10th Circuit Directs Judge to Redo Ruling in Case of Gas Station Clerk Fired for Confronting Knife-Wielding Robber

The federal appeals court based in Denver told a trial judge on Tuesday to reconsider her ruling that Circle K lawfully fired a 72-year-old convenience store cashier who attempted to stop a knife-wielding robber from stealing cigarettes.

Mary Ann Moreno, a 16-year employee of the company, was behind the register at a Westminster Circle K store when a man holding two hunting knives asked if Moreno could give him cigarettes for free. When she declined, the man went around the counter to take the cigarettes, prompting Moreno to grab his arm and shirt.

Days later, Circle K fired her, citing company policy that forbids employees from confronting shoplifters. Moreno filed suit against her former employer, alleging it terminated her in violation of Colorado’s public policy — namely, the law’s recognition of a right to self-defense.

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang sided with Circle K, finding Colorado law did not support the idea that an at-will employee may not be fired for exercising self-defense in the workplace.

However, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit believed Wang had looked at the case backwards. Instead of having a federal judge interpret an unclear area of state law implicating the rights of workers, explained Judge Gregory A. Phillips, it would have made more sense for Wang to first answer whether the evidence showed Moreno, in fact, was using self-defense at all, then whether Circle K fired her because of it.

Read the article in its entirety at: https://www.coloradopolitics.com/courts/10th-circuit-directs-judge-to-redo-ruling-in-case-of-gas-station-clerk/article_d58b8ca0-c925-11ef-af81-efa61254e54e.html