Page:Smith v. American Greetings Corp.pdf/2

Rh employee failed to state a cause of action for wrongful discharge.
 * 1) T.—A claim of the tort of outrage by an at-will employee cannot be predicated on the fact of discharge alone, but the manner in which the discharge is accomplished or the circumstances under which it occurs may render the employer liable.
 * 2) T.—Where an at-will employee was discharged for provoking management personnel into a fight there was no showing by the employee of extreme and outrageous conduct necessary to support the tort of outrage or the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Appeal from Mississippi Circuit Court; Gerald Pearson, Judge; affirmed.

W. Hunter Williams Jr., for appellant.

Moore, Moore-Hart & Barton, by Tom A. Bennett and Janice Levin, for appellee.

R H. D, Justice. The plaintiff, Howard Smith III, was hired in 1980 by the defendant, American Greetings Corporation, as a materials handler at defendant's plant in Osceola. He was subsequently promoted to forklift driver and held that job until he was fired in 1989. After being fired, he filed a complaint in circuit court in which he alleged that he was wrongfully discharged and that the defendant was guilty of the tort of outrage. The defendant filed an ARCP Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state facts upon which relief can be granted. The trial court granted the motion. The plaintiff appeals. We affirm the ruling.

[1] Arkansas has long adhered to the employment-at-will doctrine which provides that a contract of employment for an indefinite term is terminable at the will of either party. Griffin V. Erickson, 277 Ark. 433, 642 S.W.2d 308 (1982). Under this doctrine an at-will employee may be discharged for good cause, no cause, or even a morally wrong cause. J.T. Youngdahl, The Erosion of the Employment-at-Will Doctrine in Arkansas, 40 Ark. L. Rev. 545, 546 (1987). In Lucas v. Brown & Root, Inc., 736 F.2d 1202 (8th Cir. 1984), the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals assumed that, under Arkansas case law, every employment relationship, even one terminable at will, contains "an