Balderree v. Beeman
| Citation | 837 S.W.2d 309 |
| Decision Date | 03 August 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 17697,17697 |
| Parties | Lydia BALDERREE, Respondent, v. Betty BEEMAN and Lake Ozark Council of Local Governments, Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Missouri (US) |
Peggy D. Richardson, Stockard, Andereck, Hauck, Sharp and Evans, Jefferson City, for appellants.
Frank M. Evans, III, Cynthia B. McGinnis, Miller & Sanford, P.C., Springfield, for respondent.
Plaintiff, Lydia Balderree, filed a slander suit against two defendants: Betty Beeman and an entity identified in the petition as "Lake Ozark Council of Local Governments." 1 For convenience, we henceforth refer to the latter defendant as "LOCLG."
Trial by jury produced a judgment in favor of Plaintiff for (a) $250 actual damages against both defendants, (b) $7,500 punitive damages against Beeman, and (c) $2,500 punitive damages against LOCLG. Both defendants appeal.
The villainously difficult issues require an account of the evidence. In summarizing it we adhere to the venerable axiom that inasmuch as the verdicts and judgment were in favor of Plaintiff, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to her, giving her the benefit of all reasonable inferences therefrom. Haswell v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 557 S.W.2d 628, 633 (Mo. banc 1977).
LOCLG is a regional planning commission created per the State and Regional Planning and Community Development Act. Laws of Missouri 1965, 2d Ex.Sess., S.C.S.S.B. 14, pp. 908-16, now codified as §§ 251.150-.440, RSMo 1986. Its region comprises five counties: Camden, Laclede, Miller, Morgan and Pulaski. At all pertinent times, Beeman was Executive Director of LOCLG.
Two other entities are enmeshed in this saga: Missouri Ozarks Community Action, Inc. ("MOCA"), and Central Ozarks Private Industry Council ("PIC").
MOCA is characterized in the record as a "community action agency" operating programs and services to enable low income people to become self-sufficient.
Plaintiff was hired by MOCA in 1983 and was soon promoted to "job developer." She explained:
[The] individuals [served by MOCA] were determined to have some type of barrier to employment--either a financial barrier, a mental or physical disability, sometimes we worked with veterans.... As a job developer, my responsibilities were to go out in the communities, to talk to employers, to explain the various program functions that we ran, and to encourage them to utilize those programs so that we would have placement for the individuals that we worked with.
In 1988, LOCLG and MOCA had contracts with PIC regarding the Job Training Partnership Act ("JTPA"), 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 1501-1781. While few details of the agreements appear in the record, we gather from the testimony that MOCA was a "program operator" for PIC for some JTPA programs. MOCA would determine whether an unemployed person met JTPA eligibility requirements and, if so, would seek employment for such person with an employer participating in the program.
LOCLG was the "administrative entity" for PIC. Explaining that relationship, Beeman testified JTPA funds came from the State to LOCLG "on behalf of" PIC. LOCLG prepared the required documentation, ensured that requests for funds met all guidelines, and filed written reports with PIC and the Division of Job Development and Training of the State of Missouri. 2 According to Beeman, this was "a major amount of paper work." LOCLG obtained information needed for the reports from MOCA.
On June 23, 1988, Beeman held a meeting at her office in Camdenton regarding a $70,000 request by MOCA to operate the "Summer Youth Employment Program." According to Beeman, five people were present: she; Charles Theodore Dirks, Jr., Interim Executive Director of MOCA; Wando Moore, Presiding Commissioner of Laclede County and Chairman of the LOCLG board; Katherine Kelsey, a member of PIC; and William G. McGarity, also a PIC member.
Describing the purpose of the meeting, Beeman testified MOCA had requested the $70,000 on June 6, and she "had asked for backup documentation for verification of the need of the check." She added, "When you're dealing with cash requests in the amount of $70,000 that you don't have verification on and when that's taxpayers' money, it is a major problem."
Dirks, testifying at trial as a witness for Plaintiff, recalled a discussion about MOCA employees toward the end of the meeting. His testimony:
Q. ... Defendant, Betty Beeman, say anything to you with respect to Lydia Balderree?
A. The subject that we were discussing ... was a rumor ... that some of the PIC members wanted certain MOCA employees terminated. One of the employees' names was Lydia Balderree.
Q. And did Betty Beeman say anything with respect to Lydia Balderree during that meeting?
A. At that time she said that the reason probably they wanted Lydia terminated was that she had propositioned some of the PIC members.
