LaBove v. Raftery
| Decision Date | 28 November 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 2000-C-1423., No. 2000-C-1394 |
| Citation | 802 So.2d 566 |
| Parties | Donna LaBOVE, et vir. v. Roy RAFTERY, Jr., et al. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Glenn W. Alexander, Jerry G. Jones, Jack C. Watson, Jones & Alexander; Joan M. Canny, Eliska M. Plunkett, Ernst F. Preis, Jr., McGlinchey Stafford; Counsel for Applicant (No. 2000-C-1394).
Robert B. MacMurdo, Steffes & MacMurdo; Byrlyne Van Duke, Vandyke-Dowers Law Firm; Counsel for Respondent (No. 2000-C-1394.)
Robert B. MacMurdo, Steffes & MacMurdo; Byrlyne Van Duke, Vandyke-Dowers Law Firm; Counsel for Applicant (No. 2000-C-1423.)
Glenn W. Alexander, Jerry G. Jones, Jack C. Watson, Jones & Alexander; Joan M. Canny, Eliska M. Plunkett, Ernst F. Preis, Jr., McGlinchey Stafford; Counsel for Respondent (No. 2000-C-1423).
This action was brought by plaintiff to recover damages for age discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress against her employer, Cameron State Bank. We granted this writ of certiorari to determine whether the jury's determination that Cameron State Bank is liable to plaintiff for age discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress was manifestly erroneous. After reviewing all of the evidence and testimony in a light most favorable to plaintiff, we hold that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict in favor of plaintiff. Accordingly, we reverse the decisions of the lower courts and dismiss plaintiff's action.
In 1978, at the age of thirty-two, Donna LaBove ("plaintiff") began working for Cameron State Bank ("CSB") as a teller. She worked at the bank for approximately one month, then quit because she thought her supervisor was "abusive" and "belittled employees." She returned to the bank three months later and went to work in the bookkeeping department. Over the years, she rose through the ranks to become head bookkeeper and assistant cashier, a position which required her to maintain all bank records, help customers open accounts, and supervise bank deposits, including the issuance of certificates of deposit. In the course of her employment, she received training in marketing and public relations, and in March of 1984, she became Assistant Vice-President for Public Relations and Marketing. As Assistant Vice-President, plaintiff was required to perform duties for CSB at its headquarters in the Town of Cameron, as well as at several branch facilities in rural Cameron Parish. She served in that position during the tenures of three bank Presidents.
CSB began to experience financial hardships, primarily from its poor portfolio of farm loans and poor policies, procedures, and management. In 1991, the bank only made $14,000 in profits. In 1992, it suffered a 2.3 million dollar loss. On April 1, 1992, because of the bank's precarious financial position, the bank's board of directors hired Roy Raftery, a man with twenty-seven years of banking experience, as Executive Vice-President. Raftery's role was to give direction to the bank's President. When the bank continued to deteriorate, the president was asked to resign. On August 20, 1992. Raftery became CSB's new President. Immediately upon his installation, in an effort to save the bank, Raftery began to change policies, procedures, and personnel assignments.
At the time Raftery assumed the presidency, plaintiff headed CSB's marketing and public relations in Cameron Parish. She also headed marketing and advertisement in Lake Charles and Sulphur. Her duties included opening the Cameron branch daily, testing job applicants, and training new employees, and making customer calls, during which she would visit customers and pass out trinkets from the bank. She also represented the bank at various community functions.
In January, 1993, Raftery promoted plaintiff from Assistant Vice-President to Vice President. At that time, according to plaintiff's testimony, her duties included assisting lobby traffic, giving assistance and directions to customers, serving as backup person for new accounts, public relations (attending local functions, meetings, banquets, seminars), keeping track of all advertisements run by CSB's competitors, reviewing ads, planning and chairing monthly new account seminars, training employees, assisting the purchasing clerk, ordering supplies, assisting and compiling data for incentive programs, and planning new services programs for bank assistants.
