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Babick v. Oregon Arena Corp.2/22/2002
(Consolidated for Argument and Opinion)
Argued and submitted September 11, 2000.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed in part and reversed in part. The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed in part and reversed in part. The case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.
The issue in this civil action is whether plaintiffs, at-will employees who worked for defendant as security guards at a concert arena, stated claims for relief for wrongful discharge and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress. The Court of Appeals ruled that certain of the plaintiffs had stated claims for relief with respect to both torts. Babick v. Oregon Arena Corp., 160 Or App 140, 980 P2d 1147 (1999). For the reasons that follow, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals with respect to those plaintiffs' wrongful discharge claim, but otherwise affirm.
We take the following statement of facts from the lead opinion in the Court of Appeals:
"Defendant owns the Memorial Coliseum, a large entertainment forum in Portland. Defendant hired plaintiffs to provide security and medical assistance at music concerts and other entertainment events held there. As part of their employment, plaintiffs received training from defendant to carry out their functions as security officers. That training included instruction on 'radio procedures, * * * defensive tactics, the use of force, action to be taken in cases of suspected drug possession and the possession of alcohol by minors, arrest protocol * * *.' One night, some of those security officers were working at a music concert performed by the group known as Phish. At that concert, certain security officers arrested, or attempted to arrest, some members of the audience for engaging in assaultive behavior and illegal drug and alcohol possession. The arrests were consistent with the training they had received from defendant and were otherwise lawful under Oregon law. About a week later, defendant discharged the entire group of security officers, including those who were at the concert but did not make any arrests and those who were employed as security officers at the time but did not work at that concert. Defendant fired all the security officers in retaliation for the lawful law enforcement actions of some security officers at the Phish concert." 160 Or App at 142-43.
After they were fired, plaintiffs brought the present action against defendant, alleging wrongful discharge (on the theory that they had been discharged for fulfilling an important societal duty, i.e., arresting lawbreakers) and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress (on the theory that, in terminating their employment, defendant intended to and did cause them severe emotional distress). Defendant moved to dismiss under ORCP 21 A(8), and the trial court granted that motion. With the court's leave, plaintiffs then submitted an amended complaint that supplemented the factual allegations that pertained to the intentional infliction of severe emotional distress claim. Specifically, plaintiffs alleged:
"11.
"Defendant, through its agents and employees, did the following during and after the November 24 Phish concert:
"a. publicly berated plaintiffs for taking or attempting to take law enforcement action at the November 24 Phish concert consistent with Oregon law and defendant's prior instruction;
"b. interfered with plaintiffs' efforts to take law enforcement action at the November 24 Phish concert by releasing intoxicated and violent concertgoers who had been detained by plaintiffs, thereby undermining plaintiffs in the performance of their security duti
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