....
Q. And did she identify any of those PIC members who Lydia had allegedly propositioned?
A. Yes. One she identified that I'm certain of is Bob Garnett. She identified another one and ... I can't recall exactly who it was. There were two PIC members that I was having some difficulty at that time keeping their names straight....
Q. And who were those two PIC members?
A. Ray Cassidy and Bob Douglas.... I'm not certain which of those two were named.
Q. ... do you recall who was present other than Betty Beeman and yourself ... when Betty Beeman made this statement to you?
A. As best as I recall, there were a couple of other people there still from the original group. I believe Commissioner Moore was still there and one other person, but I'm not absolutely sure of that.
....
Q. Did Betty Beeman explain what she meant by "proposition"?
A. No.
Q. What did you think she meant?
A. I thought she meant a sexual proposition.
Q. And why did you think that?
A. I really couldn't imagine any other proposition that anyone could make to a person that would want them to be fired from their job.
Two or three weeks later Dirks learned Plaintiff was planning to attend a meeting of elected officials. Dirks realized some PIC members would be there. Dirks testified, "I felt that I owed ... it to her and the agency to warn her to be careful about what she said to any of the PIC members so that, if she did say anything, it couldn't be misconstrued." In warning Plaintiff, Dirks told her what Beeman had said. Plaintiff appeared startled and upset.
Plaintiff testified she was stunned and almost speechless at Dirks' disclosure. Then, said Plaintiff, she began to cry.
Plaintiff's immediate supervisor, James T. Haley, saw her a few minutes after her conversation with Dirks. Haley described Plaintiff as "shrunken and pale and shaking uncontrollably and crying."
Plaintiff went home, and did not attend the meeting.
At trial, Plaintiff testified she had met Bob Garnett once, being introduced to him at a PIC meeting. She had no conversation with him. Plaintiff testified she had likewise met Ray Cassidy only once, also at a PIC meeting. They had a brief conversation about Cassidy having lost his business. Plaintiff gave him a MOCA application form to see whether he would be eligible for one of the programs.
Donald Robert Garnett--presumably the "Bob Garnett" referred to by Dirks and Plaintiff--testified he was either vice president or secretary of PIC in 1988. He met Plaintiff only once prior to this suit. 3 Garnett avowed Plaintiff "never did proposition" him, and he never told Beeman she did.
Garnett also testified that on March 27, 1988 (three months before the June 23 meeting where Beeman made the statements about Plaintiff to Dirks), Beeman told him (Garnett) that Plaintiff "had propositioned Ray Cassidy." Garnett quoted Beeman as saying the incident occurred at a meeting at "Camdenton Vo-Tech School." Garnett had been present at that meeting. He testified:
There were several of us standing in a group and [Ray Cassidy] walked up to us and said, "I've just been propositioned." Someone else said, "Lucky you." And someone else said, "By whom?"
Q. And what did he say?
A. And he said, "By that girl right back there."
Q. Did he identify by her name?
A. He identified her as Lydia Balderree.
Q. Did he say what kind of proposition it was?
A. From his tone of voice, it was not a job. There was shock and amazement in his voice, I think.
....
Q. Did Ray say anything that would indicate that it was sexual in nature?
....
A. He might have said, "I'm too old for that kind of thing" or something like that. I don't remember for sure.... Somebody else might have said, "You're too old for that kind of thing." It might not have been Ray.
Charles Ray Cassidy--presumably the "Ray Cassidy" referred to by Dirks, Plaintiff and Garnett--testified he had been a PIC board member from its inception and had held several PIC offices. Asked whether he would recognize Plaintiff, he replied: Cassidy recalled no conversations with Plaintiff, and did not remember mentioning Plaintiff's name in a conversation. Cassidy did not recall telling Beeman or anyone else that Plaintiff had "sexually propositioned" him.
Maxine L. Leather testified she was an LOCLG employee from September, 1985, until December, 1987. She described a conversation with Beeman that occurred in the fall of 1987 at the LOCLG office. Leather's testimony:
[Beeman] said that one of the [MOCA] employees had propositioned two of the PIC members, and I asked who the [MOCA] employee was, and she said it was Lydia Balderree. And I asked who the PIC members were, and she said [they] were Bob Garnett and Ray Cassidy.
....
Q. Did you ever hear Betty Beeman tell anyone else that Lydia Balderree had propositioned someone?
A. Yes. I was present at a PIC meeting, and we were standing towards the...
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