Gulf States Paper Corp. v. Ingram, CV86-H-95-W.

• Citation: 633 F. Supp. 908
• Decision Date: 07 March 1986
• Docket Number: CV86-H-95-W.
• Parties: GULF STATES PAPER CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. Eloise H. INGRAM, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

633 F. Supp. 908

GULF STATES PAPER CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. Eloise H. INGRAM, Defendant.

CV86-H-95-W.

United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, W.D.

March 7, 1986.

Chris Mitchell, Carol Sue Nelson, Constangy, Brooks & Smith, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff.

Frank W. Donaldson, U.S. Atty., Frank S. James, III, George C. Batcheler, Asst. U.S. Atty (on appeal), George R. Salem, Solicitor of Labor, Bobbye D. Spears, Regional Solicitor, George D. Palmer, Asso. Reg. Solicitor, William H. Berger, Atty. Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

HANCOCK, District Judge.

Pursuant to the January 21, 1986 order, this cause came on for a hearing on the merits on February 19, 1986 with regard to the issues presented by the complaint and answer. Having considered the evidence presented at the hearing and the oral and written argument of counsel, the court proceeds to make its findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Eloise H. Ingram has been an employee of Gulf States Paper Corporation for over 13 years. Her current position is that of a secretary in the Corporate Planning Department, earning approximately $17,000 annually, and she has been in that department for the past 11 years. During the 11-year period she has also been a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, serving initially as a secretary and more recently as a medical specialist. She currently is assigned to the 75th Field Hospital, which is a reserve unit located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She holds the rank of sergeant E-5, with an MOS of 91A. This is the lowest of three MOSs in the patient care field and is equivalent to a hospital orderly. The next higher MOS is a 91B, equivalent to a paramedic, and the highest is 91C, equivalent to a licensed practical nurse (LPN). In addition to participating in her monthly weekend drill, she has during each of the past 10 years requested and been granted a leave of absence by Gulf States to attend a two-week summer reserve training program.

The Corporate Planning Department has a total of 7 employees, including its manager, Lawrence A. Mumbleau. Two of the 7, however, do not perform corporate planning duties but work entirely with Gulf States' Basil Ede Wild Life Print Program, an apparent public relations personal interest of one of the principal owners of Gulf States. Another of the 7, Rick McLain, is Planning Coordinator, a management position. Thus, excluding the 2 Wild Life Print employees and the 2 management employees, there are only 3 employees in the department, 1 of whom is Ms. Ingram. The major portion of her duties are general secretarial duties (typing, filing, record keeping, etc.), but a significant, non-secretarial duty relates to the primary responsibility of the department, the annual preparation in May of a 5-year forecast, or "corporate plan," which projects Gulf States' financial and operating position for the next 5 years. More importantly, she is actively involved in defining for the 7 operating divisions data needed quarterly to prepare analyses of performance against the corporate plan. These quarterly analyses, known as "actuals," are prepared in September, December, March and June (the year-end report) to compare actual performance with the then existing corporate plan. During a period of 2 to 3 weeks prior to the preparation of each quarterly actual, Ms. Ingram spends about 20 hours receiving data from the 7 operating divisions, reviewing the data for completeness, soliciting necessary supplemental data and inputting the data into a computer system specially designed to produce the actuals. This job assignment requires her to be familiar with approximately 60 separate data files and the general operations of the 7 divisions from which she receives the data for input by her into the computer for use by one or more of the 290 different computer programs. She has estimated in the past that 20% of her work time is spent on this computer assignment. The job requires a great deal of interaction with other company employees during normal working hours. Ms. Ingram is the only non-management employee of Gulf States who is sufficiently familiar with this job assignment to perform these duties. The only other employee of Gulf States who can perform these duties is the company's Planning Coordinator, Rick McLain.

Ms. Ingram is of the opinion that her duties associated with the corporate plan and the quarterly actuals are duties which require 6 months of on-the-job training of a person with 1 year of business studies beyond the high school level before the person would be qualified to perform them. Gulf States agrees with this opinion, and the court finds these opinions are valid. Although the actual hours of instruction of a new person would be small, both agree that the new person would have to participate, under supervision, in the preparation of two quarterly actuals before becoming sufficiently skilled to perform this job duty. Since accepting this job duty about 6 years ago, she has been available to produce the actuals each quarter except one when she was out for 7 weeks with an injury. Rick McLain performed her duties on this occasion, in addition to his normal managerial duties. It is not feasible for McLain to do this on an extended basis, such as a year.

The 75th Field Hospital is under strength with reservists with MOSs of 91A and 91C and over strength with reservists with an MOS of 91B. Before a reservist can be awarded a 91C MOS, the reservist...