Employer – Employee : State Employee – Whistleblower Claim – ‘Disclosures’

Where a state employee who handled inspections of childcare facilities brought an action against her supervisors under Missouri’s whistleblowing statute claiming that she was fired as the result of a dispute over her disclosures regarding rule violations at a specific childcare center, the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on the basis that complaints made only to supervisors are not “disclosures” under the law and in finding that the employee failed to prove that her disclosures were protected as a matter of law, and the court also erred in concluding that the employee failed to seek administrative relief and in granting summary judgment on the basis that she is limited to recovery of non-economic actual damages, but the court correctly found that she may not get equitable relief under the statute.

Judgment is affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part.

Hudson v. O’Brien (MLW No. 67055/Case No. WD77055 – 18 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Ellis, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Cole County, Joyce, J. (David J. Moen for appellant) (Chuck Henson for respondent).

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