Ohio Supreme Court Limits Public Policy Claims

Today the Ohio Supreme Court held that no public policy claim exists for wrongful discharge of an employee who is receiving workers’ compensation benefits.  

The Court’s decision in Bickers v. Western & Southern Life Insurance Company ends the debate about whether the Court’s 2003 decision in Coolidge creates a wrongful discharge claim for anyone other than public school teachers in Ohio.  Frost Brown Todd represented Western & Southern in the case.

Prior to Coolidge, employers were free to enforce a nondiscriminatory policy limiting leaves of absence to a set period of time.  For example, employers often enforced a policy that limited return-from-leave rights to the first six months an employee was absent from work for any reason.  In Coolidge, the Supreme Court dealt with a case involving a public school teacher who was not an at-will employee, but could only be discharged under a statute requiring “good and just cause” for termination.  When Ms. Coolidge was discharged while receiving temporary total disability benefits under the state’s workers’ compensation system, the Supreme Court held that her discharge was unlawful.  Plaintiffs’ lawyers have since argued – successfully before many Ohio appellate courts – that under Coolidge no employee receiving temporary total disability benefits could be discharged, and must be reinstated when the disabling condition ended, no matter how long the employee was on leave.

In Bickers, the First District Court of Appeals in Hamilton County agreed with the plaintiffs’ bar, holding that Bickers’ complaint over her discharge stated a cause of action for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.  The decision announced today by the Ohio Supreme Court reverses the First District Court of Appeals and squarely holds two things.  First, “[w]e hold that Coolidge is limited to considerations of ‘good and just cause’ for termination under R.C. 3319.16 [the statute governing the employment of public school teachers] and does not create a claim of wrongful discharge in violation of public policy for an employee who is discharged while receiving workers’ compensation.”

Second, the Court went on to say “. . . we also hold that the constitutionally sanctioned, and legislatively created, compromise of employer and employee interest reflected in the workers’ compensation system precludes a common-law claim of wrongful discharge in violation of public policy when an employee files a workers’ compensation claim and is discharged for nonretaliatory reasons.”

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Cupp authored the Court’s 5-2 majority opinion, joined by Justices Lundberg Stratton, O’Connor, O’Donnell and Lanzinger.  Justices Moyer and Pfeifer dissented.

For private sector employers, the Bickers decision means that employees on temporary total workers’ compensation leave are not required to receive special treatment under policies limiting the length of leaves.

Posted by: George E. Yund

Categories: Ohio