Carnal v. Pride Cleaners

• Citation: 138 S.W.3d 155
• Decision Date: 13 July 2004
• Docket Number: No. WD 63411.,WD 63411.
• Parties: Carol CARNAL, Respondent, v. PRIDE CLEANERS and American International Group, Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

138 S.W.3d 155

Carol CARNAL, Respondent, v. PRIDE CLEANERS and American International Group, Appellants.

No. WD 63411.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

July 13, 2004.

Appeal from the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission.

Douglas Greenwald, Kansas City, KS, for appellants.

Frederick Bryant, Kansas City, for respondent.

RONALD R. HOLLIGER, Judge.

Pride Cleaners and American International Group appeal the Industrial and Labor Relations Commission's final award in favor of Carol Carnal upon her workers' compensation claim. That claim alleged that she had suffered a compensable mental injury due to work-related stress. Pride contends that the award was not supported by substantial evidence. We disagree, and affirm the Commission's award.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Pride Cleaners is the brand name under which DCI Management Group offers dry cleaning and laundry services in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Carol Carnal had been employed in the dry cleaning industry since the age of 16. She first worked for her father, who owned Royal Cleaners. In 1990, Royal Cleaners was sold to Pride Cleaners. Carnal continued to work for Pride cleaners, becoming the manager of Pride's Grandview production facility¹ in 1997. She continued to hold that position until 2000.

Sometime in 1998 or 1999, Pride underwent a national reorganization. Prior to that point, many of Pride's retail locations conducted laundry and dry cleaning operations on-site. In the reorganization, however, nearly all of those functions were transferred to the production facilities. This caused a significant increase in the workload processed by each of the production facilities. The number of stores served by the Grandview facility doubled, due to the reorganization.

The manager of each production facility was responsible for supervising the production facility, ensuring that items to be cleaned were collected from the retail locations, dry cleaned and laundered to the customer's specifications, and then returned to the retail location for customer pick-up. Along with those responsibilities, the manager was also obligated to ensure that preventative maintenance was conducted on cleaning equipment and vehicles assigned to the facility. The manager also had various accounting and record-keeping responsibilities that had to be performed on a regular basis.

Due to the increased workload following the company reorganization, the Grandview facility began to experience an increased rate of equipment breakdown and employee turnover. The latter was exacerbated by the company-wide elimination of attendance bonuses. Turnover was also elevated by the condition of the Grandview facility, which was housed in an older, dilapidated building with poor ventilation.

In order to fulfill guarantees to Pride's customers, the production facilities were required to return customers' items on a tight schedule. When there were insufficient workers to perform the work in a timely manner, the facility manager was expected to help out to ensure that items were processed and returned to the retail locations in a prompt manner.

Following the reorganization, Carnal's supervisor was her ex-husband, Dennis Dye. While Carnal made efforts to keep their working relationship cordial, Dye treated Carnal in an indifferent, demanding, and uncaring manner. Testimony from other witnesses, including other production facility managers, described their working relationship as having a great deal of animosity. Dye would curse at Carnal, using language with her that he would not employ with other staff. His treatment of her was significantly different than his treatment of the rest of the managerial staff, who were treated in a more appropriate manner.

On June 8, 2000, Carnal was summoned, with little notice, to a management meeting at one of Pride's other facilities. The Grandview facility was behind on the day's work, so Carnal advised Dye that she would be unable to attend. He called her again fifteen minutes later, advising her that she was holding up the meeting with her absence. So, Carnal left the production facility and began driving to the meeting. En route, she suffered a panic attack, experiencing shortness of breath, dizziness, and numbness in her arms. She stopped at a nearby convenience store, until she was able to calm down enough to call her husband, who took her to the emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital, where she was examined, given I.V. fluids, and later released. Carnal sought follow-up care with her family care physician who referred her to counseling. She did not return to her employment with Pride.

Carnal subsequently brought the present claim for workers' compensation benefits, contending that her panic attack was brought on by job-related stress. The Administrative Law Judge entered an award in favor of Carnal, concluding that she was entitled to total temporary disability benefits for a period of 21 3/7 weeks and permanent partial disability benefits based upon a finding of eight percent whole body impairment. In support of that finding, the ALJ found that Carnal had "suffered extraordinary and unusual stress during the course and scope of employment as a plant manager." While acknowledging that many of the stressors placed on Carnal following the reorganization were shared by those holding similar managerial positions at other production facilities, the ALJ held that Carnal was subject to unusually higher stress levels due to the added factors of the substandard working conditions and being supervised by her ex-husband. The Industrial and Labor Relations Commission, on review, affirmed the decision of the Administrative Law Judge. The present appeal follows.

DISCUSSION

Appellants' sole point on appeal contends that the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission erred in finding that Carnal had suffered a compensable mental injury arising from work-related stress, insofar as there was insufficient evidence that her job-related stress was "extraordinary and unusual," as compared to similarly situated employees. Carnal responds, arguing that the Commission's award was supported by substantial, competent evidence.

Where the Commission affirms the findings of the Administrative Law Judge, we review the decision of the ALJ as adopted by the Commission. See Tangblade v. Lear Corp., 58 S.W.3d 662, 665 (Mo.App.2001), overruled on other grounds by Hampton v. Big Boy Steel Erection, 121 S.W.3d 220 (Mo. banc 2003). In conducting that review, we may only reverse if we conclude that any of the following three grounds are met: (1) the Commission acted without or in excess of its powers; (2) the award was produced by...