Montana Supreme Court Upholds Termination Under Employment Statute

Montana is the only state in the union that has a wrongful termination statute. Becker v. Rosebud, __-P.2d___(Montana, August 12, 2008), is a Supreme Court decision which discusses the paramaters under this statute.   

The Montana Supreme Court held that an employer has just cause to discharge an employee who calls his supervisor a "pr$ck" and tells him to "kiss my *ss." (A factual dispute over whether the employee had also used "the 'F word'" was irrelevant, the court found.) There was no evidence to support the employee's contention that his use of foul language was a pretextual reason for his termination. And the use of such language was cause enough. While the employee noted that obscenities were common at the workplace and the environment was "not that of `a ladies' tea party,'" the state high court found that directing profanity at one's supervisor is "much more egregious" than the use of such language in the course of an ordinary workday.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein