Spurlock v. Ely

• Decision Date: 17 October 1985
• Docket Number: No. 83-260,83-260
• Citation: 707 P.2d 188
• Parties: 27 Ed. Law Rep. 1257 W. Nyles SPURLOCK, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. Jean ELY, Fran Everson, Mary Fleming, Connie Foster, Daryl Garvin, Frederick J. Harrison, Bruce Harvey, Kathy McCracken, Mary Morehouse, Juana Morse, Doe I, and Doe II, Appellees (Defendants), Anna Mae Adams and Lois Wren, (Defendants).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 188

707 P.2d 188

27 Ed. Law Rep. 1257

W. Nyles SPURLOCK, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. Jean ELY, Fran Everson, Mary Fleming, Connie Foster, Daryl Garvin, Frederick J. Harrison, Bruce Harvey, Kathy McCracken, Mary Morehouse, Juana Morse, Doe I, and Doe II, Appellees (Defendants), Anna Mae Adams and Lois Wren, (Defendants).

No. 83-260.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

Oct. 17, 1985.

C.M. Aron and Sid L. Moller, Aron & Hennig, Laramie, for appellant.

Bernard Q. Phelan, William M. McKellar, Lathrop & Uchner, and William Walton, Cheyenne, for appellees.

Before THOMAS, ^* C.J., and ROSE, ROONEY, ^** BROWN and CARDINE, JJ.

ROONEY, Justice. ¹

W. Nyles Spurlock, a former school principal, brought an action against appellees for intentional interference with contractual relations and for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the appellees, former employees and parents of former students, holding that as a matter of law the information furnished to the school board by those persons did not cause the school board to discharge the principal and holding that the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, being dependent upon recovery on the claim for malicious interference with the principal's contract, must fail. Spurlock challenges both rulings. We affirm.

Appellant is the former principal of Morrow School, the high school in Baggs, Wyoming, and was employed by Carbon County School District No. 1. All the appellees save Harrison are individual parents, students and teachers who addressed complaints against appellant to the board of trustees of that district. Harrison is the attorney who represented the rest of the appellees in bringing their complaints to the attention of the board.

Acting as the group's attorney, Harrison wrote to the school board on September 2, 1981, concerning the allegations against appellant. On December 11, 1981, the board notified the appellees that a hearing concerning appellant's fitness to function as a principal would be held. That hearing began on March 29, 1982, before hearing officer Ford T. Bussart and continued for five days. Based upon his findings of fact and conclusions of law, Bussart recommended to the board that they terminate appellant. Inter alia, Bussart found many of the allegations against appellant harmless or insubstantial; others, unfounded. However, he found two allegations serious enough to justify termination. The board, however, rejected Bussart's recommendation and did not discharge appellant.

Meanwhile appellant was involved in an altercation with two teachers on May 5, 1982. The details of this incident are fully set forth in Spurlock v. Board of Trustees, Carbon County School District No. 1, Wyo., 699 P.2d 270 (1985). A separate proceeding before the board based on this incident was initiated on May 27, 1982. A hearing in that matter was held June 23 and 24, 1982. On August 12, 1982, the board issued findings of fact and conclusions of law supporting its determination to discharge appellant based on the May 5 incident.

INTENTIONAL INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS

A summary judgment

" * * * shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. * * * " Rule 56(c), W.R.C.P.

Appellant argues the determination of the cause of his discharge from employment is an issue of fact which precludes summary judgment. Causation is a material element in a claim for intentional interference with contractual relations. If the cause is disputed, it is an issue of fact. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 766, comment o. But of course if there is no genuine issue as to causation, a summary judgment is not thereby precluded.

This court has recognized an action for intentional interference with contractual relations is allowable. Wartensleben v. Willey, Wyo., 415 P.2d 613, 614 (1966), citing 4 Restatement, Torts, § 766, p. 49 (1939). Also see Kvenild v. Taylor, Wyo., 594 P.2d 972 (1979); Board of Trustees of Weston County School District No. 1 v. Holso, Wyo., 584 P.2d 1009, reh. denied 587 P.2d 203 (1978). The defendant can be held liable, however, only if he causes the loss. Prosser & Keeton, Torts, § 129, p. 989 (5th ed. 1984); Ethyl Corporation v. Balter, Fla.App., 386 So.2d 1220, cert. denied 452 U.S. 955, 101 S.Ct. 3099, 69 L.Ed.2d 965 (1981); Seaway Yacht Sales, Inc. v. Brunswick Corporation, Fla.App., 242 So.2d 192 (1970); See also Lingard v. Kiraly, Fla.App., 110 So.2d 715, 717 (1959) (plaintiff must establish by evidence that the employment was terminated because of the defendant's acts). We agree with the Pennsylvania Court's analogy:

