NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT News:
SANTA FE — Whistleblowing must benefit the public for a governmental employee to be protected against retaliation by their employer, the state Supreme Court ruled today.
The Court’s unanimous decision clarified the legal standard for determining whether a public employee who discloses alleged governmental misconduct will be covered by the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act (NMWPA), which prohibits reprisals such as firing or demoting the whistleblower.
In an opinion by Chief Justice David K. Thomson, the Court concluded that “a public employee’s disclosure of illegality or wrongdoing qualifies for protected whistleblower status, if otherwise eligible, so long as the disclosure confers a benefit on the public, irrespective of which benefit – public or personal – may be said to predominate.”
The justices returned the case to the state Court of Appeals to determine whether a correctional officer qualified for whistleblower protections for alleging misconduct by workers at a state prison, including a failure to follow safety protocols for security gates known as the sally port. Manuel Lerma claimed he was beaten by another correctional officer for disclosing the workplace issues and reassigned in retaliation after reporting the altercation.
A district court dismissed Lerma’s lawsuit alleging whistleblower protection violations. The state Department of Corrections contended that Lerma’s disclosures did not constitute whistleblowing because they involved employment grievances that served his personal interest rather than benefiting the public interest. Lerma argued that his conduct was protected under the law because he had disclosed dangers to public safety from the improper operation of the prison’s main gates.
Lerma challenged the summary judgment against his lawsuit and the Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, concluding that whistleblower protections are not limited to matters of public concern or contingent on whether the alleged whistleblowing benefits the public.
The Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the Court of Appeals “insofar as it rejected a public benefit requirement for a public employee’s disclosure to qualify for whistleblower protection under the NMWPA.” The Court of Appeals erred in basing its decision on an overly narrow reading of the text of the whistleblower law and failing to adhere to one of its previous decisions interpreting the NMWPA, the justices explained.
