Jasperson v. Purolator Courier Corp.

• Decision Date: 24 June 1985
• Docket Number: Nos. 84-1810,84-1844,s. 84-1810
• Citation: 765 F.2d 736
• Parties: 120 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2932, 103 Lab.Cas. P 55,517 Linda JASPERSON, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. PUROLATOR COURIER CORP., Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 736

765 F.2d 736

120 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2932, 103 Lab.Cas. P 55,517

Linda JASPERSON, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. PUROLATOR COURIER CORP., Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Nos. 84-1810, 84-1844.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 15, 1985.

Decided June 24, 1985.

Stuart R. Berkowitz, Clayton, Mo., for appellant/cross-appellee.

D.J. Sullivan, St. Louis, Mo., for appellee/cross-appellant.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, and JOHN R. GIBSON and FAGG, Circuit Judges.

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Linda Jasperson was awarded $4,000.00 in actual damages in a service letter ¹ suit she brought against Purolator Courier Corporation on the grounds that the letter did not state the true reason for her discharge. She now appeals the district court's ² refusal to submit the issue of punitive damages to the jury. Purolator cross-appeals, arguing that Jasperson was entitled at most to nominal damages of one dollar. The case largely turns on whether Missouri's amended service letter statute (which was enacted after the facts giving rise to Jasperson's claim but before she had filed her lawsuit) applies. We conclude that Jasperson had a submissible case on the question of whether the true reasons for her discharge were given in the service letter but that the amended statute does apply, entitling her, as we explain below, only to nominal damages. We accordingly affirm the judgment in favor of Jasperson but remand with instructions that the district court reduce the award of damages to $1.00.

Linda Jasperson was a courier guard for Purolator. She was fired on October 2, 1981, after Purolator investigated its St. Louis terminal and found reason to believe that a relationship between Jasperson and her immediate supervisor, Russell Schilligo, was affording her favored treatment and generally causing a morale problem. Schilligo was discharged at the same time.

On October 7, Jasperson wrote Purolator asking for a letter stating the length of time she had been employed, a description of her job duties, and the reason for her termination. ³ Purolator claims it sent a reply later in October; Jasperson testified she never received a response. In December Jasperson sent Purolator by registered mail a photostatic copy of her October 7 letter; Purolator made no response. Finally, on April 21, 1982 Jasperson's counsel wrote Purolator, commenting that Purolator's correspondence of October 2, 1981 failed "to contain a statement of the true reason why [Jasperson] was terminated" and requesting that Purolator "remedy this deficiency by forwarding to [him] a service letter" that fully complied with the Missouri service letter statute. On June 16, 1982, Purolator wrote to Jasperson's counsel:

[W]e believed that she [Jasperson] had established a relationship with a company supervisor who exercised supervision over her and other employees, and we believed that this created an appearance of favoritism toward her on the part of that supervisor in regard to her route schedules. We believed that there was a perception among our St. Louis personnel that such favoritism on the job existed, and we believed that this perception was creating a serious morale problem among other employees. We concluded that for this reason Linda's employment should be terminated.

Jasperson then filed suit under Missouri's service letter statute, alleging, alternatively, that Purolator had not issued a service letter, that it had not issued a service letter within a reasonable time, and that it had issued a false letter. She sought actual and punitive damages under each theory.

Between the time of Jasperson's first request for a service letter and the filing of her lawsuit, the service letter statute was amended to permit punitive damages only when an employer fails to issue a requested letter. ⁴ Before the trial began, the district court ruled that the case fell under the amended statute, that as a matter of law the June 16th letter was a service letter, and, thus, that the issue of punitive damages would not be raised in the lawsuit since there had been no absolute failure to issue a service letter. Jasperson's counsel made an offer of proof regarding punitive damages and later at the instructions conference after the close of evidence objected to the failure to instruct on the issue of punitive damages, the refusal of an instruction based on the delayed issuing or failure to issue a service letter, and the district court's decision to instruct only on the issue of whether the letter stated the true cause of termination. The case was submitted on this latter ground to the jury, which returned a verdict of $4000.00 actual damages.

Judgment was entered on the verdict and this appeal and cross-appeal followed. Jasperson argues that the case should be reversed and remanded for trial on the punitive damages issue. Purolator disagrees and, in addition, argues Jasperson did not establish a submissible case on either the issue of liability or actual damages.

I.

