Exxon Corp. v. Allsup

• Decision Date: 18 April 1991
• Docket Number: No. 13-90-127-CV,13-90-127-CV
• Citation: 808 S.W.2d 648
• Parties: EXXON CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Robert W. ALLSUP, Sr., Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 648

808 S.W.2d 648

EXXON CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Robert W. ALLSUP, Sr., Appellee.

No. 13-90-127-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas Corpus Christi.

April 18, 1991.

Rehearing Overruled May 16, 1991.

Rene J. Mouledoux, Susan B. Sanchez, Tamara C. Sampson, Houston, for appellant.

W.R. Hitchens, Kingsville, for appellee.

Before NYE, C.J., and SEERDEN and HINOJOSA, JJ.

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

This is a suit for tortious interference with a contractual or business relationship and for tortious interference with a prospective employment relationship. The jury found that appellant, Exxon Corporation (Exxon) interfered with a contractual or business relationship between appellee Robert Allsup and King Ranch, Incorporated (King Ranch), and that Exxon negligently and with malice "handled" Allsup's employment relationship. The jury awarded Allsup $315,687.82 in actual and punitive damages. Exxon asserts twenty-nine points of error. As modified, we affirm the trial court's judgment.

In May, 1961, King Ranch secretary Cy Yeary hired Allsup to guard a specific gate on the ranch's Laureles division. The assigned gate, later named the Allsup Gate, allowed access to Exxon operations on the Alazan oilfield. It experienced considerable daily traffic. Yeary and Allsup agreed that Allsup would hold the gate guard position for life, that King Ranch would provide him with a house at his assigned post, pay his utilities and a minimum hourly wage and that, should he retire, he could live on the ranch until he died.

In June, 1976, King Ranch sent a letter to Allsup which informed him of a reorganization of the gate guards due to Exxon's relocation of operations on the ranch. The letter also stated, in pertinent part:

It has also become desirable to centralize management of the gates and to define responsibility. General management of the gates will be placed in the hands of Walter Hock. We have made considerable effort to preserve employment of those who are presently employed as gate persons. It is our understanding that Mr. Hock will make available to you an employment application. It is our belief that the change in management will permit more desirable schedules and will be beneficial to all persons.

Accordingly, Exxon sub-contracted gate guard management to Walter Hock d/b/a Walter's Oilfield Services (WOS), an independent contractor. As a contract condition, both King Ranch and Exxon management personnel specifically ordered Hock to hire Allsup as a WOS gate guard. For the next twelve years, Allsup took his immediate orders from either Hock or Jim Scott, the WOS supervisor, and was paid by WOS to guard the Allsup gate. He continued to live in a King Ranch house stationed at the gate with utilities paid by the ranch.

In late 1988, Exxon awarded the 1989 gate guard contract to Don Brock, Distributor (DBD), which out-bid WOS for the job. On December 28, 1988, as Allsup collected his paycheck, he received the news that DBD held the 1989 gate guard contract and that DBD would not hire him as a gate guard.

Allsup then filed an age discrimination complaint against DBD with the Texas Commission on Human Rights (TCHR) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The complaint stated that Allsup was denied employment to the gate guard position on or about January 1, 1989, that Don Brock informed Allsup that DBD could not hire him because Exxon field superintendent Butch Hamilton did not want Allsup working there anymore, and that Allsup believed he had been denied employment at DBD because he was 73 years old.

DBD's president, Don Brock, responded to the TCHR-EEOC complaint with a letter denying the age discrimination charge and stating, in pertinent part:

Mr. Allsup has a problem with Exxon Company, U.S.A. that began before my company took over the gate guards.

On or about December 30, 1988 I went to Mr. Allsup and discussed my position with him. I explained to him that I could not hire him unless the problem was resolved. The problem has not been resolved as of today.

DBD did not hire Allsup, who responded by filing suit against Exxon and Hamilton alleging that they tortiously interfered with Allsup's lifetime employment contract, tortiously interfered with Allsup's prospective employment relationship and that their acts and conduct were negligent, reckless and intentional acts which proximately resulted in the infliction of emotional distress on Allsup. The claims against Butch Hamilton were dropped before trial, leaving Exxon as the sole defendant.

At trial, Allsup testified that in 1961 King Ranch hired him to guard for life the Allsup gate. He understood that in July, 1976, King Ranch effectively relinquished the management of all gate guards to Exxon, which in turn sub-contracted the service to WOS. Thereafter, WOS supervised Allsup's job performance.

