Plaintiff was fired by his employer, along with a coworker, as a result of a fistfight that the two of them conducted on the company’s premises. The plaintiff subsequently sued the employer for wrongful discharge, claiming that he was only defending himself and that the state’s public policy favoring victim compensation in cases of violent crime created a cause of action. The state also has a well-established common-law rule favoring at-will employment.

What are the arguments for and against a wrongful discharge cause of action in this case? (Review Chapter 2, if necessary, in answering this question.)

Is the plaintiff entitled to receive unemployment compensation benefits under this set of facts? How does your answer to this question affect your answer to the question above, if at all?

Are the plaintiff’s injuries arguably compensable under the state’s workers’ compensation act? How should the workers’ compensation act be factored into the court’s considerationof theplaintiff’s publicpolicy wrongful discharge claim? See Quebedeaux v. Dow Chemical Company [820 So.2d 542 (La. Supreme 2002)].