Bahr v. Boise Cascade Corp., No. A07-1353.
| Decision Date | 25 June 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. A07-1353. |
| Citation | 766 N.W.2d 910 |
| Parties | LeRoy BAHR, Appellant, v. BOISE CASCADE CORPORATION a/k/a Boise Paper Cascade Corporation, et al., Respondents. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
This action arises from a workplace dispute between appellant LeRoy Bahr and respondent Stacy Rasmussen. Bahr and Rasmussen are both employed by respondent Boise Cascade Corporation (Boise). As a result of statements Rasmussen made in the workplace, Bahr filed a defamation action against Rasmussen, Boise, and Eural Dobbs, Bahr's supervisor at Boise. The district court denied respondents' motion for summary judgment and the matter proceeded to trial. The jury found in favor of Bahr and against Rasmussen and Boise.1 The district court had denied respondents' motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) made at the close of Bahr's case in chief and again at the close of the evidence. Following the jury's verdict, the court also denied respondents' renewed JMOL motion made after trial, and entered judgment for Bahr as to respondents Rasmussen and Boise.
Respondents appealed, and the court of appeals reversed, concluding in relevant part that "the jury's finding of malice [was] contrary to the evidence." Bahr v. Boise Cascade Corp., No. A07-1353, 2008 WL 2966433, at *6 (Minn.App. Aug.5, 2008). We granted Bahr's petition for review. Because we conclude that the evidence of actual malice as to respondent Rasmussen was legally sufficient, but that the evidence of actual malice as to respondent Boise was not legally sufficient, we reverse the court of appeals' decision as to Rasmussen and affirm the court of appeals' decision as to Boise.
The record reflects that Bahr and Rasmussen were employed as stores keepers at the Boise paper mill in International Falls, Minnesota, when the events at issue in this action occurred. Stores keepers are employed to handle stock in the warehouse at the Boise mill. Dobbs, who is Rasmussen's uncle, was Bahr's supervisor. This action arises from events that occurred at the Boise mill on September 27, 2001 and on October 18, 2001. Because these events form the basis of this action, we discuss them in some detail.
On the morning of September 27, 2001, three Boise stores keepers told Rasmussen that they had heard a rumor that Rasmussen had been involved in an extramarital affair with another stores keeper, R.B. The stores keepers did not identify the source of the rumor, but they told Rasmussen that he was scheduled to work with the person who started it. Rasmussen then learned that he was scheduled to work that day in the West Warehouse, where Bahr worked. Rasmussen became agitated and paced up and down the loading ramp, apparently upset both by the rumor and by a special work assignment he received that day. Two of Rasmussen's co-workers heard him say, "I have to work with that lazy, fat f* * *er." The two co-workers understood the comment as a reference to Bahr. Rasmussen testified that he did not mean for his co-workers to hear the comment.
Later that morning, Rasmussen went to R.B.'s office to talk about the rumor. R.B. had already learned of it from the same stores keepers, who had told her that Bahr started the rumor. With Rasmussen in her office, R.B. telephoned the storeroom area where Bahr was working. Bahr answered the phone and denied starting the rumor, then passed the phone to another stores keeper, who also denied starting the rumor. That stores keeper passed the phone to a third stores keeper, J.P., who admitted to R.B. that he started the rumor. Rasmussen remained in R.B.'s office during the phone call and stayed several minutes afterward. Rasmussen testified that he did not know with whom R.B. spoke on the phone and that he did not learn the source of the rumor that day. According to Rasmussen, he learned that J.P. started the rumor "within a few weeks" of September 27, 2001.
Rasmussen testified that, later that morning, Bahr, J.P., and a third stores keeper confronted Rasmussen about the phone call. Rasmussen testified that he "felt threatened and harassed" by them, and said that he would be setting up a meeting with Jack Strongman, the Director of the Human Resources Department, about it. Rasmussen also said that he immediately reported the incident within the company to the Boise Controller, although he would have reported it to Dobbs if Dobbs had not been on vacation.
At trial, Bahr and J.P. testified about individual efforts to discuss the rumor incident with Rasmussen. Bahr testified that he tried to find out why Rasmussen was upset with him, but that Rasmussen would not talk to him, saying only that there was going to be a meeting with Human Resources. Bahr said that he asked Rasmussen about the Human Resources meeting twice in the following weeks, but both times Rasmussen said that a meeting had not been set up and that he could not talk about it.
