Home Depot employee’s wrongful discharge claim hammered

Under certain circumstances, Oklahoma law recognizes terminated employees may pursue a public policy wrongful discharge claim against a former employer. The claims allow a narrow exception to employees’ employment-at-will status (i.e., that they could be fired at any time for any reason). Among other things, they must establish (1) the reason for their discharge violated a public policy recognized by Oklahoma constitutional, statutory, or case law, and (2) no statutory remedy exists to protect the public policy. Over the years, terminated employees and their lawyers have aggressively tried to expand situations when an individual could sue for public policy wrongful discharge. The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected a Home Depot employee’s most recent expansion attempt.

Terminated employee pursues public policy claim

Jeffrey Booth worked for Home Depot as an installation service manager. He contacted his supervisor and reported what he believed was an instance of a homeowner being overcharged for unnecessary window wraps. He claimed the supervisor ignored his report and concerns.

Soon after, Home Depot began investigating Booth for an e-mail he sent criticizing a coworker’s job performance. Two days after his overcharge report, the company fired him.

Booth believed he had been unfairly terminated and sued Home Depot for public policy wrongful discharge. He accused the employer of firing him on account of the customer overcharge report he made to his supervisor.