Wilson v. Monarch Paper Co.

• Decision Date: 16 August 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89-2293,89-2293
• Citation: 939 F.2d 1138
• Parties: 56 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1105, 57 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 41,008, 6 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1344 Richard E. WILSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MONARCH PAPER COMPANY, the Unisource Corporation, and Alco Standard Corporation, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1138

939 F.2d 1138

56 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1105,

57 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 41,008,

6 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1344

Richard E. WILSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MONARCH PAPER COMPANY, the Unisource Corporation, and Alco

Standard Corporation, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 89-2293.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 16, 1991.

A. Martin Wickliff, Jr., Matthew Luke Hoeg, Mayor, Day & Caldwell, Houston, Tex., George P. Parker, Jr., Dennis P. Duffy, Matthews & Branscomb, San Antonio, Tex., for defendants-appellants.

W. Carl Jordan, Robert L. Ivey, Vinson & Elkins, Houston, Tex., for amicus--Texas Employment Law Council.

Henri-Ann Nortman, Stanley E. Williams, Houston, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before REYNALDO G. GARZA, JOLLY and JONES, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

In this employment discrimination case, Monarch Paper Company, et al., appeals a $3,400,000 jury verdict finding it liable for age discrimination and retaliation under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 621, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress under Texas state law. Monarch challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. It also challenges the district court's denial of their motions for directed verdict, for judgment non obstante veredicto (JNOV), for new trial, and for remittitur. Upon review of the entire record, we affirm.

I

Because Monarch is challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, the facts are recited in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. In 1970, at age 48, Richard E. Wilson was hired by Monarch Paper Company. Monarch is an incorporated division of Unisource Corporation, and Unisource is an incorporated group of Alco Standard Corporation. Wilson served as manager of the Corpus Christi division until November 1, 1977, when he was moved to the corporate staff in Houston to serve as "Corporate Director of Physical Distribution." During that time, he routinely received merit raises and performance bonuses. In 1980, Wilson received the additional title of "Vice President." In 1981, Wilson was given the additional title of "Assistant to John Blankenship," Monarch's President at the time.

While he was Director of Physical Distribution, Wilson received most of his assignments from Blankenship. Blankenship always seemed pleased with Wilson's performance and Wilson was never reprimanded or counseled about his performance. Blankenship provided Wilson with objective performance criteria at the beginning of each year, and Wilson's bonuses at the end of the year were based on his good performance under that objective criteria. In 1981, Wilson was placed in charge of the completion of an office warehouse building in Dallas, the largest construction project Monarch had ever undertaken. Wilson successfully completed that project within budget.

In 1981, Wilson saw a portion of Monarch's long-range plans that indicated that Monarch was presently advancing younger persons in all levels of Monarch management. Tom Davis, who was hired as Employee Relations Manager of Monarch in 1979, testified that from the time he started to work at Monarch, he heard repeated references by the division managers (including Larry Clark, who later became the Executive Vice President of Monarch) to the age of employees on the corporate staff, including Wilson.

In October 1981, Blankenship became Chairman of Monarch and Unisource brought in a new, 42-year-old president from outside the company, Hamilton Bisbee. An announcement was made that Larry Clark would be assuming expanded responsibilities in physical distribution. According to the defendants, one of Blankenship's final acts as President was to direct Clark (who was in his mid-forties at the time) to assume expanded responsibility for both the operational and physical distribution aspects of Monarch.

When Bisbee arrived at Monarch in November 1981, Wilson was still deeply involved in the Dallas construction project. Richard Gozon, who was 43 years old and the President of Unisource, outlined Blankenship's new responsibilities as Chairman of the company and requested that Blankenship, Bisbee, Wilson, and John Hartley of Unisource "continue to work very closely together on the completion of the Dallas project." Bisbee, however, refused to speak to Wilson or to "interface" with him. This "silent treatment" was apparently tactical; Bisbee later told another Monarch employee, Bill Shehan, "if I ever stop talking to you, you're dead." Shehan also testified that at a meeting in Philadelphia at about the time Bisbee became President of Monarch, Gozon told Bisbee, "I'm not telling you that you have to fire Dick Wilson. I'm telling you that he cannot make any more money."