Jasperson's right to punitive damages depends on which statute is applicable to her claim: that in effect at the time of her discharge and request for a service letter, or that in effect when she filed her lawsuit. Punitive damages were generally recoverable under the older statute. The amended statute, however, provides that punitive damages may be recovered only when the employer did not issue a service letter and specifically states that no award of punitive damages "shall be based" upon the content of a letter. As Jasperson's case was submitted only on the issue of the truthfulness of the letter, if the new statute applies, there would exist no base to support any claim by Jasperson for punitive damages.

In Missouri, "when the legislature repeals an existing statute, it is considered to have done so in contemplation of the general savings statutes Secs. 1.170 and 1.180, RSMo 1978." State ex rel. Deering v. Corcoran, 652 S.W.2d 228, 229 (Mo.Ct.App.1983) (footnote omitted). Mo.Rev.Stat. Sec. 1.170 provides that repeal of a statute does not affect a "right accrued or established in any proceeding, suit or prosecution." The specific question we face, therefore, is whether Jasperson's right to claim punitive damages accrued before she filed suit.

Although a handful of Missouri cases have dealt with the retroactive effect to be given the amended service letter statute, none is directly on point. While in Deering the court held that punitive damages could be claimed when suit had been filed before the amended statute became effective, 652 S.W.2d at 230, that court also took particular pains to note that "[i]t is unnecessary and we do not decide relator's general entitlement to punitive damages or the amendment's effect on the position of former employees and former employers where the amendment became effective before an action was commenced." Id.; see also Crompton v. Curtis-Toledo, Inc., 661 S.W.2d 645, 651 (Mo.Ct.App.1983) (interest in punitive damages vested where judgment preceded amended statute); Musselman v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 657 S.W.2d 282, 285 (Mo.Ct.App.1983) (same); Arie v. Intertherm, Inc., 648 S.W.2d 142, 149 (Mo.Ct.App.1983) (same). See generally Easley v. Empire, Inc., 757 F.2d 923, 927 (8th Cir.1985).

Thus, the district court's task in this situation was to interpret the statute the way it "believed the state courts would in all probability follow." Bergstreser v. Mitchell, 577 F.2d 22, 25 (8th Cir.1978). While its ruling here was made in the heat of trial and thus may not be due the deference to be accorded a more studied decision, see Kansas State Bank v. Citizens Bank, 737 F.2d 1490, 1496 (8th Cir.1984), nonetheless we shall not abandon our general rule that great weight is to be given such determinations of state law by experienced district judges. Keltner v. Ford Motor Co., 748 F.2d 1265, 1267 (8th Cir.1984). The district court here reached the same conclusion as did the district court in Rahn v. Consolidated Freightways, Inc., No. 83-0230C(3) (E.D.Mo. Sept. 12, 1983): Where service letter claims are filed after the effective date of the amended statute, a right to claim punitive damages has not accrued.

While the general rule in Missouri is that a statute is not to be applied retrospectively, an exception has long been recognized where the statute deals only with procedure or remedies. State ex rel. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Buder, 515 S.W.2d 409, 410 (Mo.1974) (en banc); Scheidegger v. Greene, 451 S.W.2d 135, 137 (Mo.1970); Wentz v. Price Candy Co., 352 Mo. 1, 175 S.W.2d 852, 853 (1943); Supreme Auto Sales v. Bedford, 672 S.W.2d 712, 713 (Mo.Ct.App.1984). Indeed, the exception requires that such a statute be applied retrospectively, unless the legislature has otherwise expressly stated. Adams Dairy Co. v. National Dairy Products Corp., 293 F.Supp. 1135, 1161 (W.D.Mo.1968). Since punitive damages are clearly a matter of remedy, a statute restricting their availability is to be applied retrospectively unless such application "will impair a substantive right vested by the prior statute," State ex rel. Research Medical Center v. Peters, 631 S.W.2d 938, 946 (Mo.Ct.App.1982); and thus override the rule of the exception.

The Arie court in dicta analyzed this latter issue, finding that in the case law of other jurisdictions

prior to entry of judgment no plaintiff has a vested right to punitive damages and a statute precluding an award of punitive damages may constitutionally be applied retroactively; however, once the plaintiff has had a judgment awarding him punitive damages he has a "vested right" in said punitive damages and cannot be deprived of the punitive damages by retroactive application of a statute precluding an award of punitive damages which was enacted and took effect after the entry of judgment.

648 S.W.2d at 159. Under this analysis, ⁵ and since it is also firmly established in Missouri that punitive damages are never allowable as a...