Verbal Abuse/Threats Toward Supervisor Grounds For Firing, Court Says

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

May 1998

  Quick Summary: A mental hygiene therapy aide can be fired for verbally abusing his supervisor and threatening physical harm, according to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division. This is serious enough to constitute employee misconduct justifying termination, the court ruled.

  There was a previous infraction where this aide had carried out a physical assault upon a security guard. Taken together, according to the court, the two incidents were more than ample grounds for discharging this person. Claim of Cuevas, 667 N.Y.S.2d 502 (N.Y. App., 1998).