As soon as the Dallas building project was completed, Bisbee and Gozon intensified an effort designed to get rid of Wilson. On March 8, 1982, Gozon asked for Bisbee's recommendations on how to remove Wilson from the Monarch organization. On March 9, 1982, Bisbee responded with his recommendation that Wilson be terminated, and that any salary continuance to Wilson be discontinued should Wilson elect to pursue an adversarial role toward Monarch. Gozon then asked the Unisource Employee Relations Manager, John Snelgrove, to meet with Wilson with the goal of attempting to convince Wilson to quit.

During the same time frame, Bisbee was preparing a long-range plan for Monarch, in which he made numerous references to age and expressed his desire to bring in "new blood" and to develop a "young team." This long-range plan was transmitted to Gozon, who expressed no dissatisfaction with the goals Bisbee had set out in the plan. In the meantime, Bisbee and Clark began dismantling Wilson's job by removing his responsibilities and assigning them to other employees. Clark was also seen entering Wilson's office after hours and removing files.

Blankenship was diagnosed with cancer in February 1982. In March 1982, Wilson was hospitalized for orthopedic surgery. Immediately after Blankenship's death in June 1982, Bisbee and Snelgrove gave Wilson three options: (1) he could take a sales job in Corpus Christi at half his pay; (2) he could be terminated with three months' severance pay; or (3) he could accept a job as warehouse supervisor in the Houston warehouse at the same salary but with a reduction in benefits. The benefits included participation in the management bonus plan, and the loss of the use of a company car, a company club membership, and a company expense account.

Wilson accepted the warehouse position. Wilson believed that he was being offered the position of Warehouse Manager, the only vacant position in the Houston warehouse at the time. When Wilson reported for duty at the warehouse on August 16, 1982, however, he was placed instead in the position of an entry level supervisor, a position that required no more than one year's experience in the paper business. Wilson, with his thirty years of experience in the paper business and a college degree, was vastly overqualified and overpaid for that position.

Soon after he went to the warehouse, Wilson was subjected to harassment and verbal abuse by his supervisor, Operations Manager and Acting Warehouse Manager Paul Bradley (who had previously been subordinate to Wilson). Bradley referred to Wilson as "old man" and admitted posting a sign in the warehouse that said "Wilson is old." In Bradley's absence, Wilson was placed under the supervision of a man in his twenties. Finally, Wilson was further demeaned when he was placed in charge of housekeeping but was not given any employees to assist him in the housekeeping duties. Wilson, the former vice-president and assistant to the president, was thus reduced finally to sweeping the floors and cleaning up the employees' cafeteria, duties which occupied 75 percent of his working time.

In the late fall of 1982, Wilson began suffering from respiratory problems caused by the dusty conditions in the warehouse and stress from the unrelenting harassment by his employer. On January 6, 1983, Wilson left work to see a doctor about his respiratory problems. He was advised to stay out of a dusty environment and was later advised that he had a clinically significant allergy to dust. Shortly after January 6, 1983, Wilson consulted a psychiatrist who diagnosed him as suffering from reactive depression, possibly suicidal, because of on-the-job stress. The psychiatrist also advised that Wilson should stay away from work indefinitely.

Wilson filed an age discrimination charge with the EEOC in January 1983. Although he continued being treated by a psychiatrist, his condition deteriorated to the point that in March 1983, he was involuntarily hospitalized with a psychotic manic episode. Prior to the difficulties with his employer, Wilson had no history of emotional illness.

Wilson's emotional illness was severe and long-lasting. He was diagnosed with manic-depressive illness or bipolar disorder. After his first hospitalization for a manic episode, in which he was locked in a padded cell and heavily sedated, he fell into a deep depression. The depression was unremitting for over two years and necessitated an additional hospital stay in which he was given electroconvulsive therapy (shock treatments). It was not until 1987 that Wilson's illness began remission, thus allowing him to carry on a semblance of a normal life.

II

On February 27, 1984, Wilson filed suit against the defendants, alleging age discrimination and various state law tort and contract claims. The defendants filed a counterclaim, seeking damages in excess of $10,000 for libel and slander, but later dismissed it. ¹ Before trial, the district court dismissed one of Wilson's claims on the basis of factual or legal insufficiency. The court also dismissed his emotional distress claim to the extent that "the alleged conduct occurred in the administration of [defe...