In February, 1993 bank regulators completed an audit of the bank. On March 15, 1993, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (hereinafter "FDIC") placed CSB under a "cease and desist" order.
To avert bank closure, CSB's management immediately changed bank operations. Raftery assumed responsibility for CSB's major marketing. Plaintiff continued to do minor marketing tasks, such as placing advertisements for the bank in school and church programs. In addition to her current duties, plaintiff assumed the role of supervising tellers at the Cameron, Creole, Grand Chenier, and Johnson Bayou branches of the bank. Supervising the janitors in Cameron also became part of her duties. Greg Wicke was hired as branch manager, and Evelyn Landry was hired as assistant branch manager. Another new policy altered the chain of command so that all CSB employees at the Cameron branch, including plaintiff, were required to report to Wicke and Landry.
In May, 1994, the CSB employee who handled purchasing and ordering supplies resigned. Consequently, plaintiff assumed sole responsibility for those duties. On March 6, 1995, Raftery hired Leslie Harless as the director of marketing and public relations. He also relieved plaintiff of her new employee training responsibilities and reassigned that duty to Tonya Goss, the bank's new accounts clerk.
In late 1995, plaintiff communicated to bank management that her job had become too stressful and was adversely affecting her health.2 In an attempt to accommodate her, Raftery offered plaintiff a less stressful position as branch coordinator/head teller at the CSB branch in Creole, Louisiana, which is located approximately 14 miles from Cameron, with no reduction in pay. Plaintiff declined that offer because she preferred to continue working at the main branch in Cameron.
Thereafter, CSB created a new position for plaintiff at the Cameron branch, which significantly reduced her responsibilities. Her new responsibilities were opening new accounts and serving as a backup teller. The bank also removed her responsibility for approval of checks and handling insufficient funds. Plaintiff was also informed that she would no longer represent the bank at community functions. Furthermore, because of her complaints that she had trouble lifting boxes, ordering supplies was removed from her job description. CSB also offered to provide a private counselor for six months to assist plaintiff with stress management. The bank expressed a willingness to provide the counseling at its expense and during bank hours if no after-hours appointments were available. Due to the significant decrease in her responsibilities, CSB reduced plaintiff's salary by approximately thirty percent.
On January 5, 1996, plaintiff sent a memorandum to Mary Robbins, the Senior Vice President of Operations, in which she detailed all of the duties she had been required to perform since 1993. While she thanked management for relieving her of the stressful responsibilities, she closed by requesting that her salary "remain at the 1995 salary level."
In mid-January, 1996, members of the bank's management team had a meeting with plaintiff and explained to her the new management decisions affecting her. She was informed that her new position was a dual one (new accounts and backup teller) because the number of new accounts opened in Cameron was insufficient to justify a full-time position. On the average, only two accounts were opened per day at the Cameron branch. Plaintiff was also told that if she was unable to perform the duties of a backup teller, the bank would need to hire someone else, and her job and salary would be re-evaluated. Additionally, she was informed that the bank no longer needed a Public Relations person and that the duties she performed in the community on behalf of the bank would be executed by the branch manager and assistant branch manager. The branch manager and assistant branch manager were also assigned the duties of handling insufficient funds, approving service charges, and approving checks.
Soon thereafter, plaintiff expressed an interest in the head teller position previously offered to her at the Creole branch, but stated that she would need to be retrained as a teller.3 CSB informed plaintiff that no other options would be discussed with her until she provided a written response as to whether or not she was able to perform her current job as backup teller and if she would participate in the Stress Management Program offered to her.
On April 29, 1996, plaintiff received an employee warning report for repeated errors in her new accounts duties. The complaint specifically stated that plaintiff placed the incorrect rates on certificates of deposit, one of which she never corrected. She was also cited for issuing a Trust certificate of deposit without obtaining management approval, entering incorrect maturity dates on certificates of deposit, placing incorrect addresses on documents, failure to secure approval for ledger tickets, and signing her brother's name to a transfer authorization between his account and his wife's account.
On June 28, 1996, plaintiff received the following employee warning report for poor performance concerning the following conduct:
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