Thurston v. Box Elder County

• Decision Date: 24 March 1995
• Docket Number: No. 930498,930498
• Parties: Archie W. THURSTON, Plaintiff, Appellant, and Cross-Appellee, v. BOX ELDER COUNTY, Defendant, Appellee, and Cross-Appellant.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 1034

892 P.2d 1034

Archie W. THURSTON, Plaintiff, Appellant, and Cross-Appellee, v. BOX ELDER COUNTY, Defendant, Appellee, and Cross-Appellant.

No. 930498.

Supreme Court of Utah.

March 24, 1995.

Philip C. Patterson, Ogden, for plaintiff.

Dale J. Lambert, Karra J. Porter, Salt Lake City, for defendant.

STEWART, Associate Chief Justice:

This case was previously before the Court in Thurston v. Box Elder County, 835 P.2d 165 (Utah 1992) ("Thurston I "). There, we reversed a summary judgment in favor of defendant Box Elder County and remanded to the trial court to determine whether the County violated § 17-33-5(3)(n) (currently codified at § 17-33-5(3)(b)(xv)) of the County Personnel Management Act, Utah Code Ann. §§ 17-33-1 to -15 (1987) (the "Act"), when making its decision to terminate plaintiff Archie W. Thurston's employment. On remand, the trial court ruled that the Act governed the dispute and that the County had improperly considered factors beyond those enumerated in the Act in terminating Thurston. On that basis, the court held that Thurston again appeals. He asserts that reinstatement with back pay is the only appropriate remedy for his wrongful termination action. On cross-appeal, the County argues that the trial court erred in ruling that Thurston was wrongfully terminated. The County asserts that the trial court erred in ruling that the Act governed and that without considering the selection criteria for reduction in force that were read into the employment contract by virtue of the Act, judgment for the County is proper. We affirm.

the County had violated Thurston's due process rights and breached its employment contract with Thurston. In addition, the trial court ruled that reinstatement was not a proper remedy but that damages should be awarded, calculated from the date of Thurston's termination until the date he began other full-time employment.

The County employed Thurston in the Box Elder County Road Department from May 1975 through December 1988. From 1983 through 1988, Thurston worked as the bridge and culvert foreman.

In April 1988, the County adopted the Box Elder County Policy and Procedures Manual (the "Manual"), which set forth personnel policies, rules, standards governing employee reduction in force actions, categories of rule infractions subject to employee disciplinary action, and an administrative grievance procedure. ¹ The Manual provided that length of service and/or individual performance be considered when implementing a reduction in force.

During November 1988, the Box Elder County Commission ordered a county-wide reduction in force ("RIF") and instructed the road department to lay off three employees. At that time, the road department employed twenty-eight persons, twenty of whom had less seniority than Thurston. Road department superintendent John Collom reviewed the Manual before implementing the RIF and knew that he was required to consider length of service and/or individual performance when deciding who should be selected for the RIF from the road department.

On Friday, December 16, 1988, Collom notified Thurston that his employment would be terminated pursuant to the RIF. At that time, Collom told Thurston that he had been selected for the RIF because he could tolerate the separation better financially than some younger road department employees with families. Collom had based this belief upon prior statements made by Thurston that Thurston could readily obtain employment with a former employer. The conversation between Collom and Thurston was interrupted; they met again on Monday, December 19, 1988, to discuss the RIF action. During the Monday conversation, Thurston challenged Collom's reason for selecting Thurston for the RIF, stating that financial considerations did not constitute a valid reason under the Manual. Collom then explained that the real reason was Thurston's poor work performance. The County terminated Thurston's employment on December 30, 1988.

Thurston appealed his layoff through the County's established grievance procedures. At the grievance hearing, Collom identified ten or eleven work projects spanning an approximate five-year period in which Thurston had performed poorly. A majority of the board found that the County had complied with the provisions in the Manual concerning the RIF and upheld the County's termination of Thurston's employment.

