Shioda v. Kochi Broadcasting Co.

Shioda (plaintiff) was an announcer for the Kochi Broadcasting Company (Kochi) (defendant). One day, Shioda was working the night-shift broadcast between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. Shioda took a nap during the shift, which resulted in him missing a 6:20 a.m. broadcast. Shioda was working with a reporter who did not wake him up. A few weeks later, Shioda again overslept, missing another news broadcast. Again, a reporter with whom Shioda was working did not wake him up. Shioda, who had not previously had any such incidents, did not report the second incident to his manager. When his manager nonetheless learned of the incident, Shioda was requested to submit an incident report. Although Shioda did so, he also submitted false information. Shioda did, however, eventually apologize for what had happened. In response, Kochi managers decided to terminate Shioda’s employment. The managers did so under ordinary dismissal rules (as opposed to disciplinary dismissal rules) in order to protect Shioda’s ability to find future employment. Specifically, the managers dismissed Shioda under a general catch-all provision for termination as a result of incidents that were not the fault of the employee. Shioda sued for wrongful dismissal. The district court and court of appeal upheld Shioda’s claim and concluded that the dismissal was improper. Kochi appealed to the supreme court.