Section 9 Cases Declaring Rule

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

Examples of cases declaring the employment-at-will doctrine are:

• Dake v. Tuell, 687 S.W.2d 191, 192–93 (Mo. banc 1985) (Judge Blackmar’s concurring opinion specifically criticizes the principal opinion for these “unnecessarily broad pronouncements,” id. at 194)

• Hansome v. Northwestern Cooperage Co., 679 S.W.2d 273, 275 n.2 (Mo. banc 1984)

• Amaan v. City of Eureka, 615 S.W.2d 414, 415 (Mo. banc 1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1084 (1981) (dictum)

• Howe v. St. Louis Union Trust Co., 392 S.W.2d 625, 627 (Mo. 1965)

• Christy v. Petrus, 295 S.W.2d 122, 124 (Mo. banc 1956).

Missouri’s at-will doctrine was expressly reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Johnson v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 745 S.W.2d 661, 663 (Mo. banc 1988). Based on an appellate court’s reading of Johnson, 745 S.W.2d 661, a strong statement regarding application of the at-will doctrine to wrongful discharge cases was made in Hanrahan v. Nashua Corp., 752 S.W.2d 878, 883–84 (Mo. App. E.D. 1988):

[I]t is of no matter what particular legal theory an employee asserts against the employer for a...