Gandy v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
8 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 56 later decisions — most recently November 2022 · most notably Weidler v. Big J Enterprises, Inc. (1997), Barreras v. State Corrections Department (2002)
8 district · 40 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Assn. · United States v. Western Pacific Railroad · Carlson v. Green · Wright v. City of Roanoke Redevelopment & Housing Authority · Vigil v. Arzola
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Under [the New Mexico statute], the words ‘shall’ and ‘will’ are mandatory and ‘may* is permissive. Based on this canon of statutory construction, the grievance procedure in the Act appears to be permissive and not mandatory____ Although we acknowledge that legislative silence is at best a tenuous guide to legislative intent, the fact remains that there is no language in the Human Rights Act stating that its remedies are intended to be exclusive. Absent such language, we decline to infer a legislative intent to preempt tort claims unless such intent is clearly demonstrated by the comprehensiveness of the administrative scheme and the completeness of the remedy it affords.... Although the Human Rights Act provides an efficient, sensible, and comprehensive scheme for remedying violations of the rights it protects, the remedies it affords differ from those potentially available under the tort of retaliatory discharge.... Punitive damages are sometimes recoverable in tort actions but are not recoverable under the Human Rights Act. Because the language of the Act is permissive and contains no declaration that the remedies it provides are exclusive, and because the remedies provided in the Act are not the same as the remedies available in a tort action for retaliatory discharge, we hold that the legislature did not intend the Act’s remedies to be exclusive.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“A retaliatory discharge cause of action was recognized in New Mexico as a narrow exception to the terminable at-will rule; its genesis and sole application has been in regard to employment at-will. The express reason for recognizing this tort, and thus modifying the terminable at-will rule, was the need to encourage job security for those employees not protected from wrongful discharge by an employment contract.... Obviously, if an employee is protected from wrongful discharge by an employment contract, the intended protection afforded by the retaliatory discharge action is unnecessary and inapplicable. Our holding on this issue is also consistent with recent federal court interpretations of New Mexico law in cases addressing the scope and applicability of a retaliatory discharge action.... We decline to extend the tort of retaliatory discharge beyond the limited context in which it has been recognized.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Wal-Mart relies on Silva v. Albuquerque Assembly & Distribution Freeport Warehouse Corp., 106 N.M. 19 , 738 P.2d 513 (1987) and McGinnis v. Honeywell, Inc. 110 N.M. 1 , 791 P.2d 452 (1990), for the proposition that the tort of retaliatory discharge will not lie where an employee is protected against wrongful discharge by another cause of action (in those cases, breach of an employment contract). We agree with Wal-Mart’s position to the extent it intimates that a plaintiff cannot recover twice for the same harm — once under the employment contract (or the Human Rights Act, as the case may be) and again under the tort____”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.