Jones v. Hartford Acc. & Indem. Co., 1

• Citation: 811 S.W.2d 516
• Decision Date: 20 May 1991
• Docket Number: No. 1,1
• Parties: Ola Mae JONES, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. The HARTFORD ACCIDENT & INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant/Appellant.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 516

811 S.W.2d 516

Ola Mae JONES, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. The HARTFORD ACCIDENT & INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant/Appellant.

No. 1.

Supreme Court of Tennessee at Jackson.

May 20, 1991.

John D. Burleson, Charleyn S. Arnold, Jackson, for appellant.

T.J. Emison, Jr., Alamo, for appellee.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

In this worker's compensation action, the trial court awarded permanent total disability benefits, medical expenses, and the cost of future medical care, finding that the employee's emotional disability was caused by an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of her employment. The employer's insurer ("Hartford") appeals, contending that the evidence preponderates against the trial court's findings. We disagree and affirm.

FACTS

Chester County Sportswear is a clothing manufacturing company owned by Norman Katz ("Katz"), a resident of Newton, Massachusetts. At the time of the plaintiff's injury, Chester County Sportswear's employees worked pursuant to a union contract between the plant and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, AFL-CIO.

The plaintiff, Ola Mae Jones ("Jones"), had been employed by Chester County Sportswear for twenty-three years as a quality control inspector, and also held the position of union chairperson. As the union chairperson, it was Jones' duty to listen to and evaluate the problems of workers at the factory, and to pursue the resolution of appropriate problems through the Union's grievance procedures. Because of a dispute some years before, Katz had developed great antagonism for the union's business manager, Gary Surratt ("Surratt"), and refused to speak directly with him. As a result, Jones customarily conveyed messages between Katz and Surratt when Katz visited the plant.

During the months preceding Jones' injury, certain employees at Chester County Sportswear had become dissatisfied with the union. Petitions were circulated by these employees seeking to have the union decertified.

It was in this atmosphere that, at approximately 7:00 a.m. on January 8, 1987, Jones reported to work. At 7:30 a.m., she "clocked out" and off of company time and "clocked in" on union time. In town, Katz was circulating through the plant talking with employees when he came upon Jones conversing with four other employees at a location which was somewhat distant from her workstation. Jones says Katz yelled at her, asking whether she was on union time or company time. Katz says he spoke normally. Both agree Jones responded that she was on union time, and that they then conversed normally for a time.

A regularly scheduled union management meeting was held later that morning at approximately 10:30 a.m. between the plant manager, Judy Clayton, Surratt, and Jones. At that meeting Surratt complained of Katz's questioning of Jones about whether or not she was on union time. After the meeting, Judy Clayton told Katz about Surratt's complaint. Katz responded: "Let's get them in here," and told Clayton to call Jones to Clayton's office. After Jones arrived, a meeting was held, attended by Jones, Katz, Clayton, Wayne Keller (the plant's director of manufacturing), and Doris Melton (the plant's personnel director). During the meeting, Keller sent Melton to locate Surratt and Keller then left to talk to Surratt. As a result, neither Keller nor Melton heard all that transpired.

Everyone present at the meeting testified at trial. Based upon this testimony, there is no dispute that Katz told Jones to convey a message to Surratt: That Katz, as owner of the plant, was well within his rights to ask Jones whether or not she was on union time. It is also undisputed that Katz was very upset by Surratt's comment, that Katz punctuated his conversation with the word "damn" ten times, and that he either pointed to or banged on the desk at least once to emphasize his strong feelings about the matter.

The witnesses differ, however, about whether Katz was angry with Jones. Jones testified that Katz "was using profanity and banging on the table," and denied that Katz had stated that he was not angry with her, but rather with Surratt. All of the management witnesses testified on behalf of their employer, to the effect that Katz had clearly told Jones that he had no dispute with her, but rather was upset only with Surratt. Moreover, Katz and his witnesses insist that while he was "highly upset" and "very concerned," he was not "angry."

It is undisputed that within minutes after this meeting, Jones began to feel weak and passed out. Other employees came to her aid, and Jones awoke in the bathroom in great emotional distress. Jones was treated later that day by Dr. Oscar M. McCallum, who was of the opinion that Jones could return to work the next day. However, Jones was subsequently seen by Lorne A. Semrau, Ph.D. and Arthur M Ford, Ph.D., both clinical psychologists, and by Robert Winston, M.D., a general practitioner. Dr. Winston testified that Jones now suffers from some degree of permanent injury, and diagnosed her condition as a "severe anxiety neurosis." Based on the history presented to Dr. Winston, which included Jones' report that she had fainted after an abusive confrontation with her employer, Winston testified: "I believe that this indeed was the inciting incident that caused all these problems that she's had since I've been seeing her."

