John C. Harless, Appellee v. First National Bank in Fairmont

Summary

The court held that a supervisor may be personally liable for retaliatory discharge even when another officer formally fired the employee, because the supervisor's conduct contributed to the discharge. It also held that emotional-distress damages are recoverable in a retaliatory-discharge action, but punitive damages require additional wanton, willful, or malicious conduct. The court rejected the separate outrageous-conduct claim as unsupported and duplicative, corrected the verdict to $25,000, and allowed the plaintiff to accept that amount or obtain a new trial limited to damages.