Sorrells v. Garfinckel's, et al., 87-944.

• Court: Court of Appeals of Columbia District
• Citation: 565 A.2d 285
• Decision Date: 28 September 1989
• Docket Number: No. 87-944.,No. 87-1029.,87-944.,87-1029.
• Parties: Bettie SORRELLS, Appellant, v. GARFINCKEL'S, BROOKS BROTHERS, MILLER & RHOADS, INC., Appellee. Barbara WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Bettie SORRELLS, Appellee.

Page 285

565 A.2d 285 Bettie SORRELLS, Appellant,
v.
GARFINCKEL'S, BROOKS BROTHERS, MILLER & RHOADS, INC., Appellee.
Barbara WILLIAMS, Appellant,
v.
Bettie SORRELLS, Appellee. No. 87-944. No. 87-1029. District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Argued June 9, 1989. Decided September 28, 1989.

Page 286

Martin F. McMahon, with whom Steven J. Kramer and Cynthia L. Clark were on the brief, for Bettie Sorrells, appellant in No. 87-944 and appellee in No. 87-1029.

D'Ana E. Johnson for Garfinckel's, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads, Inc., appellee in No. 87-944, and for Barbara Williams, appellant in No. 87-1029.

Before ROGERS, Chief Judge, and MACK and TERRY, Associate Judges.

TERRY, Associate Judge:

Garfinckel's, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads, Inc., operates a chain of department stores in the Washington area known as Garfinckel's. These appeals arise from an action filed by Bettie Sorrells against Garfinckel's, her former employer, Barbara Williams, her former supervisor, and Harry Vandevort, the vice president for personnel at Garfinckel's, who fired Stiffens at Williams' urging. The original complaint against Garfinckel's alleged, inter alia, a "wrongful discharge." Summary judgment was granted on this claim in favor of Garfinckel's. Thus in No. 87-944 appellant Sorrells contends that the trial court erred in ruling as a matter of law that wrongful discharge is not actionable in the District of Columbia. Bound by long-established precedent, we affirm that ruling.

Sorrel's also sued two Garfinckel's employees, Vandevort and Williams, for intentional interference with her contract of employment with Garfinckel's. The trial court granted a directed verdict for Vandevort at the close of the plaintiff's case but allowed the claim against Williams to go to the jury, which returned a verdict in Sorrells' favor.¹ Williams raises two issues in her appeal, No. 87-1029. First, she contends that as a matter of law she cannot be considered a third party for purposes of intentional interference with contractual relations because she was Mrs. Sorrells' supervisor. In the alternative, Williams claims that her conduct was privileged and that there was insufficient evidence to allow the jury to determine whether the privilege was vitiated by malice. We reject both arguments and affirm the judgment against Williams.

I

Before Mrs. Sorrel's was hired by Garfinckel's, she worked for Woodward & Lothrop, another department store chain, selling the Frances Denney line of cosmetics. In April 1978 she went to work for Garfinckel's. It is undisputed that Sorrel's was not hired for a specific term, and that she was therefore an at-will employee. Once hired, she was allotted a counter from which to sell the Frances Denney line.

While negotiating for employment with Garfinckel's, Mrs. Sorrel's made clear that she depended heavily on the use of the telephone to stay in contact with her regular customers, in order to generate sales. Accordingly, a special telephone line was installed at Garfinckel's for her use. Sorrells kept a register comprised of about 1500 cards which contained past customers' names and their cosmetic needs. She relied heavily on the telephone to maintain contact with her former customers from Woodward & Lothrop, encouraging them to buy from her now at Garfinckel's. While off duty, Mrs. Sorrells made calls from her home to keep her clientele advised of her position at Garfinckel's and to urge them to shop there. She also took home her stock book, which showed what Denney products were in stock at Garfinckel's, and in what amounts. Using the stock book, Sorrells would know how much of a product was available, if any, and so would be able to make telephone sales from home.

Mrs. Sorrel's testified that sometime in the fall of 1978, at the direction of Barbara Williams, her sales counter was moved to a location which, in Sorrells' view, was less desirable. At the same time Sorrel's was forbidden by her supervisor, Williams, to

Page 287

use the telephone at work, a restriction which largely destroyed her ability to generate sales. In an effort to compensate, Mrs. Sorrells attempted to make all her calls from home, after work.² Sorrells testified that all the other salespersons were allowed the unrestricted use of telephones during this period. In December of 1978 Mrs. Williams repeated her direction to Mrs. Sorrells that she not use the telephone, except in Williams' office, and at times which were not busy. This prohibition on the use of the telephone continued for five to six months even though Mrs. Sorrells offered to have a phone installed at her own expense. Ultimately, Mr. Vandevort, the personnel manager, decided there was no justification for the prohibition on Sorrells' use of the telephone and reinstated her telephone privileges. Williams denied to Vandevort that she had restricted Sorrells' use of the phone.

