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Wholey v. Sears Roebuck6/19/2002
tal as the licensee under the regulation, COMAR 26.12.01.01, ยง D.409(b), and not the employee-physicist; therefore the employee could not claim protection from wrongful discharge under a public policy mandate); Bleich v. Florence Crittenton Serv., 98 Md. App. 123, 138-40, 632 A.2d 463, 470-71 (1993)(recognizing a wrongful discharge claim for an educator terminated for filing a report for child abuse and neglect, as she was explicitly required to do by Maryland law, COMAR 07.02.23.01.A and COMAR 07.02.23.06D(1)(c)); see also Shapiro v. Massengill, 105 Md. App. 743,768-69, 661 A.2d 202, 215, cert. denied, 341 Md. 28, 668 A.2d 36 (1995)(refusing to consider a claim of wrongful discharge "absent some clear mandate" or duty which the employee himself "actually could be held responsible" for breaching). The petitioner cannot point to any statute or regulation pertaining to his duties as either a Sears security officer or a deputy sheriff that would have held him accountable for failing to investigate or report the suspicious activity of the store manager.
We also shall consider the purpose of the petitioner's duties because such purpose, particularly as it relates to the general public, has also been a consideration in some jurisdictions. For example, the Connecticut Supreme Court, in Sheets v. Teddy's Frozen Foods, Inc., 427 A.2d 385 (1980), found a valid cause of action for wrongful discharge when an employee was fired for attempting to ensure that the employer's product complied with labeling and licensing laws of the state. As the "quality control director" of the company, the employee maintained responsibility for ensuring compliance with the regulations to which the company was bound under the Connecticut Uniform Drug and Cosmetic Act. Id. at 388. Therefore, the court stated that, "an employee should not be put to an election whether to risk criminal sanction or to jeopardize his continued employment." Id. at 389. Contrary to the Connecticut case, the petitioner in the present case would not have risked criminal sanction for failing to pursue, on his employer's request, the continued investigation of the store manager. The reporting duties of the petitioner and Sheets are distinguishable. The petitioner was tasked with protecting the property of Sears from theft by customers and employees, and without question, in investigating the store manager, the petitioner was fulfilling the specific duties for which he was hired. The purpose of this duty, however, was to guard the private proprietary interests of Sears; Sheets, on the other hand, was responsible for ensuring compliance with a Connecticut regulation enacted to protect consumers, and thus the public, as a whole. Therefore, the petitioner cannot seek solace in the fact that his duties required him to investigate possible thefts.
Nor can the petitioner seek protection from an esoteric theory about acting in the "public good" by investigating criminal activity. The public good is best served by reporting suspected criminal activity to law enforcement authorities; an action which the petitioner, in this case, did not take. Granted, in order to report some suspected criminal activity a certain amount of marshaling of the facts may occur, but the mere recognition of a potential problem and gathering of information are not per se in the public interest. Furthermore, we decline to create a tort cause of action based solely on transcendental notions of that which is in the public interest, particularly when our own Legislature has declined to make individual citizens criminally responsible for failing to investigate or report criminal activity. In Pope v. State, 284 Md. 309, 352, 396 A.2d 1054, 1078 (1979), we noted:
If the Legislature finds
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