Mohawk Industries (NYSE:MHK)
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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a bid by Mohawk Industries Inc. (MHK) to shield from disclosure its communications with a lawyer who investigated an employee complaint that the company was hiring undocumented workers.

The employee, a shift supervisor named Norman Carpenter, was fired a short time after making the allegations. He subsequently sued Mohawk, alleging that the flooring-products company and its lawyers threatened and terminated him to keep him from testifying in a related class-action lawsuit alleging that Mohawk conspired to hire illegal aliens in order to suppress wages.

Mohawk said it fired Carpenter after it discovered that it was he, and not Mohawk, who was harboring illegal workers.

In court, Carpenter sought information pertaining to the Mohawk lawyer's investigation of his complaint. He also sought information related to Mohawk's decision to fire him.

Mohawk said it had a legal right to keep the information private, but a trial judge disagreed, saying the company had waived its right in an earlier proceeding.

Mohawk sought to appeal the judge's ruling, but a federal appeals court said the company could not do so.

The Supreme Court will review that ruling.

The case is Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, 08-678.

-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; brent.kendall@dowjones.com

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