Thurston then filed an action against the County for breach of an employment contract and sought reinstatement of his employment. The County moved for summary judgment, asserting that it had properly applied the Manual's reduction in force criteria when determining to terminate Thurston's employment. The trial court granted the County's motion, stating it was uncontroverted that the County considered both seniority and individual performance, as required by the Manual, when selecting Thurston for the RIF and that the County was not precluded This Court reversed and remanded the case for a determination whether the County violated the Act by considering factors not enumerated in the Act. Thurston I, 835 P.2d at 169-70. The Court held that the County was obligated to comply with the Act when adopting a standard for reductions in force and that to the extent Collom considered factors in addition to seniority, ability, and merit, the County's termination of Thurston's employment violated the Act. Id. at 168-70.

from considering additional factors. Thurston appealed.

On remand, the County sought to introduce evidence that it was not bound by the Act because the Act was optional for counties with fewer than 130 employees not covered by other merit systems. The trial court refused to consider the County's argument, stating that Thurston I, which was the law of the case, mandated the County's compliance with the Act. The court found that Collom had considered factors other than seniority, ability, and merit in selecting Thurston for the RIF and, in so doing, failed to treat Thurston with equity and fairness. Accordingly, the court held that the County had violated Thurston's due process rights, thereby breaching its employment contract with Thurston. The court denied Thurston's petition for reinstatement but awarded Thurston damages to be calculated from the date his employment was terminated to the time he assumed other full-time employment.

LAW OF THE CASE

We first address the County's contention that the trial court erred by failing to independently determine whether the RIF was governed by the Act. The County argues that whether it was subject to the Act was a question of fact and that the evidence proffered during trial was uncontroverted that the County was not subject to the Act at the time of the RIF. The County claims, therefore, that the court erred by holding the County's RIF subject to the Act's reduction in force criteria and that judgment must be granted for the County because it properly complied with the Manual's reduction in force criteria. The County's argument is without merit. The trial court ruled that the County was bound to follow the Act because Thurston I so held "and that is the law of the case and is binding." The trial court was precluded from considering the Act's applicability by reason of the law of the case and properly refused to consider the County's evidence on that issue.

The "law of the case" is a legal doctrine under which a decision made on an issue during one stage of a case is binding in successive stages of the same litigation. Plumb v. State, 809 P.2d 734, 739 (Utah 1990). The doctrine was developed in the interest of economy and efficiency to avoid the delays and difficulties involved in repetitious contentions and reconsideration of rulings on matters previously decided in the same case. Richardson v. Grand Central Corp., 572 P.2d 395, 397 (Utah 1977); State v. O'Neil, 848 P.2d 694, 697 (Utah Ct.App.), cert. denied, 859 P.2d 585 (1993); see also 18 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4478 (1981) [hereinafter Wright]; 1B James W. Moore et al., Moore's Federal Practice p 0.404 [hereinafter Moore].

Law of the case terminology has been applied to a number of distinct sets of problems, each with a separate analysis. ² One branch of the doctrine, often called the mandate rule, dictates that pronouncements of an appellate court on legal issues in a case become the law of the case and must be followed in subsequent proceedings of that The application of the mandate rule lacks the flexibility found in other branches of the law of the case doctrine. Moore p 0.404. The mandate must be followed even though the lower court subsequently addressing the issue may believe that the issue could have been better decided in another fashion. Petty, 113 Utah at 215, 192 P.2d at 594; Davis v. Payne & Day, Inc., 12 Utah 2d 107, 108-09, 363 P.2d 498, 499 (1961); Helper State Bank v. Crus, 95 Utah 320, 325, 81 P.2d 359, 361 (1938); Forbes v. Butler, 73 Utah 522, 525, 275 P. 772, 773 (1928). This serves the dual purpose of protecting against the reargument of settled issues and of assuring adherence of lower courts to the decisions of higher courts. People v. Roybal, 672 P.2d 1003, 1005 (Colo.1983) (en banc).

case. See Petty v. Clark, 113 Utah 205, 215, 192 P.2d 589, 594 (1948); see also Moore p 0.404. The lower court must not depart from the mandate, and any change with respect to the legal issues governed by the mandate must be made by the appellate court that established it or by a court to which it, in turn, owes obedience. Insurance Group Comm. v. Denver & Rio Grande W. R.R., 329 U.S. 607, 612, 67 S.Ct. 583, 585, 91 L.Ed. 547 (1947); see also Moore p 0.404. In addition, the lower court must implement both the letter and the spirit of the mandate, taking into account the appellate court's opinion and the circumstances it embraces. Street v. Fourth Judicial Dist. Court, 113 Utah 60, 71-72, 191 P.2d 153, 159 (1948);...