Partin v. Merchants & Farmers Bank

• Decision Date: 09 May 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-1113.,00-1113.
• Citation: 783 So. 2d 652
• Parties: Eva PARTIN v. MERCHANTS & FARMERS BANK.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

783 So.2d 652

Eva PARTIN v.MERCHANTS & FARMERS BANK.

No. 00-1113.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

May 9, 2001.

David Bruce Jones, Attorney at Law, Sulphur, LA, Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee: Eva Partin.

Bradley John Gadel, Percy, Smith, Foote & Gadel, Alexandria, LA, Counsel for Defendant/Appellant: Merchants & Farmers Bank.

EN BANC.

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Farmers and Merchants Bank (the Bank) appeals a judgment awarding Eva Marie Partin workers' compensation benefits for a mental injury allegedly caused by job-related stress.For the following reasons, we affirm.

Discussion of the Record

Mrs. Partin had been employed by the Bank since 1978, working her way up from teller to branch officer.On August 6, 1996, she was called into a meeting with the Bank's president, Ron Steed, and its personnel vice-president, Kay Wilbanks.At this meeting, Mrs. Partin was informed that she was being demoted from branch officer to teller because of her lack of managerial skills.With the demotion came a reduction in pay from $17,540.00 to $11,500.00.

At trial, Ms. Wilbanks testified that the Bank's action was based in part on an incident of June 4, 1996, involving a $5.00 discrepancy between a teller's balance sheet and Mrs. "Partin's surprise audit of that teller, Helen Childers.According to Ms. Wilbanks, the Bank's paperwork indicated that Mrs. Partin either failed to detect or did not report a "forced balancing" by Ms. Childers that should have been revealed in the surprise audit.Ms. Wilbanks explained that forced balancing involves manipulation of the cash in a teller's drawer to conceal either a shortage or overage.Because forced balancing is a dishonest act, any teller who commits it is subject to immediate dismissal, per the Bank's policy.

At trial, Mrs. Partin denied that a forced balancing occurred, contending instead that a mistake was made in the correction of an error between two of her tellers.She explained that both Ms. Childers and the vault teller, Andrea Howard, were, respectively, over and short that day by the same amount, $5.00.In trying to find the error, Ms. Partin noticed that a $5.00 mistake had been made when Ms. Childers "bought" some change from the Bank's vault.To correct this mistake without exchanging money between the tellers, Mrs. Partin instructed them to make handwritten "cash-in" or "cash-out" tickets so that they would both balance for the day.However, Ms. Childers either forgot or did not have enough time to credit the "cash-in" ticket to her drawer.Therefore, without Mrs. Partin's knowledge, she later returned the $5.00 in change to the vault teller, Ms. Howard, who then discarded her "cash-out" ticket.Although this exchange put the two tellers in balance, it resulted in the $5.00 discrepancy between Ms. Childers' balance sheet and Mrs. Partin's surprise audit.

Mrs. Partin testified that Mr. Steed and Ms. Wilbanks did not mention the $5.00 discrepancy at the meeting that resulted in her demotion.She said that she was shocked when they told her that she lacked managerial skills because she had worked in supervisory positions at the Bank for thirteen years.She reacted to the demotion by crying and shaking, and upon the conclusion of the meeting, she immediately went to her family physician's office.She testified that after four weeks of crying, pacing, and not sleeping, she was referred to a psychiatrist, Dr. Walker Goodin, for further treatment.Mrs. Partin never accepted the position of teller, and she collected both short-term and long-term disability payments from the Bank.

Dr. Goodin diagnosed Mrs. Partin with a major depressive disorder that was triggered by the loss of her position at the Bank, although he acknowledged that Mrs. Partin's prior emotional traumas, such as molestation in childhood and other instances of rejection, may have contributed to the impact of this incident.During her treatment with Dr. Goodin, Mrs. Partin exhibited major depression, panic attacks, weight loss in excess of twenty pounds, and difficulty sleeping.At the time of his deposition, Dr. Goodin believed that longterm treatment with medication had stabilized Mrs. Partin's condition, but he stated that her symptoms were not in remission.He testified that further progress was necessary before she could return to any work environment.

Dr. Paul Ware, who examined Mrs. Partin at the Bank's request, concurred in the diagnosis of a major depressive disorder, although he believed that Mrs. Partin had a tendency to portray herself as more impaired that she truly was.He also believed that her passive dependent personality contributed to her continuing disability.

Opinion

La.R.S. 23:1021(7)(b)(emphasis added) sets forth the claimant's burden of proof to recover benefits for a mental injury caused by employment-related stress:

Mental injury or illness resulting from work-related stress shall not be considered a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment and is not compensable pursuant to this Chapter, unless the mental injury was the result of a sudden, unexpected, and extraordinary stress related to the employment and is demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence.

