Wrongful Termination
Kenneth L. Mowery
BUS670: Legal Environment
Prof. Alexis Hooley
August 20, 2012

Wrongful Termination “Over the past 20 to 25 years courts have been carving out common law exceptions to employment at will” (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010, p. 1338). One of those exceptions is that of wrongful termination or unjust dismissal. In the past three years there have been five wrongful termination suits brought against Haywood Regional Medical Center. Three cases ended positively for the plaintiffs, while the other two showed that the Medical Center had the stronger case and that the Medical Center had just cause to terminate the employee. . “The remedies in successful wrongful discharge suits
A nurse filed a wrongful termination suit against the Youville HealthCare Center alleging that he was released because of pointing out “serious patient safety issues.” (Pham, 1997). Barry Adams, the RN, stated that he had noted many medication errors, patients left in unclean situations, and patient that had fall precautions that were being left alone, many of these falling. “Adams said in his lawsuit that Youville administrators fired him in October after he wrote several memos to hospital officials documenting unsafe patient conditions and requesting help” (Pham, 1997). It was Adams’ implied contract of patient safety that won his wrongful termination lawsuit against the Youville HealthCare Center. One of the cases against Haywood Regional Medical Center, mentioned in the outset, was when a nurse was fired for refusing to administer a medication, which the doctor ordered, to a patient. The nurse stated that the medication consisted of an ingredient that the patient was allergic to, and this was noted in the patient’s chart. The nurse was dismissed due to insubordination; however, she won the wrongful termination lawsuit against the hospital because she was doing the job that she was hired to do; taking care of her patient. Taking safe care of patients is an implied contract by this hospital. All employees are to safely care for their patients even if it means going against a higher authority’s order.
Good Faith and Fair Dealing