Parham v. Carrier Corp.

• Decision Date: 07 December 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-5038,92-5038
• Citation: 9 F.3d 383
• Parties: 144 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2943, 126 Lab.Cas. P 10,939 Lynn PARHAM, et al., Plaintiffs, Lynn Parham, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CARRIER CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 383

9 F.3d 383

144 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2943, 126 Lab.Cas. P 10,939

Lynn PARHAM, et al., Plaintiffs Lynn Parham, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CARRIER CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 92-5038.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Dec. 7, 1993.

Stephen Cass Weiland, Bryan Cyril Collins, Jackson & Walker, Dallas, TX, for defendant-appellant.

Deborah J. Race, Tyler, TX, for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, WIENER, Circuit Judge, and LITTLE, ^* District Judge.

WIENER, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Carrier Corporation appeals an adverse judgment rendered against it pursuant to a jury verdict favorable to Plaintiff-Appellee Lynn Parham, a former Carrier employee, in his suit claiming retaliatory discharge, breach of applicable collective bargaining agreements, and breach of an oral agreement. We reverse and render judgment for Carrier.

I FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Parham was employed at Carrier's air conditioner manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas. The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (the Union) has been the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for all employees at this plant since 1971. In 1986, Carrier and the Union entered into a collective bargaining agreement (1986 CBA) that was to expire in June 1989.

The 1986 CBA permitted employees with disabilities caused by illness or job-related injuries to take unpaid leaves of absence for the duration of such disabilities. Although Carrier did not continue to pay employees' salaries during such indefinite leaves of absence, it did continue to provide for their medical insurance coverage.

While at work on January 15, 1988, Parham broke his leg when he fell off a loading dock and into a trash compactor. After the accident, Parham took an indefinite medical leave of absence. On March 17, 1989, Parham initiated a workers' compensation claim, which was settled in August of 1989 for $19,000.

Meanwhile, on June 4, 1989, a new CBA (1989 CBA) was implemented to replace the 1986 CBA, which had expired at the end of its three-year term. Significantly, although the 1989 CBA broadened the scope of carrier's disability leave program by permitting leaves of absence even for non-job related injuries, it placed a 24-month cap on all unpaid leaves of absence, job related or not. Employees with five years seniority at the onset of disability could secure an additional six months of leave if they could demonstrate a reasonable expectation of being able to return to work within that additional period.

On January 15, 1990, Parham's leave of absence reached the 24-month mark. He was still on that leave approximately five months later when, on June 21, 1990, Carrier mailed him a letter which stated that he was being terminated pursuant to the disability leave provisions of the 1989 CBA. This notice was sent 29 months after Parham began his leave of absence, 15 months after he filed his workers' compensation claim, and 10 months after he settled that claim.

The June 21st letter also reiterated the new rule of the 1989 CBA that any employee who was on leave of absence and who had over five years seniority at the beginning of his leave could seek a six-month extension of the 24-month leave of absence period. The letter also invited Parham to contact Carrier's human resource director if he had any questions. Carrier notes that it gratuitously allowed Parham six months following his receipt of the letter to obtain a full medical release, but that he was unable to do so.

After receiving that letter, Parham spoke with his Union representative and with Carrier's human resource director, but never sought a six-month extension and never secured a full medical release, the latter being a prerequisite to any similarly situated employee's returning to work at Carrier. Further, Parham never attempted to use the grievance procedures required by the CBAs. Rather, he chose to file the instant suit, alleging that (1) he was fired in retaliation for pursuing workers' compensation benefits, in violation of Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. article 8307c, (2) his firing violated the terms of the CBAs, ¹ and (3) his firing violated the terms of his oral contract with Carrier.

Carrier moved for summary judgment, arguing that Parham's claims were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act, but the district court denied Carrier's motion. Parham's suit was tried before a jury, which found for Parham on all three of his claims but awarded him no damages on his claim of breach of an oral contract. The district court entered judgment for Parham on the jury verdict in the amount of $276,714. Carrier timely appealed the two claims that resulted in damage awards: retaliatory discharge and breach of the 1986 and 1989 CBAs.

