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Moreno v. Circle K Stores, Inc.
For many years, Mary Ann Moreno worked as a cashier for Circle K Stores Inc. According to the opinion, in 2020, a customer armed with a knife entered the store and demanded free cigarettes.
After Moreno declined to provide them, the man went behind the counter and helped himself. Circle K managers later reviewed video and audio recordings taken by the store cameras and determined that Moreno’s response to the shoplifter violated its “Confront & Chase” policy. For that alleged violation, Circle K fired Moreno.
Moreno sued, alleging that Circle K wrongfully discharged her for acting in self-defense, despite her having a right to self-defense under the Colorado Constitution, its statutes and the common law.
Circle K moved for summary judgment, arguing that Moreno was dischargeable as an at-will employee. It also raised two preliminary—and potentially dispositive—issues: that Moreno failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact on whether her actions amounted to self-defense, or, if they did, whether Circle K fired her for using self-defense.
The district court didn’t address these two potentially dispositive grounds, instead deciding the case on a difficult legal issue of first impression under Colorado law—whether Colorado would recognize a public policy exception to the at-will employment doctrine for employees whose conduct had been self-defense.
Having taken that route, the district court ultimately concluded that Colorado would not, as a matter of public policy, recognize a self-defense exception to the state’s at-will employment doctrine. It granted Circle K summary judgment solely on that basis.
On appeal, Moreno first asked the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to certify the public policy question to the Colorado Supreme Court, or, alternatively, to decide the issue differently than did the district court.
Circle K asked the 10th Circuit to affirm the district court’s legal ruling, or, alternatively, to grant it summary judgment by affirming that in the district court Moreno failed to raise a genuine dispute that she used self-defense or that Circle K fired her for using self-defense.
The 10th Circuit vacated the district court’s order granting summary judgment and remanded the case for the district court to resolve the self-defense and causation questions.