The long-awaited decision of Kidwell v. Sybaritic came down from the Supreme Court this morning, and the news wasn’t good for Brian Kidwell. Kidwell was terminated from his job as in-house counsel at Sybaritic after sending an e-mail to company officials calling attention to alleged discovery violations that company committed. He sued under state whistleblowing law and was awarded $197,000 in damages and $130,000 in attorney fees.
In a plurality opinion, the court said that the whistleblower statute does not include a job duties exception that prevents lawyers from being whistleblowers, but that Kidwell did not engage in protected conduct when he sent an e-mail.
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The supreme court worked pretty hard to take this away from Kidwell. The opinion makes clear that there is no business duties exception as articulated by the court of appeals. However, why did the supreme court go back and second guess the jury’s factual determination that there was good faith?