An employee of Chattanooga-based Steam Logistics said he was fired after alerting a female employee to alleged hanky panky involving the company president and COO Steve Cox.
Gus Hopper filed the Chancery Court complaint against Steam Logistics.
The suit, filed by attorney Joshua Ward, says Mr. Hopper worked at the firm from Jan. 5, 2017, until he was fired last April 5.
In says in March of last year, Mr. Hopper and several other employees went on a company trip to Minnesota for an event called the "Polar Plunge."
The suit says those attending also included Mr. Cox and Jensen Seymour.
It says several of the employees were drinking alcohol.
The complaint says Mr. Hopper observed Steve Cox and other employees using Jensen Seymour's phone to send text messages to a female co-worker. It says the messages were "flirtatious and suggestive."
It says they sent the female employee photographs of Mr. Seymour with his shirt off and told her she would be a "popular jumper" at the Polar Plunge because she was a pretty girl.
The complaint says they "asked her if she was wild, and told her he/they thought she was 'wild full time.' "
The suit says, "It was apparent to Mr. Hopper that the text messages were inappropriate, and he believed that it was unfair to (the female employee) to receive and respond to text messages of this nature believing she was communicating with a particular co-worker when she was in fact communicating with several co-workers including the president and COO of the company that she worked for."
It says Mr. Hopper texted the female employee "to let her know the truth" and he sent her a picture of the people engaged in the texting.
The suit says the photograph shows Steve Cox typing into a cell phone while Mr. Seymour and another co-worker look at the screen.
It says the text messaging ended soon thereafter.
The suit says the female employee reported the text messages to human resources and she had a meeting with Adam Scherer, Steam Logistics' chief financial officer. It says she showed him the text messages.
Later, Mr. Scherer told her he had investigated her complaint and determined that Mr. Seymour had been the one sending the text messages.
Mr. Hopper was fired on April 5. He was told that it was because the company "felt he was unhappy," the suit says.
It says when he requested a separation notice the listed reason was "poor performance."
The complaint charges that the firm retaliated against Mr. Hopper for engaging in protected conduct in violation of the Tennessee Human Rights Act.