173 N.C. App. 218 - Whitings v. Wolfson Casing Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
2005
Citation profile
23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently September 2022 · most notably Pierce v. Atlantic Group, Inc. (2012), Bigelow v. Town of Chapel Hill (2013)
23 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
Relies on Coman v. Thomas Manufacturing Co. · Kurtzman v. Applied Analytical Industries, Inc. · 145 N.C. App. 314 - Considine v. Compass Group USA, Inc. · 139 N.C. App. 676 - Johnson v. Trustees of Durham Technical Community College · 155 N.C. App. 685 - Salter v. E & J HEALTHCARE, INC.
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In North Carolina, the employer-employee relationship is governed by the at-will employment doctrine, which states that “in the absence of a contractual agreement between an employer and an employee establishing a definite term of employment, the relationship is presumed to be terminable at the will of either party without regard to the quality of performance of either party.” However, our Supreme Court has recognized a cause of action for wrongful discharge in violation of the public policy of North Carolina. “There is no specific list of what actions constitute a violation of public policy. . . . However, wrongful discharge claims have been recognized in North Carolina where the employee was discharged (1) for refusing to violate the law at the employer’s request, ... (2) for engaging in a legally protected activity, or (3) based on some activity by the employer contrary to law or public policy[.]””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[t]he public policy exception to the at-will employment doctrine is confined to the express statements contained within our General Statutes or our Constitution.”
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.