Villarin v. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein School

OPINION OF THE COURT

Renwick, J.

In New York, pursuant to the well-established common-law doctrine of employment at will, an employee-employer relationship, in the absence of a contract and a stated duration, is presumed to be a hiring at-will. An at-will employment relationship may be freely terminated by either party for any reason or even no reason at all (Wieder v Skala, 80 NY2d 628, 633 [1992]). In the 1980s, however, New York, like the vast majority of jurisdictions, enacted public policy whistleblower exceptions for both private and public employees. At-will whistleblowing employees in…