The trial court found

that Ola Mae Jones did in fact suffer a compensable injury, in that her psychological injury was caused by the angry confrontation with her employer's President, and that such confrontation was an acute, sudden and unexpected stress directly related to her employment. The Court further finds that Ola Mae Jones has suffered an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of her employment.

IN THE COURSE OF EMPLOYMENT

Hartford argues that at the time of her injury Jones was not functioning in her capacity as an employee of Chester County Sportswear, but rather was acting in the course of her liaison duties as union chairperson. Hartford characterizes Jones' union duties as entirely separate and distinct from her employment as a quality control inspector at the plant. It follows, so the argument goes, that Jones could not have been injured in the course of her employment with Chester County Sportswear.

Of course, compensable injuries are those caused "by accident arising out of and in the course of employment." Tenn.Code Ann. § 50-6-102(a)(4).

The phrase "in the course of" refers to time and place, and "arising out of" to cause or origin; an injury by accident to an employee is "in the course of" employment if it occurred while he was performing a duty he was employed to do; and it is an injury "arising out of" employment if caused by a hazard incident to such employment.

King v. Jones Truck Lines, 814 S.W.2d 23 (Tenn.1991); Bell v. Kelso Oil Co., 597 S.W.2d 731, 734 (Tenn.1980); Travelers Insurance Co. v. Googe, 217 Tenn. 272, 397 S.W.2d 368, 371 (1966).

The "mutual benefit" test has evolved as an aid in determining when a personal mission of the employee is a sufficient deviation from the course of employment to render an injury non-compensable. On one hand, an employee who is engaged in the pursuit of a personal mission, wholly unrelated to employment, at the time of an injury, is not entitled to workers' compensation benefits. Shelby Mutual Ins. Co. v. Cates, 223 Tenn. 442, 446 S.W.2d 682 (1969). On the other hand, "it is clear that as long as [a deviation from the employee's normal job duties] is for the benefit of the employer, it does not matter that it also serves purposes of the employee. Armstrong v. Liles Construction, 215 Tenn. 678, 389 S.W.2d 261 (1956)." Herron v. Fletcher, 503 S.W.2d 84, 87 (Tenn.1973).

The precise question whether and under what circumstances an employer is liable for injuries to an employee who is engaged in performance of union duties related to the employer's business, has never been addressed in Tennessee. Professor Larson recognizes a modern trend toward finding a mutual employer-employee benefit in the actions of union officers:

It is being increasingly held, ... that an activity undertaken by an employee in the capacity of union office may simultaneously serve the interest of the employer.

1A Larson, The Law of Workmens' Compensation § 27.33(c) at 5-414 (1990). "A foriori, picketing and other strike activities are not within the course of employment." Id., § 27.33(b) at 5-413. Of course, other union activities could also be classified as per se detours from the course of employment.

We believe, however, that the better analysis, and that most consistent with our other cases applying a "mutual benefit" test, is that a union activity is "in the course of employment" if the activity is of mutual benefit to the employee and the employer. See Scullin Steel Co. v. Whiteside, 682 S.W.2d 1 (Mo.App.1984) (benefits awarded to union shop steward for injuries sustained in an assault by a co-employee following an argument over a grievance); New England Telephone Co. v. Ames, 124 N.H. 661, 474 A.2d 571 (1984) (benefits awarded to union bargaining representative injured during contract negotiations); Caterpillar Tractor Co. v. Shook, 313 N.W.2d 503, 507 (Iowa 1981) (benefits awarded to chairman of union grievance committee injured while en route from the union hall, where he had engaged in grievance committee work, to the plant, where he was due to engage in negotiations); Mikkelsen v. N.L. Industries, 72 N.J. 209, 370 A.2d 5, 7 (1977) (benefits awarded to employee injured in a parking lot across town from the employer's premises, following a union meeting to vote on a contract offer by management); Repco Products Corp. v. Workmens Compensation App.Bd., 32 Pa.Cmwlth. 554, 379 A.2d 1089, 1092 (1977) (benefits awarded to widow of union shop steward for death resulting from assault by co-worker following work and union-related disputes); Kennedy v. Thompson Lumber Co., 223 Minn. 277, ...