## Facts

- Lynda Gail Austin worked as an emergency-room nurse at Gulf Coast Medical Hospital for about fifteen years.
- In July 1992, Austin observed that a coworker nurse appeared to be under the influence of drugs and learned he had been distributing prescription medication without physician authorization.
- Austin reported the coworker’s conduct to her supervisor, Patrick Lilley, orally and in a written report.
- Lilley instructed Austin to keep the information to herself, and she complied.
- Austin alleged Lilley then subjected her to heightened scrutiny and terminated her employment on December 1, 1992.
- Austin sued her employer and related entities, alleging she was fired in retaliation for reporting unlawful and dangerous conduct.

## Issues

1. Whether Texas common law should recognize a retaliatory-discharge cause of action for a private-sector employee terminated for reporting illegal or unsafe workplace conduct (a private whistleblower claim), as an exception to employment at will.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Texas affirmed summary judgment for the employer.
- The court declined to create a common-law cause of action protecting private employees from retaliation for reporting others’ illegal workplace activities.
- The court held that expanding exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine in this area is a policy choice better left to the Legislature.

## Legal Principles

- Under Texas employment-at-will doctrine, absent contract or statute, an employer may terminate an employee for good cause, bad cause, or no cause.
- Texas courts will not create a broad, judge-made private whistleblower tort when the Legislature has enacted targeted anti-retaliation statutes in specific contexts.
- Existing Texas exceptions to employment at will remain narrow (including the limited exception for termination solely for refusing to perform an illegal act), and do not justify a general reporting-based retaliation claim.
- Line-drawing about what public harms, reporting channels, and proof standards should trigger liability is primarily a legislative task.

## Conclusion

Texas does not recognize a general common-law retaliatory-discharge claim for private employees who report coworkers’ illegal or unsafe conduct; absent an applicable statute or other established exception, employment at will bars such a claim.


Austin v. HealthTrust, Inc.-The Hosp. Co., 967 S.W.2d 400 (Tex. 1998)