Allsup stated that when he received his last WOS paycheck in December, 1988, he learned that WOS no longer held the gate guard contract. He contacted DBD for more information. Don Brock informed Allsup that he was not on the rehire list. Allsup testified that Brock explained that he would not hire Allsup because to hold the gate guard contract, DBD must do whatever Exxon told DBD to do. However, if Allsup could "go out and get straightened out with Exxon's Butch Hamilton, I'll [DBD] put you [Allsup] to work." Later, Walter Hock informed Allsup that Exxon told DBD not to hire Allsup.

Allsup testified that he had no previous problems with Hamilton and that Hamilton never complained to him about the quality of his work. Allsup believed that he was on good terms with Hamilton's supervisor, James Richey. He stated that Richey never complained to him about his work as a gate guard. When he went to talk to Hamilton about the alleged "problem" between them, Hamilton refused to speak, other than to tell him to contact the person identified on a slip of paper which he handed to Allsup. The paper identified the name and telephone number of Exxon's legal counsel.

Allsup stated that in 1987, he experienced a spinal tumor. The tumor interfered with his ability to perform certain functions associated with his job, such as repeatedly stooping to fasten and unfasten a barrier rope at the entrance. The barrier was intended to stop all traffic, entering or leaving the premises, for identification. All gate guards were required to keep the barrier rope raised at all times when not allowing passage. ¹ Because of his condition, Allsup obtained a dispensation from King Ranch allowing him to leave the rope down. This dispensation superseded the same requirement in Exxon and WOS gate guard rules.

Allsup also discussed the so-called "air conditioner" incident. During the 1986-88 period, Exxon and King Ranch designed and constructed several new gate houses, including one at the Allsup gate. During construction, a King Ranch supervisor offered Allsup a window unit for the new gate house. Allsup asked Richey for permission to install the unit. Richey eventually refused Allsup's request, stating that Matthew Soulant, Richey's supervisor, did not want air conditioners in the gate houses. Allsup testified that he was "a little upset" over the refusal and on one occasion indicated that disappointment to Hamilton. At trial, Exxon employees Richey and Hamilton both testified that Allsup used some profanity to express his disappointment that Soulant denied his request. At the time of trial, Allsup continued to live in the Allsup gate King Ranch-provided house, with utilities paid by the ranch, and received a small stipend from the ranch. He testified that he would have continued to perform his gate guard duties had Exxon not interfered.

Walter Hock testified that he owned WOS and that in 1976, when WOS took responsibility for providing gate guards for the King Ranch, both Ranch and Exxon management personnel told him that Allsup held a lifetime job as a King Ranch gate guard. Hock stated that Allsup did "what he was supposed to do" in his work for WOS, Exxon and King Ranch and that Allsup "never gave WOS any trouble." He recalled that during the last week of December, 1988, King Ranch indicated approval and satisfaction with Allsup's performance to WOS.

Hock noted Exxon began to complain about Allsup's job performance the last few years that WOS held the gate guard contract. Specifically, he noted that Exxon wanted Allsup to "stand up" at the gate, but King Ranch ordered that Allsup did not have to do that. Hock stated that WOS did not receive any complaints about Allsup's alleged "cussing," and recalled that "everyone," including Exxon employees, "talked rough" and that there was no difference between the way that Allsup talked and the way that Exxon, as well as other, oilfield workers talked.

Don Brock, owner of DBD, testified that the business earned between $500,000.00 and $550,000.00 from the Exxon gate guard contract. Brock stated that he met with James Richey before DBD's performance began to discuss the gate guard service. At that meeting, Richey indicated that he had several complaints about several WOS gate guards, including Allsup. Brock testified that Richey did not specifically state that he did not want those guards to continue working, but Richey emphasized that "he had problems with them [certain specific gate guards] in the past."

Brock investigated these alleged "problems" and learned from WOS's Jim Scott that King Ranch wanted Allsup to retain his post regardless of the gate guard contractor. He then asked Matthew Soulant whether Exxon required DBD to hire any WOS gate guards. Soulant replied that Exxon had no requirements. After Allsup filed the age-discrimination claim, Soulant suggested to Brock that hiring Allsup "would take the heat off." Brock decided not to hire Allsup because he "could not afford to have problems created" by hiring an employee which Exxon disliked while DBD "was trying to gain Exxon's confidence."

James Richey, Exxon's...