Branson v. Price River Coal Co., Civ. No. 84-920G.

• Decision Date: 03 February 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 84-920G.
• Citation: 627 F. Supp. 1324
• Parties: Faye F. BRANSON and Christine K. Saccomanno, Plaintiffs, v. PRICE RIVER COAL COMPANY, an Indiana corporation, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Utah

627 F. Supp. 1324

Faye F. BRANSON and Christine K. Saccomanno, Plaintiffs, v. PRICE RIVER COAL COMPANY, an Indiana corporation, Defendant.

Civ. No. 84-920G.

United States District Court, D. Utah, C.D.

February 3, 1986.

Jeffrey Oritt, Salt Lake City, Utah, for plaintiffs.

David A. Anderson, James M. Elegante, W. Mark Gavre, Salt Lake City, Utah, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

J. THOMAS GREENE, District Judge.

This matter came on regularly for hearing on December 17, 1985, on defendant Price River Coal Company's Motion for Summary Judgment. David A. Anderson, James M. Elegante and W. Mark Gavre appeared on behalf of defendant Price River Coal Company and Jeffrey Oritt appeared on behalf of plaintiffs Faye F. Branson and Christine K. Saccomanno. The issues were thoroughly briefed by plaintiffs and defendant and the parties had opportunity to present extensive oral argument, after which the Court took the matter under advisement. Now, being fully advised, the Court hereby renders its decision.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiffs are former salaried employees in the Administrative and Accounting Departments of defendant Price River Coal Company (hereinafter "Price River") who were laid off in 1982 as part of a major reduction in Price River's work force. Their termination was effective two years later, on December 31, 1984. They bring this action alleging that they were discharged and not recalled by Price River to the same or similar positions because of their age, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 621, et seq. (hereinafter "ADEA").

Beginning in December 1979, Price River operated two underground coal mines, a coal preparation plant and office facilities in Helper, Utah. Price River, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Electric Power, shipped the coal to fuel generating plants of its parent company. Beginning in 1981, however, depressed economic conditions in the parent company's service area resulted in a marked decrease in the demand for power and thus for coal. Price River was forced to curtail its mining operation and reduce its work force, which it did in three phases over a three-month period. The first phase occurred in October 1982 when Price River closed one of the operating mines and laid off the mine's work force. At that time, Price River also eliminated two positions in the Administration Department and one in the Accounting Department. The second phase occurred in mid-November 1982 in connection with preparation for shutdown of the second active mine. At the insistence of the Vice President and General Manager, Gordon Cook, at that time department heads reduced their staffs further. The Accounting Department was reduced to four people, including plaintiff Saccomanno. The third and final phase occurred at the end of December 1982, at which time the defendant stopped all mining activities in the second mine, reduced the company's work force and kept the company's operations on a care and maintenance basis only. Both plaintiffs were laid off at that time. At the close of 1982, Price River had reduced its work force by 87%, from 585 employees to 77. During 1983 and 1984, Price River experienced a moderate upswing in business, but by the end of 1984 it had further reduced its total work force to 40 employees.

