Little v. Bryce

Although I concur in the reversal, I am somewhat discomfited with the majority’s disposition of the third point of error, asserting a wrongful termination of employment. It deserves further comment here.

The judicially-created “employment-at-will” doctrine was invoked by the trial court as a complete bar to appellant’s claim for wrongful termination. It is a tenacious vestige from the industrial revolution and laissez-faire economics,1 when there was no perceived social responsibility, much less government intervention in the economy, to protect or assist those who had been permanently…