Section 3 Common Law Exceptions to At-Will Employment

• Library: Employment Discrimination 2008

In 1985, in Boyle v. Vista Eyewear, Inc., 700 S.W.2d 859 (Mo. App.
W.D. 1985), the Western District of the Court of Appeals first recognized a narrow public policy exception to the general rule of at-will employment in Missouri arising out of the common law, following the lead of over 28 other states at the time. Boyle held that:

[W]here an employer has discharged an at-will employee because that employee refused to violate the law or any well established and clear mandate of public policy as expressed in the constitution, statutes and regulations promulgated pursuant to statute, or because the employee reported to his superiors or to public authorities serious misconduct that constitutes violations of the law and of such well established and clearly mandated public policy, the employee has a cause of action in tort for damages for wrongful discharge.

Boyle, 700 S.W.2d at 878.

The Eastern and Southern Districts of the Court of Appeals subsequently concurred with the Western District’s holding in Boyle,700 S.W.2d 859. SeeBeasley v....