An employee fired for reporting a co-employee's illegal acts relating to their employment may sue for wrongful termination and retaliatory discharge, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled recently in DeCarlo v. Bonus Stores, Inc. (No. 2007-FC-02287-SCT).
DeCarlo learned that the company CEO was defrauding the company. He reported this information to the company's CFO and several members of the company's board of directors. He was fired and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit for retaliatory discharge. The court ruled that his claim presented an exception to the employment-at-will doctrine and that a wrongful termination claim arose from a "discharge in retaliation for reporting a co-employee's illegal acts that relate to the employer's business."