Under this statute, a claimant must still prove that he has sustained "personal injury by accident" as required by La.R.S. 23:1031(A).Quillin v. Calcasieu Marine Nat. Bank, 96-685 (La.App. 3 Cir.12/11/96);690 So.2d 802.An "accident" is defined as "an unexpected or unforeseen actual, identifiable, precipitous event happening suddenly or violently, with or without human fault, and directly producing at the time objective findings of an injury which is more than simply a gradual deterioration or progressive degeneration."La.R.S. 23:1021(1).In a "mental/mental" claim for compensation, "a mere showing that a mental injury was related to general conditions of employment, or to incidents occurring over an extended period of time, is not enough to entitle the claimant to compensation."Sparks v. Tulane Med. Ctr. Hosp. & Clinic,546 So.2d 138, 147(La.1989).

In determining whether work-related stress is extraordinary, this circuit has stated that "the analysis must focus on the effect a particular stress might have on the particular injured employee."Lewis v. Beauregard Mem. Hosp., 94-318, p. 11(La.App. 3 Cir.11/2/94);649 So.2d 655, 661.See alsoHenry v. Gulf CoastCas. Ins. Co., 95-241 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1/31/96);670 So.2d 307.Our holding in Lewis was based in part on Frederick v. Town of Arnaudville,572 So.2d 316(La.App. 3 Cir.1990), writ denied,575 So.2d 373(La.1991), in which we held that an employee with preexisting mental problems could recover benefits after an altercation with a supervisor that, by itself, would not have triggered coverage under the compensation act.We recently expressed our approval of Lewis in Clophus v. Taco Bell Corp./Hot `N' Now, Inc., 98-1794, p. 5(La.App. 3 Cir.3/31/99);732 So.2d 692, 695, n. 1, by stating that "we still adhere to our view that analysis should be made on a case-by-case basis and must focus on the effect a particular stress might have on the particular injured employee."

This circuit stands alone in its subjective evaluation of employment-related stress.In Bryant v. Giani Investment Co.,626 So.2d 390(La.App. 4 Cir.1993), writ denied, 94-0089 (La.3/18/94);634 So.2d 852, the fourth circuit specifically rejected a subjective analysis, concluding that under such a test every stress that caused actual injury would be "extraordinary" and, thus, compensable.This result, according to Bryant, is inconsistent with the structure of La.R.S. 23:1021(7)(b), which contemplates that some mental/mental injuries would not be covered by workers' compensation.In reaching this conclusion, the fourth circuit stated:

With regard to mental illness or injury, the Legislature has chosen to give priority to the aim of protecting against nonmeritorious claims.It is the nebulous nature of mental illness or injury (as compared to the physical illness or injury) and the consequently heightened risk of feigned injury or illness, that caused the legislature to impose a more stringent burden of proof, and specific diagnostic requirements, upon claimants with alleged mental injury or illness.

Bryant, 626at 392.The first and second circuits followed Bryant in Bass v. Farmer & Cheatham, 94-1281 (La.App. 1 Cir.6/30/95);658 So.2d 324, writ denied, 95-2289 (La.12/8/95);664 So.2d 423, and Renter v. Willis-Knighton Medical Center, 28,589 (La.App. 2 Cir.8/23/96);679 So.2d 603.Although the fifth circuit initially cited Frederick,572 So.2d 316, with approval inProyer v. Monsanto Co.,606 So.2d 1307(La.App. 5 Cir.1992), it, too, adopted Bryant in Jeansonne v. Wick PublishingCo., 94-462 (La.App. 5 Cir. 11/29/94);646 So.2d 1212, writ denied, 94-2963 (La.2/3/95);649 So.2d 405.

After reviewing the above jurisprudence, we now find ourselves in agreement with our colleagues of the other circuits.Although we have always agreed that La.R.S. 23:1021(7)(b) reflects a legislative intent to stringently condition an award of benefits for mental injury or illness, we now adopt the statutory analysis of Bryant,626 So.2d at 393(citations omitted)(footnote omitted):

By providing that a work related mental/mental injury will not be covered by worker's compensation "unless" it results from an "extraordinary stress", R.S. 23:1021(7)(b), the Legislature clearly contemplated that there would be instances of work-related mental/mental injuries not caused by an "extraordinary-stress" and, consequently, not covered by worker's compensation.

This latter point suggests that the "extraordinary" nature of the stress at issue should be determined, not from the point of view of whether the particular claimant found the stress to be extraordinary but whether an ordinary reasonable person of usual sensibilities would find the stress extraordinary.Otherwise,...