Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)

Citation: Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)
Parent Document: Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 1997-09-23
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2395626/carl-v-childrens-hospital/ ↗

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This is not to say, however, that the courts began to lose their own traditional common law role as the legislature started to protect employees. To the contrary, this court held not long ago in Adams v. George W. Cochran & Co., 597 A.2d 28, 30-34 (D.C.1991)—on the basis of a common law “public policy exception”—that an at-will employee has a claim in tort for wrongful discharge if fired because of her refusal to violate a statute or municipal regulation. The en banc court holds today, moreover, that we retain a role in fashioning exceptions to the at-will rule when circumstances dictate change. Judge Steadman, however, takes an exceptionally extreme position, basically saying: the legislators over the years have shown enough involvement with employer-employee rights for us to get out of the business and let them take charge of the at-will issue entirely. (Under the logic of his analysis, therefore, we should overrule Adams today to permit the Council to decide what happens when an employer fires an employee for a refusal to break the law at the employer’s request.)

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