PHOENIX (AP) - A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by five former Arizona child welfare workers who were fired amid an agency scandal.
The Arizona Court of Appeals released the ruling on Tuesday affirming a lower court’s decision to dismiss the suit.
The decision came three years after a scandal that rocked the now-disbanded Child Protective Services after it was discovered that thousands of child abuse hotline calls were labeled as not worthy of being investigated amid a crushing caseload.
The revelation resulted in the agency being shuttered and a new Department of Child Safety being created.
The five senior CPS workers - Deborah Harper, Tracey Everitt, Michelle Parker, Jana Leineweber and Janet Sabol - were fired in April 2014.
State officials said at the time that the upper-level managers and administrators were fired because they were responsible for overseeing the case closings against policy and in violation of state laws.
The women defended their work, saying they only followed orders to create a system that culled out low-priority cases and eased crushing caseloads. Their lawsuit said they kept their superiors apprised of their actions at all times.
Their wrongful termination lawsuit was thrown out by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Oberbillig in May 2015. He said state law allowed their firings even if they were scapegoats for others’ actions.
The appeals court agreed with Oberbillig, saying the workers were at-will employees who were not protected by state law.
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