Overruling Risk -- Wrongful Discharge Example

The tort of wrongful discharge in violation of public policy is an exception to the general rule that at-will employees can quit or be fired for any reason. Gardner v. Loomis Armored, Inc., 128 Wash. 2d 931, 935 (1996). In Weiss v. Lonnquist, 173 Wash. App. 344 (2013), the Court of Appeals said that a discharged attorney couldn't claim the tort because she had an effective alternative: filing a bar association complaint about her boss's allegedly improper conduct.

If you're looking at Weiss v. Lonnquist on Westlaw, you'll see a new icon, an exclamation point in an orange circle. This is a new feature of KeyCite that alerts you a case that overruled a case your case relies on.

Overruling Risk icon
(redrawn to make it scale well)

In 2015, the Washington Supreme Court explicitly abrogated a rule that the existence of an "adequate" alternative means a plaintiff can never claim wrongful discharge in violation of public policy. Rose v. Anderson Hay & Grain Co., 184 Wash. 2d 268, 286 (2015). The Washington Supreme Court cited three cases that had developed that rule: Hubbard, Cudney, and Korslund. (If this were more formal writing than a blog post, I'd give the full citations, but the nicknames will do for now.)

The court didn't mention Weiss v. Lonnquist. BUT WEISS RELIED ON THE THREE CASES THAT WERE MENTIONED. So before you relied on Weiss for its statement of the rule, you would sure want to know about the newer case.

Westlaw's programmers have created an algorithm that looks for cases that rely on an overruled case, not just any case that cited it. In this example, the algorithm worked very well.

Westlaw's own documentation:

• Introducing KeyCite Overruling Risk page
• KeyCite Overruling Risk on Westlaw Edge (54-second video)

UW Law users have this new feature now because we adopted Westlaw Edge in September. Students from most other law schools will have this feature in January. (Faculty from most schools get it in November.)