NEW YORK-NY—On December 17, 2009, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi granted a motion for summary judgment filed by Renzulli Law Firm, LLP and dismissed the complaint against its client in its entirety.

Plaintiff was terminated for poor performance in August 2006.  He responded by suing his former employer claiming that he had been discharged in violation of Mississippi’s public policy because the “real” reason he had been discharged was he had allegedly reported illegal and unethical conduct.  Plaintiff also claimed that he had been intentionally and negligently subjected to emotional distress by his supervisor during his employment.  Through thorough and complete discovery, Renzulli Law Firm, LLP was able to establish that plaintiff had lied on his employment application regarding his prior employment history and, in fact, had been terminated for cause from two prior employers and had responded by unsuccessfully suing each of them for wrongful discharge. 
After the conclusion of discovery, Renzulli Law Firm, LLP filed a motion for summary judgment on behalf of its client demonstrating that plaintiff had not reported any illegal conduct by his employer or co-employees as required to satisfy the public policy exception to Mississippi’s employment-at-will doctrine, and that his emotional distress claims were without basis in law or fact.  In response to the strength of the arguments raised in the motion for summary judgment, plaintiff voluntarily withdrew his claims for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.  In a decision which quoted extensively from Renzulli Law Firm’s memorandum of law in support of the motion for summary judgment, Chief Judge Mills dismissed the remainder of plaintiff’s complaint, holding that plaintiff had failed to establish a genuine disputed issue of material fact necessary to support his claim that he was discharged because he reported illegal conduct.

For more information on the defense of wrongful termination and other employment related claims, contact Christopher Renzulli.