Section 47 Procedural Issues

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

When an employer breaches a statutory, regulatory, or constitutional duty to refrain from discharging an employee for a specified reason, the at-will employee may possess a cause of action for wrongful discharge under the public policy exception to the employment at-will doctrine. Rothweil v. Wetterau, Inc., 820 S.W.2d 557, 560 (Mo. App. E.D. 1991). Section 287.780, RSMo 1994, creates a judicially cognizable independent tort. Reed v. Sale Mem’l Hosp. & Clinic, 698 S.W.2d 931, 940 (Mo. App. S.D. 1985). The statute of limitations for tort claims is five years. Section 516.120, RSMo 1994; Ryder v. Ward, 933 S.W.2d 428 (Mo. App. W.D. 1996); see also State ex rel. Wingfield v. Kansas City, 263 S.W. 516 (Mo. App. W.D. 1924) (suit by wrongfully discharged civil service employee for...