Kenneth E. Wilcox v. Niagara of Wisconsin Paper Corporation and Elmer Beale

The computer controlling production at a paper mill crashes. While the system remains down, the manager responsible for its operation, told by his physician to “take it easy,” takes the weekend off, and is fired. To say that this states a claim for wrongful discharge is to say that hard work contravenes the law of Wisconsin.

We should take the Supreme Court of Wisconsin at its word: a firm may sack an at-will employee “for good cause, for no cause, or even for cause morally wrong,” Brockmeyer v. Dun & Bradstreet, 113 Wis.2d 561, 567, 335 N.W.2d 834, 837 (1983), unless the discharge “clearly…