A claim of wrongful discharge under Kentucky law arises where an employee's discharge from employment in contrary to public policy. The two prime examples are (1) where the employee is fired for refusing to violate a law in the course of his or her employment; and, (2) where the reason for discharge was the employee's exercise of a statutory right. Grzyb v. Evans, 700 S.W.2d 399 (Ky. 1985). The Kentucky Supreme Court relied on a Michigan case, Suchodolski v. Michigan Consolidated Gas Company, 316 N.W.2d 710 (Mich. 1982), for these clarifications.
Does a wrongful discharge under Kentucky law require proof that the employer ordered the employee to violate the law? Kentucky courts are yet to squarely address this question in a published opinion. The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Morrison v. B. Braun, No. 10-1548 (6th Cir., December 8, 2011), should provide some guidance since it relied upon Suchodolski. The Sixth Circuit, in an opinion authored by Judge Boyce Martin, rejected the employer's argument that the discharged employee must prove that she was ordered to violate the law by her employer:
Courts applying Michigan law have consistently defined the wrongful discharge tort at issue here as an employer's termination of an employee because of the employee's "failure or refusal to violate a law in the course of employment." No Michigan court has defined this cause of action to require a plaintiff to show that the employer directed him or her to violate the law.
