## Facts

- Luke Hansen, Paul Carlson, and Jason Melling worked as at-will employees at America Online, Inc.’s (AOL) Ogden, Utah call center.
- AOL maintained a written Workplace Violence Prevention Policy banning employees from carrying or possessing firearms at the call center or in AOL’s exclusive-use leased parking lot; the policy was posted at the facility.
- The employees admitted they had seen the posted policy and knew its terms.
- While off duty, the employees met in AOL’s leased parking area with firearms in their vehicles intending to go target shooting; a security camera recorded firearms being transferred between vehicles.
- AOL terminated all three employees solely for violating the no-firearms policy.
- The employees sued for wrongful termination under Utah’s public-policy exception to at-will employment; the trial court granted summary judgment for AOL.

## Issues

1. Whether Utah’s public-policy exception to at-will employment bars termination of employees for possessing firearms in an employer’s leased, exclusive-use parking lot when the employer has a clear no-firearms policy.
2. Whether Utah’s constitutional and statutory protections for firearm possession constitute a clear and substantial public policy protecting employees’ firearm possession on an employer’s premises against discharge.

## Decision

- The Utah Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for AOL.
- The court held the public-policy exception did not protect the employees’ conduct.
- The court concluded Utah’s firearms protections do not establish a clear and substantial public policy requiring private employers to allow firearms on employer-controlled premises contrary to an announced workplace policy.

## Legal Principles

- Utah employment is presumptively at will; a discharge is actionable only if it contravenes a clear and substantial public policy.
- The public-policy exception is narrow and requires a well-defined, dominant policy typically found in constitutional text, statutes, or common law that specifically protects the employee’s conduct.
- General state support for firearm ownership and possession does not, by itself, create an employee right to keep firearms on an employer’s private premises.
- A leased, exclusive-use parking area may be treated as part of the employer’s premises for workplace regulation, including safety policies restricting weapons.

## Conclusion

The Utah Supreme Court held that terminating at-will employees for knowingly bringing firearms onto an employer’s exclusive-use leased parking lot, in violation of a posted no-firearms policy, did not violate a clear and substantial Utah public policy, and the employer was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.


Hansen v. America Online, Inc., 2004 UT 62, 96 P.3d 950 (Utah 2004)