Honig v. Financial Corporation of America

Stephen N. Honig (plaintiff) was discharged for insubordination from his job developing and maintaining jumbo certificates of deposit and filed a multicount suit against his employer, New West Savings and Loan Association (New West) and others (defendants). About a month before trial, Honig, in response to New West’s summary-judgment motions filed about a month earlier, filed an opposition to the summary-judgment motions and a motion to amend his complaint. The proposed amendment, which included facts that occurred after the initial complaint, asserted a cause of action for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, alleging that he could not be fired for requesting advice of his counsel at a meeting before New West’s ethics committee while he was still employed, and a cause of action for defamation, alleging that his alleged insubordination was repeated to others and this forced him to reveal his termination to prospective new employers. The trial court denied Honig’s motion to amend his complaint and granted summary judgment for New West. Honig appealed and argued that because the facts in his original complaint and his amended complaint all related to his discharge, he should have been allowed to amend his complaint to include the two additional causes of action, which, because they were so related, their filing date would relate back to the filing date of his original complaint and thereby sidestep any statute of limitations bar.