JENNIFER KING v. DELFASCO, LLC, ET AL. - Articles

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JENNIFER KING v. DELFASCO, LLC, ET AL.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Sep 22, 2021

Court: TN Court of Appeals

Attorneys 1: Henry C. Shelton, III, Lucian T. Pera, and J. Bennett Fox, Jr., Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellants, Delfasco, LLC and Delfasco Finance, LLC.

Attorneys 2: Jimmie C. Miller and Joseph B. Harvey, Kingsport, Tennessee, for the appellee, Jennifer King.

Judge(s): SWINEY

This appeal concerns an alleged violation of Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-1-304, the Tennessee Public Protection Act (“TPPA”), as well as common law retaliatory discharge. Jennifer King (“King”), a former shipping and receiving coordinator for Delfasco, LLC, a company that manufactures defense-related products, sued Delfasco, LLC and related entity Delfasco Finance, LLC (“Delfasco” collectively) in the Circuit Court for Greene County (“the Trial Court”) alleging she was wrongfully fired for refusing to share with Delfasco owner Jack Goldenberg (“Goldenberg”) her government-issued password to the Department of Defense (“DOD”) Wide Area Workflow (“WAWF”) system. King had consulted a DOD representative who advised her not to reveal her password. After a trial, the Trial Court found in favor of King and awarded her damages. Delfasco appeals, arguing among other things that King was not asked to perform an illegal act. King raises her own issues concerning damages. We find, inter alia, that the evidence does not preponderate against the Trial Court’s factual findings, and we leave undisturbed the Trial Court’s credibility determinations. King acted under the reasonable belief that it was unlawful to share her password with Goldenberg. Further, the record reflects that King was fired solely because she refused to reveal her password to Goldenberg. We affirm the judgment of the Trial Court in its entirety, and remand for an award to King of her reasonable attorney’s fees incurred on appeal.

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