Plaintiff Saccomanno

Plaintiff Saccomanno began her employ on December 10, 1945 as a weigh master and bookkeeper for Hardscrabble Coal Company, which changed its name to Carbon Fuel in 1954. Her work as a bookkeeper included doing the United Mine Workers Association ("UMWA") and salaried payrolls. She became the office manager for the company in 1964 and remained in that position until 1975. In 1971, Carbon Fuel was sold to McCulloch Oil Corporation, which renamed the operational company as Braztah Corporation. Mrs. Saccomanno continued as office manager for Braztah until August 1, 1975, after which she became an accountant. Her job responsibilities included putting out the salaried payroll and doing the quarterly federal and state reports, state insurance reports, pension reports, annual reports for UMWA and salaried payrolls, and royalty reports for the UMWA payroll. She continued those responsibilities when American Electric Power purchased Braztah Corporation and the property from McCulloch Oil, and established Price River, as a wholly-owned subsidiary, to run the mining property in December of 1979. Mrs. Saccomanno continued those responsibilities until April of 1981, at which time she became a senior accountant. In February of 1982, she became the accounts payable supervisor. In addition to her experience, Mrs. Saccomanno had a high school education and had taken an office machines class at the College of Eastern Utah. She did not have a contract of definite duration and was not covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Prior to the last phase of reductions, Mrs. Saccomanno was one of the four remaining employees in Price River's Accounting Department. Management for the defendant instructed Mr. Anderson, the manager of the Accounting Department, to reduce the accounting personnel to three by December 31, 1982, consistent with the other reductions that were taking place. Based upon the continuing needs of Price River and the relative skills of the remaining accounting employees, Mr. Anderson determined that either Mrs. Saccomanno or Mr. Hanson would be discharged. The primary responsibility of the remaining accounting position was the UMWA payroll. Mr. Hanson, the younger employee, was performing the UMWA payroll at the time of the layoffs, and had helped in the development of Price River's computerized payroll system. Mrs. Saccomanno had not done the UMWA payroll for an employer since 1975, more than seven years before her termination. While Mrs. Saccomanno had a high school education, Mr. Hanson had studied business management for four years at the College of Eastern Utah. Plaintiff does not dispute that Price River was experiencing a rapid reduction in its work force and was conscious of the potential cost of retaining an additional employee should plaintiff require training, but the parties do dispute the amount of training, if any, the plaintiff would have required to perform the UMWA payroll. Mr. Anderson felt that Mr. Hanson was more qualified than Mrs. Saccomanno to perform the remaining tasks in the Accounting Department because Mr. Hanson had more experience handling the payroll for hourly employees represented by UMWA, which was a primary responsibility of the remaining accounting position. Mrs. Saccomanno does not dispute that Mr. Anderson felt that Mr. Hanson was more qualified for the remaining accounting position. However, plaintiff disputes that, in fact, Mr. Hanson was more qualified and experienced in handling the UMWA payroll.

On December 28, 1982, Price River offered Mrs. Saccomanno a position at a truck weigh station, which she declined to accept. Therefore, she was laid off three days later. Thereafter, on May 12, 1983, Price River offered Mrs. Saccomanno a position requiring an estimated 4-6 weeks of underground inventory work. Mrs. Saccomanno declined to accept that job, so the same position was offered to a Linda Gonzales, who accepted the position. Ms. Gonzales had had prior experience doing underground inventory work, whereas the plaintiff had not. Ms. Gonzales ended up working 21 days underground and 12 days above ground. Her acceptance of that position also resulted in continued employment for Ms. Gonzales with Price River for an additional six months.

Mrs. Saccomanno alleges that her discharge from Price River was motivated by her age and that a younger, less qualified employee was retained in her stead. She also claims that she was not recalled to an accounting position, whereas a younger less qualified employee in fact was, and that failure to recall was motivated by her age. Although she was offered a position, plaintiff claims that Price River gave her insufficient information regarding the position for her really to know what the job involved and that thereafter Price River gave the job to a less qualified, younger employee.

Plaintiff Branson

Faye F. Branson began working for Carbon Fuel Coal Company in 1964 as the accounts payable bookkeeper. She, too, worked in several capacities while employed by the coal companies. Prior to her work with the coal companies, she worked as a secretary and bookkeeper for fourteen years. In 1975, she became the accounts payable supervisor for Carbon Fuel. She held that position until July 1976, when she became Mr. Boyd Harvey's administrative assistant. Mr. Harvey was the Manager of Safety, Coal Production and Special Projects. Mrs. Branson became the traffic supervisor for Braztah in February 1977 while continuing her responsibilities as Mr. Harvey's administrative assistant. On December 6, 1982, Mr. Harvey suffered a heart attack and was given a long-term disability leave which lasted until his death on May 8, 1983. The position vacated by Mr. Harvey was never filled by another employee and was eliminated by Price River. Therefore, Mrs. Branson's duties as administrative assistant to Mr. Harvey also were eliminated. With the cessation of coal shipments pursuant to the overall cutback, Mrs. Branson's duties as traffic supervisor also were reduced. In 1983, the train scheduling that Mrs. Branson had previously performed was computerized and the computation of coal sample analyses previously performed by Mrs. Branson was eliminated. Mrs. Branson was not recalled to her previous position after her layoff because that job had disappeared. At the time of her layoff, the company did not offer her other jobs held by incumbent employees, and after her layoff, did not recall her to any other position because those positions were filled by employees who had previously held them.

Mrs. Branson brings this action alleging that Price River terminated her...