northern Telecom, Inc.

141 F.R.D. 420, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1333, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19340, 58 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,341, 1991 WL 326458
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. North Carolina
DecidedSeptember 9, 1991
DocketNo. 90-731-CIV-5-BR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 141 F.R.D. 420 (Leach v. Northern Telecom, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leach v. Northern Telecom, Inc., 141 F.R.D. 420, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1333, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19340, 58 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,341, 1991 WL 326458 (E.D.N.C. 1991).

Opinion

ORDER

BRITT, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on plaintiff’s motions to strike an affirmative de[422]*422fense and to strike an offer of judgment pursuant to Rule 12(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and on both parties’ motions for sanctions related to these Rule 12(f) motions. The parties have fully briefed these motions and they are now ripe for ruling.

I. Facts

On 11 December 1990, plaintiff filed a two-count complaint alleging that she was discriminated against on the basis of her sex and in retaliation for protected expression, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2(a)(l) & 2000e-3(a), and wrongfully discharged in violation of North Carolina common law. Her complaint alleges the following: Plaintiff was a manager at Northern Telecom when she complained to her immediate supervisor, Scott McKinney, that several of the employees she supervised were experiencing health problems due to being overworked by the company. She requested additional help, but Mr. McKinney rejected her request. In accordance with defendant’s “open-door” policy, plaintiff then met with Mr. McKinney’s immediate supervisors to discuss her concerns. As a result, her relationship with Mr. McKinney began to deteriorate. Mr. McKinney ultimately issued three warnings citing plaintiff for insubordination.

Plaintiff eventually accused Mr, McKinney of sex discrimination with respect to his decisions on salary level, work load, and expected productivity for male and female managers under his direct supervision. Defendant conducted an internal investigation of these accusations and found them to be unsubstantiated. On or about the same day defendant came to this conclusion, plaintiff was removed from her position as a manager and placed on a special assignment which was to last sixty days. She was informed that if she was unable to acquire another position within the company in sixty days, she would be terminated. Plaintiff’s attempts to find comparable work within the sixty-day period were unsuccessful and she was therefore discharged.

II. Discussion

A. Affirmative Defense

Defendant’s third affirmative defense states:

Pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), F.R.Civ.P., Defendant moves to dismiss those of plaintiff’s claims allegedly based on wrongful discharge, because in North Carolina an action for wrongful discharge is limited to those situations involving a discharge based on an employee’s refusal to follow her employer’s instructions to violate the law. Plaintiff’s allegations of sex discrimination and retaliatory discharge, should such be proven, do not involve an instruction to plaintiff by defendant to violate the law.

Plaintiff

submits that under applicable case authority, defendant Telecom’s Third Affirmative Defense, as amended, should be rejected as a matter of law as “insufficient” within the meaning of Rule 12(f) because she has stated a cause of action for the tort of wrongful discharge in violation of the public policy which is codified in ... North Carolina and federal law[.]

In their briefing, both plaintiff and defendant have thoroughly addressed and analyzed the merits of plaintiff’s wrongful discharge claim. Therefore, the court has decided to activate defendant’s motion to dismiss and consider it now. That motion should be granted if plaintiff’s wrongful discharge claim fails to state a claim on which relief can be granted. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). For the purpose of analyzing this motion, plaintiff’s allegations will be deemed to be accurate. See Miree v. De Kalb County, 433 U.S. 25, 27 n. 2, 97 S.Ct. 2490, 2492 n. 2, 53 L.Ed.2d 557 (1977).

1. North Carolina Wrongful Discharge Law

The North Carolina courts have long adhered to the rule that an employee can be discharged at any time and for any reason at the will of the employer, absent a contract for a definite term. See, e.g., Dockery v. Lampart Table Co., 36 N.C.App. 293, 244 S.E.2d 272, disc. rev. denied, 295 [423]*423N.C. 465, 246 S.E.2d 215 (1978) (at-will employee does not have cognizable claim for discharge in retaliation for filing worker’s compensation claim). However, since 1985 the North Carolina courts have recognized that the employment-at-will doctrine contains at least one important exception: discharge in violation of public policy. Because a complete understanding of the contours of this exception is critical to resolution of defendant’s motion to dismiss, the court will briefly discuss some of the cases in which this exception has been at issue.

In Sides v. Duke University, 74 N.C.App. 331, 328 S.E.2d 818, disc. rev. denied, 314 N.C. 331, 333 S.E.2d 490 (1985), plaintiff, a nurse anesthetist, alleged that she refused defendant doctor’s request to administer what she considered a dangerous dose of anesthesia to a patient. Id. at 333, 328 S.E.2d at 821. The doctor then personally administered the anesthesia and the patient went into cardiac arrest and suffered permanent brain damage. He sued the doctor and hospital. Before plaintiff was deposed, several physicians who worked at the hospital and hospital attorneys advised her not to tell all she knew about what happened and that she would “ ‘be in trouble’ ” if she did. Id. Rejecting this advice, plaintiff testified truthfully at both the deposition and trial. The jury returned a $1.75 million verdict for the patient. Id. Three months later, plaintiff was discharged effective immediately. Id. at 334, 328 S.E.2d at 822.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals distinguished Dockery by noting that the offenses plaintiff was allegedly asked to commit in exchange for preserving her job were “an affront to the integrity of our judicial system, an impediment to the constitutional mandate of the courts to administer justice fairly, and a violation of the right that all litigants in this State have to have their cases tried upon honest evidence fully given.” Id. at 338, 328 S.E.2d at 824. The court stated that “while there may be a right to terminate a contract at will for no reason, or for an arbitrary or irrational reason, there can be no right to terminate such a contract for an unlawful reason or purpose that contravenes public policy.” Id. at 342, 328 S.E.2d at 826. The court held that discharging an employee for refusing to testify untruthfully or incompletely in a court case would contravene public policy. Id. It therefore reversed the dismissal of plaintiff’s wrongful discharge claim. Id. at 349, 328 S.E.2d at 830.

In Williams v. Hillhaven Corp., 91 N.C.App. 35, 370 S.E.2d 423 (1988), plaintiff was a nurse-supervisor at defendant’s nursing home.

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141 F.R.D. 420, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1333, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19340, 58 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,341, 1991 WL 326458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leach-v-northern-telecom-inc-nced-1991.