Employee’s Reporting of Potential Future Violation of Law, Regulation or Rule Sufficient to Trigger “Protected Activity” Element in Whistleblower’s Protection Act Claim

In Pace v. Jessica Edel-Harrelson, et al, issued on February 24, 2015, the Michigan Court of Appeals addressed a Whistleblowers Protection Act claim. There are two remarkable points to the case.  The first is that the COA panel (Shapiro, Gleicher and Roynayne-Krause) holds that reporting a suspected future violation of a regulation, law or rule is sufficient to trigger [...]

Supreme Court Affirms Important Principle Regarding What Truly Constitutes a “Genuine” and Therefore “Material” Question of Fact Sufficient to Survive a Summary Motion for Judgment

In Fuhr v. Trinity Health Corp., et al., Supreme Court No. 147158, the Michigan Supreme Court peremptorily reversed the Court of Appeals decision to affirm denial of summary judgment to the defendants (hospital) in a Whistleblower's Protection Act (WPA) lawsuit filed by a former employee.  The plaintiff alleged he was terminated because of a call he placed [...]