Damages Denied in Iowa Whistleblower Case

A former Lee County, maintenance supervisor cannot collect $186,000 in damages a jury awarded him for being fired by the county supervisors, the Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled.

A three-member panel of the court, in a 2-1 decision issued on Jan. 14, concluded that Judge Mary Ann Brown properly overturned the 2013 verdict because Rick Carter failed to qualify as a whistleblower under Iowa law.

Two appeals judges agreed with Brown that no reasonable jury could have found Carter to be a whistleblower as defined by law in part because information he provided was already part of the public record, The Burlington Hawk Eye reported.

The appeals court said that for Carter to prevail, he must prove his dismissal was directly related to information he supplied to officials he reasonably believed was evidence of wrongdoing. They said Carter “did not identify during his trial any information he had provided to county supervisors or sheriff that was previously unknown to them.” As a result, he failed to prove he exposed adverse information within the meaning of the whistleblower statute.

Appellate Judge Richard Doyle disagreed, saying a jury should be allowed to decide whether Carter qualifies as a whistleblower.

Carter’s attorney, Curtis Dial, says he had not decided whether to ask the Iowa Supreme Court to review the case.

Carter sued the county in 2011, claiming county supervisors fired him in 2010 for alleging they misspent taxpayer money, failed to allow bids for a project he believed should have been advertised and ignored a sewage problem at the county jail.

Dial argued Carter was fired for reporting what he believed were instances of mismanagement, which qualified him as a whistleblower. Steven Ort, the attorney for the three county supervisors, argued that Carter was fired for incompetence, lacked proof of the mismanagement allegations and failed to prove he was improperly fired.