## Facts

- Kighwaunda M. Yardley worked as a hospital housekeeper and sustained a work-related injury, after which she pursued and received workers’ compensation benefits.
- The hospital later outsourced housekeeping services to Hospital Housekeeping Systems, LLC (HHS) and directed existing workers to apply with HHS.
- Yardley applied for employment with HHS.
- Yardley alleged that an HHS executive told her the company would not hire anyone receiving workers’ compensation benefits.
- HHS did not hire Yardley.
- Yardley sued in federal district court under diversity jurisdiction, asserting a Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Act (TWCA) retaliation theory based on failure to hire.
- The federal district court certified a question to the Tennessee Supreme Court under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 23 regarding whether the TWCA permits such a claim and, if so, the governing standard.

## Issues

1. Whether the TWCA provides a cause of action to a job applicant against a prospective employer for retaliatory failure to hire because the applicant previously filed a workers’ compensation claim against a prior employer.
2. Whether the TWCA provides a cause of action for failure to hire based on the prospective employer’s belief that the applicant is likely to file a workers’ compensation claim if hired.
3. If such a cause of action exists, what standard applies.

## Decision

- The Tennessee Supreme Court answered the certified question in the negative.
- The court held that the TWCA does not create a cause of action for retaliatory failure to hire.
- The court declined to extend the statute’s anti-retaliation protections from employees facing discharge or discrimination in employment to applicants who were never hired.
- The matter was returned to federal court for further proceedings consistent with the court’s answer.

## Legal Principles

- Tennessee’s employment-at-will doctrine permits employers and employees to enter and end employment relationships with or without cause, subject to limited exceptions.
- The TWCA’s retaliation protection, as written, addresses employer conduct toward “employees” (including discharge or discrimination) and does not cover refusals to hire job applicants.
- Courts must apply the TWCA according to legislative intent reflected in the statutory text and may not create new statutory remedies by inference.
- The common-law public-policy exception recognizing retaliatory discharge for filing a workers’ compensation claim arises from an existing employment relationship and does not, without legislative action, extend to pre-employment hiring decisions.

## Conclusion

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the TWCA does not authorize a retaliatory failure-to-hire claim by a job applicant based on prior or anticipated workers’ compensation claims, leaving any expansion of such protections to the legislature.


Yardley v. Hospital Housekeeping Sys., LLC, 470 S.W.3d 800 (Tenn. 2015)