Dabbs

Plaintiff, Gail F. Dabbs, appeals from a judgment entered in favor of defendants, Cardiopulmonary Management Services and Great-west Hospitals, Inc.

Plaintiff, a certified respiratory therapist, brought suit against defendants, her employers, for alleged wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She claimed on April 29, 1983, she was terminated after she refused to work the night shift at San Clemente General Hospital. Her action was in protest of the working conditions on that shift since defen *1439 dants required her to work with only one other therapist, who was not qualified to handle the assigned work. Plaintiff alleged she informed defendant’s employee, Tim Belew, “she could not work in the respiratory care department as the only experienced therapist when customarily there were three experienced therapists to service the patients on the subject ‘P.M.’ shift.” She alleged she was terminated in retaliation for her refusal to continue working under conditions that would jeopardize “the health, safety and physical well-being of the patients.” Hence, she claimed she was terminated for protesting conditions which “violate fundamental public…

I respectfully dissent. I concur with the majority’s general conclusion. An employee alleging retaliatory discharge, based on violation of public policy, need not claim and prove termination resulted from asserting rights embodied in statutes or regulations rather than in a more general public policy. However, I cannot find that general proposition is applicable here for reasons discussed, post.

The plaintiff alleged she was dismissed “when [she] advised [her supervisor] that she could not work in the respiratory care department as the only experienced therapist when customarily there were three experienced therapists to service the patients on the subject ‘P.M.’ shift. In fact [she] protested her assignment to work under these conditions because the health, safety and physical well-being of the patients would thereby have been placed in jeopardy. [She] accordingly alleges that her termination was retaliatory in nature for her refusal to continue working in conditions that would have endangered patient safety and health and accordingly violate fundamental public policy of the State of California.” (Italics added.)

In Hentzel v. Singer Co. (1982) 138 Cal.App.3d 290 [ 188…

Plaintiff, Gail F. Dabbs, appeals from a judgment entered in favor of defendants, Cardiopulmonary Management Services and Greatwest Hospitals, Inc.

Plaintiff, a certified respiratory therapist, brought suit against defendants, her employers, for alleged wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She claimed on April 29, 1983, she was terminated after she refused to work the night shift at San Clemente General Hospital. Her action was in protest of the working conditions on that shift since defendants required her to work with only one other therapist, who was not qualified to handle the assigned work. Plaintiff alleged she informed defendant's employee, Tim Belew, "she could not work in the respiratory care department as the only experienced therapist when customarily there were three experienced therapists to service the patients on the subject `P.M.' shift." She alleged she was terminated in retaliation for her refusal to continue working under conditions that would jeopardize "the health, safety and physical well-being of the patients." Hence, she claimed she was terminated for protesting conditions which "violate fundamental…