Sulester Dukes alleged that the town he worked for failed to protect him from what he claimed was the negligent supervision and retention of town manager Richard Treme and human resources manager Leonard Lowery. Dukes was an at-will employee for Kingstree, South Carolina.
Darrell VanDeusen, an attorney with Kollman & Saucier, notes that the court rightly found that “Dukes was fired for refusing to have his temperature checked.”
“Dukes said the reason he refused to have his temperature checked was because the employee who was taking the temperature was not wearing a mask,” Dukes notes. “None of this created a legal duty of care. South Carolina law on negligence and at-will employment did not permit Dukes’ claim to proceed.”