Roberts v. Emerson Elec. Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 11 July 1960
• Docket Number: No. 47786,No. 1,47786,1
• Citation: 338 S.W.2d 62
• Parties: 40 Lab.Cas. P 66,713 Harry H. ROBERTS, Respondent, v. EMERSON ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 62

338 S.W.2d 62

40 Lab.Cas. P 66,713

Harry H. ROBERTS, Respondent, v. EMERSON ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant.

No. 47786.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

July 11, 1960.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Court en Banc Denied

Sept. 12, 1960.

R. H. McRoberts, R. H. McRoberts, Jr., St. Louis, for defendant-appellant, Bryan, Cave, McPheeters & McRoberts, St. Louis, of counsel.

C. E. Starkloff, St. Louis, for plaintiffrespondent.

COIL, Commissioner.

Harry Roberts brought an action for actual and punitive damages against The Emerson Electric Manufacturing Company for its alleged failure to have complied with the provisions of Section 290.140 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S. (the service letter statute) in that Emerson allegedly failed to furnish Roberts with a letter 'truly stating for what cause' he had been discharged. We shall refer to the parties as they were designated in the trial court. A jury awarded plaintiff $15,600 actual and $2,200 punitive damages and defendant has appealed from the ensuing judgment.

Defendant contends that plaintiff failed to make a submissible case for the reason that the evidence was insufficient to show that the letter furnished plaintiff did not truly state the cause of his discharge. In determining that question we view the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff, give him the benefit of the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom and, of course, disregard defendant's evidence unfavorable to plaintiff.

Plaintiff had worked for defendant for a period of thirty-one years with the exception of a total period of three or three and a half years occurring at different times during the total span of his employment. He was discharged on October 8, 1956. At that time and for eleven years immediately prior thereto he was a class A refrigeration man and for some time had been assigned to work in connection with a 'cold room' used in testing gun turrets which were manufactured by Emerson. The 'cold room' was 20 feet square and 50 feet high. Gun turrets were there subjected to extremely low temperatures to determine their suitability for use at high altitudes and in arctic regions. Plaintiff and others in like capacity on other shifts occupied an adjacent room and viewed the cold room through a window. In the adjacent room was a recorder which reflected the temperature in the cold room. The recorder was a circular disk about 12 inches in diameter on which was placed a circular paper chart printed to reflect temperatures for 24 hours. A stationary pen recorded a continuous red line on the chart which indicated the temperature in the cold room from the time a new chart was installed for 24 hours thereafter or until the chart was sooner removed. In order to more efficiently create extremely cold temperatures the cold room would first be completely dehydrated by heating to a temperature of between 120 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit. When the desired maximum temperature had been reached, it would be maintained until plaintiff or some other person in charge (depending on the shift) would receive directions to begin lowering the temperature for the tests. (The time when the procedure to lower the temperature began depended upon when the inspectors, both company and Air Force, wished to run the tests.)

Plaintiff said that on October 2, 1956, he had a cold and complained about the long hours he had been working and asked the 'day men' if they would share some of the overtime. They had refused and plaintiff agreed to 'do his best' and, on October 3, was to and did work a double shift, from 3 p. m. on the third until 7 a. m. on the fourth. When plaintiff began work on the third there was a chart on the temperature recorder. At about 12:30 a. m. on the fourth, plaintiff put a new chart on the recorder. About 5:10 a. m. plaintiff removed the chart which he had put on at midnight and replaced it with a new one. Plaintiff changed charts at 5:10 because he realized that he had made a mistake in regulating the temperature and, as a result, the cold room temperature, after rising to about 137 degrees, had quickly and undesirably descended about 19 degrees in about 15 minutes. Plaintiff believed that he had made the error or errors in manipulating the controls to bring about the undesirable result because he was 'worked out,' was tired, was working too long, had a cold, and was exhausted. He said he wished to use the chart 'in a grievance against the two refrigeration men for refusal to share this overtime,' and therefore removed that chart (the one he had put on at midnight) and replaced it with a fresh one. Later (plaintiff says about 6 and Mr. Moeller says about 7), plaintiff took the chart which he had removed at 5:10 a. m. to the office of Mr. Moeller, the general foreman of the maintenance division. He saw Mr. Moeller outside the office and asked to speak with him. Mr. Moeller answered that he did not have time so plaintiff left the chart on Moeller's desk and went home.

