Moore v. General Motors Corp., 37015

• Citation: 558 S.W.2d 720
• Decision Date: 16 August 1977
• Docket Number: No. 37015,37015
• Parties: Charles W. MOORE, Jr., Plaintiff-Respondent, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, a corporation, Defendant-Appellant. . Louis District, Division Three
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)

Page 720

558 S.W.2d 720

Charles W. MOORE, Jr., Plaintiff-Respondent, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, a corporation, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 37015.

Missouri Court of Appeals, St. Louis District, Division Three.

Aug. 16, 1977.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer Denied Sept. 12, 1977.

Application to Transfer Denied Oct. 11, 1977.

Barnard & Baer, James E. McDaniel, Doris J. Banta, St. Louis, for appellant.

George R. Gerhard, St. Louis, for respondent.

KELLY, Presiding Judge.

I.

In this case of first impression in Missouri the defendant, General Motors Corporation, appeals from a judgment of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis wherein the plaintiff, Charles W. Moore, Jr., was awarded $8,500.00 as damages by a jury for what the plaintiff contends was the failure of the defendant to pay him an amount of money to which he was entitled pursuant to the defendant's Employee Suggestion Plan.

At all relevant times the defendant had a Suggestion Plan (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") which it promulgated to its employees and whereby it encouraged its employees to submit suggestions on forms identified as "Suggestion Forms" made available to them by the defendant. A "Suggestion," according to the Plan, was a "proposal to submit something in a specified manner." When a suggestion was submitted on the form provided for that purpose, the Plan stated that it was to be "systematically investigated for merit" so that a sound decision would be made whether it should be adopted, and was to be reviewed by the Suggestion Committee (hereinafter "Committee") made up of representatives of major departments of the defendant's plant. If a suggestion was not adopted the suggester was told the reason. Awards were to be paid after the suggestion was adopted and in effect.

According to the Plan, the function of the Committee was to decide (1) whether suggestions submitted to it were eligible for awards and (2) the amount of each award.

The Plan provided a formula for the making of awards which were adopted by the defendant. According to this formula, where the benefits resulting from a suggestion were measurable the award amount was to be one-sixth of the total gross savings to the division in which the employee worked during the twelve month period following adoption of the suggestion, up to a maximum award of $10,000.00. If a suggestion resulted in savings to the suggester's division but a loss in the same amount to another division, the suggestion would be considered to have resulted in no savings and the amount of the award would be based upon other benefits. When a suggestion resulted in a saving of capital expenditure, the amount would equal one-twelfth of the total savings, but again subject to the maximum award of $10,000.00. Where there were no measurable savings resulting from an adopted suggestion, the award would be determined by the Committee "in light of all available information concerning its other benefits." All decisions by the Committee were final; however, if at any time an employee wished to reopen a suggestion to present new or additional information, the Committee, at its discretion, might review its decision.

II.

Plaintiff, an employee of the defendant at its St. Louis plant in the body department since 1953, was, in 1971, working as a metal finisher repairman on the "night shift" or second shift, i. e. between 4:30 P.M. on one day to 1:30 A.M. the following. The suggestion in actuality two suggestions upon which he bases his claim in this case, was the result of some production problems the defendant was admittedly experiencing with a newly designed tail-gate identified as a "clam" gate it was installing on its 1971 model Chevrolet station wagons.

This new "clam" type tail-gate was constructed so that the bottom half, when in the open position, went down beneath the floor of the station wagon and the top portion the glass part ascended into the roof of the car. This design was to enable one to load or unload the rear of the station wagon from the rear while standing right up to the rear of the vehicle without the necessity of leaning over any part of the tail-gate while it was in the open position.

According to the evidence the 1971 model year commenced sometime in late August or early September of 1970; however, due to a strike no 1971 model station wagons were produced and shipped from the plant prior to or during the period covered by the strike, September 15 to November 23, 1970.

