JANETTE CRONIN and BRUCE CRONIN, wife and husband, Petitioners, v. THE HONORABLE STEVEN D. SHELDON, JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF ARIZONA, in and for the County of Maricopa, Respondent Judge, and DENNY'S RESTAURANTS, INC. and HERBERT ECKHARDT and JANE DOE ECKHARDT, his wife, Real Parties in Interest. LINDA FINLEY, Petitioner, v. THE HONORABLE JOHN H. SEIDEL, JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF ARIZONA, in and for the County of Maricopa, Respondent Judge, CALVARY REHABILITATION CENTER, Real Party in Interest., 195 Ariz. 531

Summary

Petitioners filed separate actions for wrongful discharge against defendant employers, which argued that the exclusive remedies provision of Employment Protection Act (EPA), Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 23-1501(3)(b)(i) (supp. 1998), barred such claims. The trial judges entered judgments for defendants, but the Supreme Court of Arizona granted a petition for special action and motion to consolidate petitioners' claims. The issue presented was whether claims alleging the tort of wrongful termination in violation of public policy in the Arizona Civil Rights Act (ACRA), Ariz. Rev. Stat. §§ 41-1401 to -1492 (1999), could be constitutionally restricted to the ACRA's statutory remedies by EPA. The court affirmed, holding that the preamble to the EPA, though unconstitutional on its face, did not implicate the constitutionality of the statutory text; the EPA's exclusive remedies provision restricting tort claims under the ACRA violated neither the anti-abrogation clause nor non-limitation clauses of the...