Plaintiff testified that during the afternoon of the fourth he received a call from the assistant plant manager advising that he had been suspended for 'some kind of conduct.' He thereupon called Mr. G. F. Craig, Emerson's vice-president in charge of industrial relations, who stated that he knew about the suspension but declined to discuss it over the telephone. Plaintiff then called a plant chairman of Local 1102 of IUE, AFL-CIO, and asked him to report the suspension to the local union president for handling. Later the union president, Mr. Chrismon, called and said he would consult with Mr. Craig and would advise plaintiff later. The next day, October 5, plaintiff was examined by a doctor who found that he had pneumonia and diabetes. From the doctor's office plaintiff went to Mr. Craig's office and plaintiff had a faint memory that someone there had stated that there would be a hearing on the eighth with the president of the union in attendance. In any event, plaintiff called Mr. Craig at 8 a. m. on October 8 to inquire whether there was to be a hearing on that day and, upon learning that there was, advised Mr. Craig that he was ill with pneumonia and diabetes and could not be there and that he had a letter from his doctor describing his condition, and plaintiff assumed that Mr. Craig would postpone the hearing. On October 11 he received a telephone call from Mr. Smith, Mr. Craig's assistant, who said that plaintiff's prior suspension had been converted into a discharge. Thereafter, on November 5, Mr. Smith, as Emerson's personnel manager, confirmed the telephone conversation of October 11 and stated in part, 'your suspension pending discharge was converted to discharge for falsification of records in a formal hearing held in Mr. Craig's office on October 8, 1956. As mentioned during our telephone conversation this hearing was conducted in accordance with the relevant provisions of the contract.' On November 15, plaintiff called Mr. Craig and asked for a further hearing but was advised that his services had been terminated.

Defendant's exhibit C was a chart which presumably was the one plaintiff put on the recorder about 5:10 in the morning of the fourth. Plaintiff testified that the date appearing thereon was in his handwriting. That chart showed a red temperature line from 12:30 until 5:10 a. m. which the parties agree was 'counterfeit' in that it was made by manually turning the recorder plate so that the stationary pen would make a uniformly curved red line, and was not made by the automatic operation of the recorder. That 'counterfeit' line indicated a constant temperature from 12:30 to 5:10 on the fourth of about 117 degrees. The red line on exhibit C from 5:10 to 7:15 on the fourth when that chart was removed was a 'wavy' line such as was normally made by the automatic operation of the recorder. Plaintiff denied that he had caused the 'counterfeit' line to be on the chart (exhibit C) which showed the temperature during the period from 12:30 to 5:10 a. m. (According to plaintiff, the period from 12:30 to 5:10 a. m. on the fourth was covered by the chart he took to Mr. Moeller's office.) Plaintiff denied that he had ever falsified any of defendant's records and denied that he had been guilty of any unsatisfactory conduct or anything that could be construed as such which had any connection with his discharge. He also denied that he had ever admitted that he falsified the temperature record or that he attempted to destroy exhibit B (another chart to be hereinafter explained). He admitted that he had been suspended for five days in September 1955 for using a company typewriter for personal business, and that he had had difficulties in the past with his supervisors; that at one time he believed two of them were building a case against him to get him fired; that one time he had had some trouble about the way he ran the cold room, letting moisture and water accumulate; and that in April 1950 he had written Mr. Craig and asked for a conference about matters which he contended constituted 'discriminatory operations' against him by two Emerson employees.

On two or three occasions within a week or so before plaintiff was discharged, one Griffin, a fellow employee who helped set up the guns and turrets in the cold room, told plaintiff that he, Griffin, was going to get plaintiff fired unless plaintiff started operating the doors in the cold chamber like Griffin wanted them operated, rather than as plaintiff had been operating them for the past ten or eleven years.

Plaintiff conceded that after his discharge he did not follow the procedure provided in Emerson's union contract whereby he could have appealed Mr. Craig's decision discharging him to Emerson's operating vice-president and from there could have had the matter arbitrated. He had gone to the National Labor Board and, after consultation, did not file a formal claim with the board but received a withdrawal card from the...