When production on the 1971 models resumed, production problems with the new tail-gates became evident. One problem was caused by the rear compartment floor pans for the station wagons being too long. This condition created a problem with the hanging of the tail-gates on the assembly line and the installation on the rear compartment floor pans of a weatherstrip retainer prior to the hanging of the tail-gate on the rear of the station wagon. The problem became so severe that the defendant had to set up a special rework group to cut the rear compartment floor pans down to the proper length before they were installed. The fabricator was notified of this problem and by January 15, 1971 it was corrected and the defendant disbanded the special rework group it had formed to cut them to the proper length. Nevertheless, rear compartment floor pans which were too long reappeared on occasion, and when they did, it became necessary to shorten them prior to installation or at other stages of production of the station wagons.

When rear compartment floor pans that were too long made their appearance subsequent to the disbanding of the special rework group, some were cut off or ground off to the proper length in the body shop prior to installation; nevertheless, some continued to escape detection and went through the production line until the end of the 1971 model year on July 27, 1971. When the weatherstripping was torn out by the lower portion of the tail-gate, repairs were effected in the Final Process Building (identified by some witnesses as "the mill" and by others as "wagon alley").

Although it was not a part of plaintiff's regular duties to hang tail-gates on the assembly line, as a repairman he had taken some tail-gates out, replaced some parts in them and reinstalled them. On one or two occasions he had repaired station wagons in "the mill" and had observed a number of them in "wagon alley."

Sometime prior to May, 1971, he became aware of the problem of the raking-off of the weatherstripping on station wagons which he testified was due to a lack of clearance between the interior of the tail-gate and the weatherstrip retainer on the lower right side of the rear of the station wagons. He determined to remedy the problem. With permission of his immediate supervisors he made a tool or fixture out of two old body files after ascertaining that approximately a 5/8 inch clearance was required between the weatherstrip retainer and the interior of the lower portion of the tail-gate to permit it to be lowered and raised without raking off the weatherstripping.

The tool was made so that a small protuberance on one side of the fixture fit into a small hole in the skirt of the spare tire well located on the right side of the station wagon at the rear near the tail-gate. When the protuberance was placed in the hole in the spare tire well one end of the tool rested against a part of the auto body and the other end served to maintain the clearance needed between the interior of the lower portion of the tail-gate and the weatherstrip retainer so that the weatherstripping was not disturbed by the raising or lowering of the tail-gate. The fixture was put in place before the tail-gate was hung and was bracketed on the rear of the station wagon by hooking it over the cross-bar and giving it a little pat so the protuberance would slip into the hole in the spare tire well.

According to the plaintiff, his original suggestion started being used by the defendant in early May, 1971, and on May 11, 1971, he submitted his suggestion on the form provided by the defendant for that purpose. According to this form his suggestion was:

" . . . to eliminate difficulty in fitting the wagon tail gate. I have made a small jig using files (old ones) brazed together, to keep the gate about 5/8 inch farther back while being adjusted tight. It has worked for 2 days and eliminated excess gate fitting down the line and in hold. It extends 5/8 inch behind retainer bar on right side, being held in place by hook on inside tire well. It is easy to install and handle but I would recommend a more permanent fixture be made of a smooth material, also made of aluminum or magnesium."

His supervisors, Charles Lance and Mack Alexander, directed that the tool be used on the second shift. Defendant has admitted that this tool was also used on the first shift for approximately 14 days, commencing with May 7, 1971.

In the meantime, the plaintiff took some measurements home and made a second fixture or tool out of some material he had at home, and when it was completed he brought it to the plant where it was used until the end of the model year. The defendant admits that this tool was used on the second shift from that time until the end of the model run, July, 1971.

When plaintiff's original suggestion was received by Mr. James D. Tisoto, the defendant's Suggestion Coordinator, he assigned an identification number to it and then forwarded an investigation inquiry to the superintendent of plaintiff's department, Mr. Jim Young. Mr. Young replied to this inquiry recommending adoption of the suggestion. His comment reads:

" . . . fixture keeps R/side of gate (at bottom) from pulling in too close to weather strip crossbar retainer at right corner where we have had a lot of trouble with rubber weatherstrip being pulled out of crossbar retainer. This fixture has cut down considerably on the number of jobs being knocked down for the condition existing."

Mr. Young's...