Webb Wheel Products, Inc. v. Hanvey, 1030272.

• Decision Date: 03 June 2005
• Docket Number: No. 1030272.,1030272.
• