Michael v. Precision Alliance Grp., LLC

• Citation: 21 N.E.3d 1183
• Decision Date: 04 December 2014
• Docket Number: No. 117376.,117376.
• Parties: Wayne MICHAEL et al., Appellees, v. PRECISION ALLIANCE GROUP, LLC, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

21 N.E.3d 1183

Wayne MICHAEL et al., Appellees

v.PRECISION ALLIANCE GROUP, LLC, Appellant.

No. 117376.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 4, 2014.

Julie L. Gottshall and Laura D. Waller, of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, of Chicago, for appellant.

Ferne P. Wolf and Joshua M. Pierson, of Sowers & Wolf, LLC, of St. Louis, Missouri, and Christopher B. Daniels, of Salem, for appellees.

Craig L. Unrath, of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, of Peoria, for amicus curiae Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel.

Lee Barron, of Alton, and J. Bryan Wood, of Chicago, for amicus curiae National Employment Lawyers Association-Illinois.

OPINION

Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 The plaintiffs, Wayne Michael, Alan Hohman and Craig Kluemke, filed a retaliatory discharge lawsuit against the defendant, Precision Alliance Group, LLC, alleging they were discharged in retaliation for reporting defendant to the State of Illinois for shipping underweight product. Following a bench trial, the circuit court of Washington County entered judgment in favor of defendant. The appellate court reversed the judgment of the circuit court and remanded the matter for a determination of damages. 2014 IL App (5th) 120517–U, 2014 WL 235484. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the judgment of the appellate court and affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

¶ 2 BACKGROUND

¶ 3 The following facts were introduced at trial. Defendant is an agricultural supply business dealing in soybean seeds. Defendant grows, conditions, packages, and distributes soybean seeds for commercial agricultural use. It packages seed in 50–pound and 2,000–pound bags.

¶ 4 Plaintiffs worked at defendant's facility in Nashville, Illinois, from 1998 to 2003. Hohman worked on the bagging line and was responsible for insuring proper weights, lot numbers, seed count, and dates. Kluemke worked in the bagging room and then the warehouse and was responsible for taking product off the line, moving it to various places around the warehouse, and staging the product for shipment. Michael worked in the warehouse and in shipping.

¶ 5 During the time plaintiffs were employed by defendant, approximately 20 laborers and 4 on-site management staff members worked at the Nashville facility. The management staff consisted of general manager Gary Shepherd, assistant plant manager Matt Alcorn, conditioning and safety manager Terry Weier, and field service manager Steven Mauer.

¶ 6 The events underlying this lawsuit began in late 2002. At that time, defendant began experiencing a problem with underweight seed bags. Illinois law requires that every bag labeled as containing a certain weight of seeds actually weigh that amount. In December of 2002, defendant discovered that an outgoing load of seed was underweight. Additional seed was added to the load to make it compliant. Thereafter, defendant randomly checked bags in the warehouse to determine if there was an ongoing problem. In one of the checks, the majority of the bags were compliant but some were light by as much as 20 pounds. One of defendant's employees testified that the underweight bags were segregated and not shipped, while another stated they were put back in the lot. Conflicting testimony was also presented as to who decided not to test additional bags to determine the extent of the weight problem.

¶ 7 In January 2003, an employee who worked on the bagging line, Shawn Dudley, was terminated for engaging in horseplay. According to the evidence presented at trial, Dudley placed a block of sticky notes to hold down the brake of a forklift so that when the forklift was turned on and put in gear, it would not move. Dudley admitted he had tampered with the forklift.

¶ 8 Following his termination, Dudley told Hohman that if defendant successfully challenged his application for unemployment compensation, he would call the authorities and report the weight problems with the seed bags, vowing that “if they want to play hardball with me, I'll play hardball with them.” This threat was subsequently relayed to Matt Alcorn.

¶ 9 After Dudley's unemployment compensation was denied, he enlisted plaintiffs to help him. Hohman, Kluemke, and Michael began weighing bags without defendant's instruction or knowledge. They all found bags to be light. They then provided lot numbers and locations of underweight bags to Dudley. Dudley in turn reported the underweight bags to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Weights and Measures (Department).

¶ 10 On February 10 and 11, 2003, inspectors from the Department arrived at defendant's facility to investigate a complaint of underweight bags. The Department would not reveal the source of the complaint to defendant. During the investigation, the Department found underweight bags and issued five stop sale orders. After the inspectors left, defendant stopped production for 10 days while all employees, working 12–hour shifts around the clock, weighed all bags in the warehouse and brought them up to the proper weight. About 50% of the bags were light. During this process, according to Hohman, Terry Weier told him, “If we find out that anybody in this company had anything to do with us being turned in * * * it will result in termination.”

¶ 11 After the weighing of bags in the warehouse was completed, bags shipped prior to the date of the Department's inspection were returned and brought up to proper weight as well. The refilling of the returned bags continued until March 2003. The Department ended its investigation without issuing any penalties or fines to defendant.

¶ 12 During the Department's inspection, Alcorn began his own investigation to discover which customer had complained. He soon realized that one of the lot numbers identified by inspectors was still at defendant's facility, eliminating the possibility of a customer complaint. Alcorn concluded the complaint must have been made by an employee or a former employee who knew the company was packaging product underweight. He memorialized this belief in a memorandum to defendant's general manager, Gary Shepherd. Alcorn believed Dudley had sabotaged defendant's equipment, thereby causing the weight problems. Shepherd too suspected Dudley but wondered how he obtained the information to provide to the Department. At some point, Alcorn called Kluemke and Michael into his office and told them that if an employee had turned information into the Department and if the company found out who it was, it would be “very job threatening.”

¶ 13 On March 18, 2003, Hohman was terminated for engaging in horseplay with a forklift. According to Weier, another employee, Gerald Nottmeyer, came to his office nearly crying and very upset. Nottmeyer told him that Hohman placed the forks of his forklift under the forklift Nottmeyer was driving and lifted the forklift several inches off the ground, nearly flipping it over. James Buckman, another employee, came to Weier's office shortly thereafter and reported the incident. Weier memorialized the information in a memo which was signed by both Nottmeyer and Buckman.

¶ 14 At trial, Buckman testified that he did not believe the incident was an accident and that he believed Hohman was engaging in horseplay. Buckman stated he immediately reported the incident. Weier testified that he discussed the incident with Hohman and that Hohman stated he knew it was wrong.

¶ 15 Hohman, however, testified differently about the incident. Hohman stated that he drove up behind Nottmeyer and hit him because Nottmeyer pulled out from a side alley in front of him without sounding his horn as he was required to do. Hohman testified that Nottmeyer was not disciplined.

¶ 16 Defendant's management staff subsequently decided to terminate Hohman. Shepherd testified via deposition that none of the management staff was aware Hohman had played any role in the instigation of the investigation by the Department at the time he was terminated.

¶ 17 Also in March of 2003, defendant's corporate office decided to eliminate 22 positions across its 8 holding companies as part of a reduction in force necessitated by a slowdown in business. Four positions were to be eliminated at the Nashville facility. The management staff and one of the company owners met and decided who to discharge. They evaluated employees based on job performance, attitude, skill set, cooperation with management and coworkers, and the potential for advancement. They did not review any personnel files, performance appraisals, or disciplinary records. Kluemke and Michael were two of the four employees chosen for dismissal. Their positions were terminated on April 11, 2003.

¶ 18 Alcorn testified he chose Michael for dismissal because he spent too much time standing around the docks talking, he needed a more diverse skill set, and he did not want to perform certain tasks. Alcorn chose Kluemke because he had a poor attitude, he was a “ring leader,” and he did not get along with some people. Mauer testified he chose Michael for dismissal because he was not a hard worker, he stood around a lot and he often went outside to smoke. Mauer did not initially choose Kluemke. Weier testified he chose Michael because, although he did a good job in the warehouse, when he was finished with his tasks he would not look for other tasks to perform as other employees did. He chose Kluemke because, although he did a good job on the line, he was a “ring leader” and did not want to do things the way the company wanted him to. Again, the management staff claimed they were unaware either Michael or Kluemke had any role in reporting the company to the Department at the time they were discharged. Instead, the managers asserted they only learned of Michael and Kluemke's involvement in January 2004 via discovery in the instant case.

¶ 19 After hearing the foregoing evidence, the circuit court entered judgment in favor of defendant. In so holding, the circuit court applied the three-part burden of proof analysis...