J.P. testified that he tried to "patch things up" with Rasmussen the same day he told R.B. he was the source of the rumor, but that Rasmussen would not talk to him. Bahr described to the jury that he saw J.P. trying to talk to Rasmussen and that, while he could not hear what they were saying, he saw Rasmussen "hollering" and waving his arms during the exchange. Another stores keeper described seeing the exchange between J.P. and Rasmussen, and she said that Rasmussen was "hollering," but she could not hear about what.
On October 18, 2001, Bahr asked Rasmussen about the Human Resources meeting a third time, but Rasmussen said he had not heard back about it. Bahr told Rasmussen that Bahr had contacted Jack Strongman and knew that Rasmussen had not set up the meeting. According to Rasmussen, Bahr was seated on a forklift truck when he questioned Rasmussen about the Human Resources meeting, and Rasmussen stood on a ramp at least five feet away, at eye-level with Bahr. Rasmussen testified that Bahr told him that Bahr had caught Rasmussen in a lie and that Rasmussen could lose his job.
Bahr testified, however, that he told Rasmussen that he had seen Jack Strongman, who said there was no meeting set up. Bahr said that he told Rasmussen he believed that Rasmussen was calling Strongman a liar in saying that Rasmussen was waiting to hear back from Strongman about a meeting. Bahr explained at trial that Rasmussen responded by throwing up his arms, hollering, and screaming as he turned to go down the ramp. Bahr testified that during this encounter he spoke to Rasmussen in a "normal, everyday voice." Another stores keeper, G.U., who stood 20 to 30 feet from Rasmussen and Bahr at the time, reported that he did not hear any voices raised during the Bahr/Rasmussen exchange.
Rasmussen telephoned Dobbs at approximately 10 a.m. that morning, October 18, 2001, to discuss the encounter he had with Bahr. Rasmussen told Dobbs that everywhere he went in the mill he was being confronted by Bahr. Dobbs' notes of the telephone call indicate that Rasmussen said that Bahr "had approached him ... in a threatening manner," and that as a result of the encounter, Rasmussen "thought he could no longer do his job without constantly being intimidated and harassed." Dobbs told Rasmussen to stay where he was and that Dobbs would get back to Rasmussen.
Dobbs immediately called Barb Johnson, a Boise Human Resources Coordinator. Johnson instructed Dobbs to speak with Rasmussen again, to write down Rasmussen's information, and to report back to her with that information. Johnson did not instruct Dobbs to get information from Bahr about the incident. Dobbs then met with Rasmussen and took notes about Rasmussen's account of what happened that morning. During this meeting, Rasmussen repeated that Bahr approached him in a "threatening manner," and Rasmussen said that Bahr told him that "things were going to change" at the mill. Dobbs testified at trial that Rasmussen was "clearly agitated" and "upset" during the meeting. Dobbs then telephoned Johnson and related Rasmussen's account. Johnson instructed Dobbs to have Bahr escorted from the building and placed on "investigatory suspension." Johnson again did not instruct Dobbs to seek information from Bahr as to his side of the events, and Dobbs did not do so.
Dobbs followed up by escorting Bahr off the premises at approximately 11 a.m. on October 18, 2001. Bahr testified that when he asked Dobbs for a reason why he had to leave, Dobbs replied that he could not talk to Bahr. Dobbs testified that he told Bahr that the company received a complaint against him and he needed to send Bahr home.2 After being escorted from the Boise premises, Bahr visited his union representative to initiate a grievance against Boise. The union representative contacted Dobbs, who responded that he could not discuss why Bahr was escorted from the building.3
That afternoon, at 2 p.m., Rasmussen and R.B. met with Betty Leen, another Boise Human Resources Coordinator, to file an informal harassment complaint against Bahr. According to Leen's notes, Rasmussen and R.B. made three allegations of misconduct: (1) Bahr started the rumor about Rasmussen having an affair with R.B.; (2) Bahr "yells and shouts and he is almost to the point of physical violence"; and (3) Bahr "will do as little as possible because he is mad at Boise." Because Rasmussen was "worried" that Bahr would "put something in it," Rasmussen told Leen that he checks his "lunch bucket" and his "garage at home."4
Based on the complaint, Boise began an investigation of the allegations against Bahr. On October 19, 2001, Betty Leen met with Bahr and the union representative as part of the investigation. According to Leen's notes, Bahr "denie[d] everything," and said that Rasmussen has been angry because he had to ...
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