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Abraham v. County of Hennepin2/7/2002
d that the protections of Minn. Stat. § 181.932, subd. 1(a), are not limited to reports that implicate public policy. Accordingly, we hold that the provision of the Whistleblower Act that prohibits employer retaliation for an employee's report of a violation or suspected violation of federal or state law or rule adopted pursuant to law, Minn. Stat. §á181.932, subd. 1(a), does not require that an employee's report of a violation or suspected violation of law or rule adopted pursuant to law implicate public policy.
V.
We are also asked whether an employee's whistleblower claim fails if the employee does not specifically identify the law or rule he alleges that the employer violated. Appellants did not identify in their pleadings a specific federal or state law or rule adopted pursuant to law that they suspected the county of violating. Appellants' complaints to their supervisors and to the Safety and Health Division, however, implicated suspected violations of MOSHA, and their pleadings consequently implicated suspected violations of state law. A whistleblower claim need not identify the specific law or rule that the employee suspects has been violated, so long as there is a federal or state law or rule adopted pursuant to law that is implicated by the employee's complaint, the employee reported the violation or suspected violation in good faith, and the employee alleges facts that, if proven, would constitute a violation of law or rule adopted pursuant to law. See Obst v. Microtron, Inc., 614 N.W.2d 196, 204 (Minn. 2000); Minn. Stat. § 181.932, subd. 1(a). We hold that the Whistleblower Act, Minn. Stat. § 181.932, subd. 1(a), does not require that an employee specifically identify in the pleadings the law or rule adopted pursuant to law that the employee suspects has been violated, when the employee brings a claim under Minn. Stat. § 181.935(a) for retaliatory discharge resulting from a report made in good faith that a violation or suspected violation of law or rule adopted pursuant to law has occurred, and so long as the alleged facts, if proven, would constitute a violation of the law or rule adopted pursuant to law.
VI.
The final issue is whether appellants are collaterally estopped from pursuing their whistleblower claims. The county argues that remand for jury trial is improper because, after trial to the court alone, the district court directed that judgment be entered for the county, dismissing appellants' complaints with prejudice. Thus, the county argues that appellants are collaterally estopped from trying their claims again to a jury. A right to a jury trial ordinarily may not be abridged by the doctrine of collateral estoppel. Lytle v. Household Mfg., Inc., 494 U.S. 545, 550-51 (1990) and citations therein. We hold that, when an employee has improperly been denied the right to a jury trial in the district court, the employee is not estopped from pursuing claims previously tried, over the employee's objection, to the court alone.
Because we conclude that appellants were improperly denied their constitutional right to try to a jury their whistleblower and MOSHA claims, we vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for trial by jury.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
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