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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

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

Other Sections in This Document (617)

Full Text

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I can see at least three principal advantages to requiring that public policy exceptions to the at-will-employment doctrine be fashioned exclusively by the legislature. First, the legislature is the proper organ of government to make and define the scope of public policy. As a democratically elected body it is uniquely beholden to the concerns of the employers and employees of the District in a way we are not, and it has the power to hold hearings and conduct inquiry into a broad range of collateral issues and competing concerns that we do not. This is particularly the case where what is at issue is not a refusal by the courts to enforce some socially unacceptable contractual provision, see RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF CONTRACTS § 178 (1981), but rather the creation of a hitherto nonexistent basis for an affirmative cause of action in tort.