As a labor and employment lawyer who has represented employers for about 30 years, I have read many New Jersey Supreme Court employment cases I have disagreed with, but never one I believed was as injurious to the public and the profession as Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright Corp. , A-51-09, decided on Dec. 2.
In Quinlan , the Court in effect ruled that an employer may not fire an employee for stealing confidential documents if she sues the employer for discrimination under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, NJLAD, and uses them in her lawsuit. It told us that an employee’s theft of confidential documents is an acceptable act so long as those documents are used in a lawsuit against the employer. Keep in mind, Quinlan is not a whistleblower case. The documents were not taken and submitted to a governmental agency as part of a complaint. They were stolen for personal gain.
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