Beverly J. Dean, Cross-Appellant v. Ford Motor Credit Company, Cross-Appellee · 885 F.2d 300

holding under Texas law that where plaintiff proved supervisor intentionally placed employer’s check in plaintiff’s purse to make it appear she was a thief or put her in fear of criminal charges took case beyond realm of ordinary employment dispute and into realm of outrageous one

How later courts described this case

holding under Texas law that where plaintiff proved supervisor intentionally placed employer’s check in plaintiff’s purse to make it appear she was a thief or put her in fear of criminal charges took case beyond realm of ordinary employment dispute and into realm of outrageous one
holding that the employer’s efforts to expose Dean to accusations of criminal conduct, not its continually transferring the employee or subjecting her to reviews, placed the situation “beyond the realm of an ordinary employment dispute and into the realm of an outrageous one”
recognizing that supervisor's act of placing checks in the employee's purse to make it appear that she was a thief and to put her in fear of criminal prosecution was extreme and outrageous conduct
stating that for purposes of preserving an appeal, a Rule 12(b)(6) Motion filed in response to an Original Complaint did not address the amended Complaint

Written by the judges who cited it.

Distinguished

Distinguished by Halliburton Co. v. Sanchez, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 467 (1999)
Although favorable to the appellee’s argument, Dean is factually distinguishable from the present case.
Court of Appeals of TexasJan 27, 1999Read it

The opinion

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge,

specially concurring:

I concur in the result reached in this case because the conduct of the employer in attempting to set up a totally innocent employee as a target for a criminal charge, simply because she opposed a blatantly illegal employment practice, is so outrageous and extremely rare, that I do not consider this opinion to open the door for a body of new law in the workplace. If I thought so, I would not extend this nascent cause of action into the field of employee-employer relations. If it were to be done, I would let the Texas courts do it.