Additionally, Sorrells testified that Williams once accused her of stealing an associate's customer, which Mrs. Sorrells denied. Later Williams told her that she would never be afforded more counter space. at Garfinckel's. Mrs. Sorrells also said that she was initially provided with a stool on which to sit, and that she had been told by her doctor to have such a stool available because of a medical problem affecting her leg. Mrs. Sorrells had previously given her personnel manager at that time, Karen Peel, a copy of a letter from her doctor prescribing a stool. In April of 1979, however, her stool was taken away for five days at Williams' direction, causing her considerable pain and discomfort, even though Williams knew she needed the stool.³ When Sorrells complained, Williams said she did not want Mrs. Sorrells sitting down on the job and told her to have an operation if her feet hurt.

In January of 1979, Sorrells testified, Williams took her stock book away and kept it thereafter in her office, forbidding Sorrells to take it home. This further inhibited Mrs. Sorrells' sales because at home she had no way of knowing what products were in stock and available for sale. Other employees were not similarly restricted; some of them, in fact, took their stock books home. In the spring of 1979 Williams told Sorrells that she could no longer make transfers of Frances Denney products from other Garfinckel's stores when supplies got low at the main downtown store where she worked. Mrs. Sorrells spent seven or eight months without her stock book, and two or three months without being able to transfer merchandise between stores. Sorrells also said that Williams frequently removed promotional items which she had set up on the counter, further inhibiting sales.⁴ At the same time, Williams set totally unrealistic sales goals for her and in April 1979 threatened to take "action" against her on June 1. Williams also criticized her for her personal appearance.

Sorrells testified that Williams incorrectly logged in the times when Sorrells arrived at and departed from work. Sorrells reported this to Mr. Vandevort and threatened to go to the National Labor Relations Board. Mrs. Williams then prohibited her from taking Saturdays off as a direct result of her complaining to Mr. Vandevort about the time sheets. Sorrells also testified that Williams disparaged the Frances Denney line in front of customers, that Williams unfairly gave her a poor performance review in July 1979, and that she was not recommended for a raise despite the fact that she had netted over $37,000 in sales. Mrs. Sorrells wrote a letter to Vandevort requesting "an honest, fair, unbiased opinion" of her work, in lieu of Williams' performance review. Vandevort met with Sorrells, but did not act on her request.

Page 288

When Williams falsely accused Sorrells in front of Mr. Vandevort of purchasing merchandise for resale from home, Vandevort told Williams "to stop nit-picking [Mrs. Sorrells] and to get off [her] back." When Sorrells later accused Williams of harassing her in an effort to force her to quit, Williams replied, "No, just wait until June 1st, I'll take my action." Sorrells also complained to Vandevort that Williams had accused her of trying to return merchandise she had not purchased, buying merchandise for resale, and treating her on one occasion as if she were trying to shoplift merchandise from the store.

On May 12, 1980, Mr. Vandevort called Mrs. Sorrells to his office and told her, "We don't want you here. I want you to resign." When she refused to resign, he fired her in the presence of Mrs. Williams and another employee. The reason he gave for firing her, according to Sorrells' testimony, was that she had failed to take lunch hours and failed to perform her duties to the satisfaction of Garfinckel's and Frances Denney. About five minutes later, as she was cleaning out her locker, Mrs. Sorrells overheard Mrs. Williams say, "I finally accomplished what I set out to do."

Jane Dougherty, a former co-worker of Mrs. Sorrells, corroborated Sorrells' testimony that she and other employees were permitted to use the phone to generate sales. Dougherty and other co-workers said that they took their stock books home, although not as frequently as Mrs. Sorrells. She also testified to the importance of interstore stock transfers and the use of promotional materials at Garfinckel's sales counters.

Another former co-worker, Ani Boitel, stated that telephone contact with clients was a necessary and effective means of generating sales. Boitel testified that it would be reasonable to make $3,000 to $4,000 per month in sales on a small line such as Frances Denney's, but that restricting a salesperson's access to a phone or a stock book or her ability to make transfers of stock between stores would adversely affect her sales.⁵

Mrs. Williams' testimony varied in many respects from that of Mrs. Sorrells, creating issues of fact and credibility for the jury. Williams intimated that she had been partially responsible for initially obtaining a...