Donahue v. Federal Express Corp.

753 A.2d 238 (2000)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Donahue (P) filed a complaint against Federal Express (D) and Marshall (D1). P was an employee of D from 1979 until 1997. P’s final position was a Service Administrator with D1 being his supervisor. P questioned numerous invoices which did not comport to repair orders and P also called D’s attention to some possible shady business practices of D1 giving work to friends. When P complained to D1 about the invoices, D1 accused P of gross misconduct. P was accused of making a racial comment in front of another employee and was accused of making derogatory remarks about D1 in front of vendors and others. P claims he was treated poorly from that point forward, given extra work and ordered to falsify data to meet administrative requirements. P was terminated and appealed that termination through D’s guaranteed treatment program. The determination was that the termination was justified. P took two more appeals through the company system, and his termination was upheld. P’s complaint alleged a breach of good faith and fair dealing, violations of public policy in his termination, that he was not an at will employee, and violations of D’s policies in terminating him for lodging complaints against D1. Additional complaints were alleged in that D violated the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, and that D1 intentionally interfered with P’s relations with D. Ds filed a demurrer to the complaints and the trial judge entered judgment for Ds. This appeal resulted.