An employee fired in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim is barred from pursuing a public policy wrongful discharge claim.

The syllabus of the Ohio Supreme Court decision in Bickers v. W. & S. Life Insurance Co., 116 Ohio St.3d 351, 2007 Ohio 6751, 879 N.E.2d 201 (2007), stated, in pertinent part, that "[a]n employee who is terminated from employment while receiving workers' compensation has no common-law cause of action for wrongful discharge in violation of the public policy underlying R.C. 4123.90, which provides the exclusive remedy for employees claiming termination in violation of rights conferred by the Workers' Compensation Act." The present case involved a factual scenario in which the employee was fired for retaliatory reasons. Although the Tenth Appellate District observed that the body of the Bickers opinion made it clear that the Ohio Supreme Court was not intending to address this type of fact situation, the Court of Appeals held that it was bound by Rule 1 of the Ohio Supreme Court Rules for the Reporting of Decisions to apply the Bickers syllabus so as to affirm summary judgment for the employer on the employee's public policy wrongful discharge claim.

Case Law Alert - 1st Qtr 2010