" * * * An action for interference with another's contract is, in a way, analogous to the old action for alienation of affections, in which, of course, there was no liability if the affections, though lost, were not alienated by the alleged tort-feasor." Wahl v. Strous, 344 Pa. 402, 25 A.2d 820, 822 (1942).

In support of their motion for summary judgment, appellees presented a memorandum and a number of affidavits and depositions which bore upon the causation issue. The affidavits of Frederick J. Harrison, Jean Ely, a parent, and Ford T. Bussart, the hearing officer, indicated that the board had refused to accept Bussart's recommendation of dismissal. The affidavits of T. Michael Golden, the attorney for the school district, and William E. Scoggin, a member of the board of trustees, indicated that the board had ruled in favor of appellant on the Bussart hearing but had terminated him for a separate May 5 incident. The appellees also presented excerpts from depositions taken in another suit involving some of the same parties. The partial deposition of Clark Hull, a board member, stated that appellant was not terminated for the Bussart hearing allegations but rather because of the May 5 incident. The depositions of Sue Williams and Katherine Morehead, board members, indicated that the two incidents were kept separate. The deposition of Bruce Harvey, describing the May 5 incident, was included in the record. The appellees also presented as exhibits the findings of fact and conclusions of law of hearing officer Ford T. Bussart, as well as the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the board of trustees dated August 12, wherein appellant was terminated for the May 5 incident.

In opposition to all of this appellant filed a memorandum of points and authorities, but he filed no counter-affidavits, nor excerpts from the depositions of board members, which might have supported his belief that they did in fact rely in part on the charges appellees had levied against him. The only potential for creating an issue of fact with reference to the cause of discharge is appellant's deposition, and it is unclear from the record whether that was even before the trial judge. ² Nonetheless a careful perusal of the deposition reveals only the following of possible pertinence: "I was dismissed for this whole thing leading up to it." He bases this conclusion on "human nature" and the fact that the "Board is human." He claims he was fired on a "technicality." He makes the bald assertion that the defendants succeeded in getting him fired. He did not believe that the May 5 incident was enough to be fired for; therefore, he concluded that the board must have been influenced in their decision by the other allegations.

Rule 56(e), W.R.C.P., provides in pertinent part:

" * * * When a motion for summary judgment is made and supported as provided in this rule an adverse party may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of his pleading, but his response, by affidavits or as otherwise provided in this rule [depositions], must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. If he does not so respond summary judgment, if appropriate, shall be entered against him." (Emphasis added.)

Even if the deposition was properly before the trial judge when he considered the motion for summary judgment, the conclusory nature of the deposition testimony falls short of the specific facts necessary to raise a genuine issue of material fact. Appellant would have this court decide that inferences contrary to the affidavits and depositions of the defendants are sufficient to raise an issue of fact. We recognized in Blackmore v. Davis Oil Company, Wyo., 671 P.2d 334 (1983), that even though we must consider the record in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion for summary judgment and give him all favorable inferences to be drawn from the facts, any inferences drawn must be based on facts in the record. "[A]n inference which is contrary to direct testimony is insufficient to support a finding that a genuine issue of material fact exists," 671 P.2d at 337, citing Forbes Company v. MacNeel, Wyo., 382 P.2d 56 (1963). Therefore, because appellant failed to show any specific facts raising a genuine issue of material fact as to the cause of his termination, summary judgment on the claim, intentional interference with contractual relations, was proper.

INTENTIONAL INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS

The parties and the court treated the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress in this case as parasitic to the claim for intentional interference with contractual relations, and thus, when the host action failed, the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress also failed. In connection with an argument on motions, the following was said (Mr. Aron is appellant's attorney):

"THE COURT: * * * My concern is the factual material. I don't have a feeling for this, whether or not there are still factual issues to be resolved. And I'm not willing to say there aren't.

"So, I'm saying if I decide its a factual matter, that there are...