Dallas Business Lawyer Blog

Wal-Mart Wins Wrongful Termination Lawsuit

A jury sided with Walmart in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former employee. In 2006, Tina Richey was fired from her job in the cosmetics department of a Walmart in Montgomery. She claimed she was fired because she refused to follow through with her supervisor's order to deliberately damage unsold cosmetics so they could be returned to the vendor for credit. Richey argued the order was illegal, as it would constitute theft by deception. Walmart denied Richey was directed to perform any illegal acts and contended her termination was justified. It argued Richey was fired for theft of company time, which was caught on the store's surveillance camera. The jury found that Richey hadn't been instructed to commit an illegal act and rendered a verdict for the defense.

Suit Over Wrongful Termination That Cost Stock Options

 

Austin computer game pioneer Richard Garriott says he was still in Russia in quarantine in November after his trip into space when he received news that really brought him back to Earth: NCsoft Corp., where he had worked since 2001, was firing him.

In a federal lawsuit, Garriott alleges that the company mischaracterized his departure as being voluntary, which forced him to quickly sell his NCsoft stock options in "one of the worst equity markets in modern history." In the event of an involuntary termination, he would have had through June 2011 to do so.

Garriott is seeking $27 million in damages to cover the reduced value of his options and the taxes and other costs related to the sale. The lawsuit says that NCsoft breached its contract with Garriott and committed "fraud and/or negligent misrepresentation" tied to the circumstances of his departure.

Jury Does Not Find Wrongful Termination

 

On Nov. 6, 2008, a jury sided with a mental hospital accused of firing an employee because he complained about alleged code violations. In 2007, Gerald Stevenson said he was fired after only a month of employment at Cedar Crest Hospital in Belton. He alleged he was terminated in retaliation for filing incident reports about health and safety code violations regarding the treatment of minors in the facility, including two instances where he claimed he witnessed workers improperly restrain patients. Cedar Crest denied the code violation allegations and said Stevenson voluntarily resigned after he was informed that his claims were investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. The jury found that Stevenson was not terminated and ruled in favor of the hospital.