Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Is Protective Activity Protected?


 From the Consumerist, below is a video of an attempted robbery at a Detroit area Walgreens that resulted in three attempted firings of a gun, some firing of a gun, and one firing of an employee that fired a gun.

Two masked robbers entered the pharmacy, one jumped over the counter and tried to shoot the pharmacist, but had problems with his weapon.
"At that moment, [the pharmacist] reasonably and justifiably believed that the was going to be shot and either killed or seriously injured by the armed robber," [said the pharmacist's lawyer]. "[He] then fired his handgun several times in self-defense and in defense of his co-workers."
According to the Consumerist:
Walgreens dismissed the man for violating its "no escalation" policy and disagrees with the plaintiff's contention that he had a "right to carry or discharge a concealed weapon on its premises at any time."
The employee filed a wrongful termination suit.  Michigan recognizes a public policy exception to at will employment as well as an implied-contract exception (Toussaint v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan, 408 Mich. 579, 292 N.W.2d 880 (1980) is one of those casebook cases on the latter), so he is probably suing under one or both of those.  Given that this guy had been robbed at work before and was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, it would be interesting to see the outcome of the public policy exception.

But given the reaction of the public and the press this one is probably destined for settlement.



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