II ANALYSIS

A. Retaliatory Discharge

The jury found that Carrier fired Parham in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim, thereby violating the Texas Workers' Compensation Act. It awarded Parham damages for lost wages and benefits, past and future, and punitive damages. On appeal, Carrier argues that Parham's state law retaliatory discharge claim is preempted by section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Carrier terminated Parham in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim. Carrier thus asks us to reverse a jury verdict, an action that we take but rarely.

1. Sufficiency of the Evidence

"On appeal, this court employs the same standard that the district court used in ruling on the defendant's motions." ² That standard was set forth memorably in Boeing Co. v. Shipman:

[T]he Court should consider all of the evidence--not just the evidence which [sic] supports the non-mover's case--but in the light and with all reasonable inferences most favorable to the party opposed to the motion. If the facts and inferences point so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that the Court believes that reasonable men could not arrive at a contrary verdict, granting of the motions is proper. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence opposed to such motions, that is, evidence of such quality and weight that reasonable and fair-minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions, the motions should be denied.... A mere scintilla of evidence is insufficient to present a question for the jury.... There must be a conflict in substantial evidence to create a jury question. ³

Parham based his retaliatory discharge claim on article 8307c of the Texas Workers' Compensation Act, which reads in pertinent part:

No person may discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because the employee has in good faith filed a claim, hired a lawyer to represent him in a claim, instituted, or caused to be instituted, in good faith, any proceeding under the Texas Workmen's Compensation Act or has testified or is about to testify in such proceeding. ⁴

In pursuing a claim under article 8307c, the plaintiff has the burden of establishing a causal nexus between his filing of a workers' compensation claim and his discharge by his employer. ⁵ The plaintiff need not prove that his quest for workers' compensation was the sole reason for his discharge, but he must establish that it was a determining factor. ⁶ In a federal case involving a state law claim, state law determines the kind of evidence that may be produced to support a verdict, ⁷ but federal law establishes the quantum of evidence needed to support a verdict. ⁸

Parham notes correctly that in Texas "[c]ircumstantial evidence and reasonable inferences from the evidence may provide adequate support for the jury's affirmative finding" in a wrongful termination case. ⁹ But even though proof in such a case need not be direct, it must be sufficient. Here we conclude that Parham has failed to adduce sufficient evidence of a causal nexus between his filing of a workers' compensation claim and his termination by Carrier.

Parham claims to have offered evidence that (a) Carrier officials knew he had filed a workers' compensation claim, (b) Carrier's motive for firing him was to reduce compensation claims, (c) Carrier retaliated against others who had filed compensation claims, (d) Carrier's absence control policy was not neutrally applied, and (e) he was physically qualified to return to work at Carrier. We find all of these evidentiary assertions to be either patently false or based on distortions of the evidence.

a. Carrier's Knowledge

Parham points to no evidence that anyone involved in his termination had actual knowledge of his compensation claim. Rather, he relies on the willingness of Carrier officials to acknowledge the obvious inference that employees who have been on leave for 24 months are likely to have filed compensation claims. This inference is doubtless correct, but such a generalized inference is no substitute for hard evidence that those involved in a particular discharge actually knew that the fired employee had filed a compensation claim. Neither does such a generalized inference in any way suggest a retaliatory motive.

Parham's reliance on two Texas cases for the proposition that an employer's knowledge that an employee had filed a workers' compensation claim is evidence of a retaliatory discharge is misplaced. ¹⁰ In each case there was considerable additional evidence of retaliatory animus; Parham can point to none. Also, in the cases cited by Parham, the employers were specifically aware of compensation claims filed by the employees who later filed suit; ¹¹ Parham does nothing more than ask us to infer that Carrier knew of his compensation claim simply because he had been out on disability leave for over two years. We decline to take such a leap of logic.

In the context of this case, the mere possibility that Carrier officials might infer from Parham's leave status that he had filed...