Section 12 Employees Who Have No Explicit “for Cause” Protection

• Library: Personnel Hearings 2011

See I Missouri Local Government Law §§3.28–3.33 and 3.68–3.96 (MoBar 3^rd ed. 2002, 2008 and Supp. 2008) for a discussion of the employment at-will doctrine and its exceptions.

Some employees may be terminated without cause. These include probationary employees in the merit system, Jones v. W. Mo. Mental Health Ctr., 878 S.W.2d 84 (Mo. App. W.D. 1994), and at the local level, Hardy v. City of Berkeley, 936 S.W.2d 879 (Mo. App. E.D. 1997).

The effect on the employee is set forth in Christy v. Petrus, 295 S.W.2d 122, 124 (Mo. banc 1956):

The rule is well established in this state and elsewhere that in the absence of a contract for employment for a definite term or a contrary statutory provision, an employer may discharge an employee at any time, without cause or reason, or for any reason and, in such case, no action can be maintained for wrongful discharge.

This not only means that the employee has no right to procedures under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution before or after termination to ensure the adequacy of the reasons for dismissal, but also that the employee has no right to judicial review.

The fact that city officials:

held a summary hearing to assist in the determination of whether to discharge a police officer; and

acquiesced in the police officer’s request for a full hearing to permit them to reconsider their position

did not change the nature of the police...