On Tuesday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld a decision from October 2015 maintaining that former Associate Dean for Advancement Anita Stallings and the university did not violate the Whistleblower Act in the decision to fire an employee who alleged that Stallings was misusing university funds.
Denise Malloy Hubbard, who came to NC State in 2004 as a director of development in what is now the College of Sciences, reported to NC State’s Human Resources in November 2013 that Stallings, Hubbard’s supervisor, had “improperly transferred donor funds among accounts, incurred excessive travel expenses, and extravagantly spent donor funds,” according to court documents obtained by the Technician.
Stallings fired Hubbard in April 2014, who later that year filed a complaint in the Wake County Superior Court alleging that Stallings and NC State had violated the North Carolina Whistleblower Act protecting state employees who report misconduct, seeing no other reason for her to be fired.
Hubbard claimed that she was “meeting development goals,” that she “followed Stallings’ direction on fundraising,” received no guidance asking her to improve low performance, was not absent from work or late and that she did not “engage in inappropriate communications, create divisions, or behave disrespectfully,” according to court documents.
Stallings said she had no knowledge of the claims of misconduct made by Hubbard against her at the time of the firing and statements from both parties indicated that Hubbard’s job performance had been in question as early as 18 months prior to Hubbard being fired.
For an employer to be charged with violating the Whistleblower Act, it must be proven that they took action against the whistleblower because of their possession of evidence of wrongdoing.
An internal audit found no evidence to support Hubbard’s allegations against Stallings and the court determined instead that Hubbard “was discontinued as a result of her failure to meet performance goals and pattern of unprofessional conduct over a significant period of time[.]”
Stallings retired in June 2016.
“We’re pleased that the North Carolina Court of Appeals agreed with the North Carolina Superior Court’s previous ruling, in favor of NC State, that the former employee’s case was without merit,” said Brad Bohlander, chief communications officer for NC State.
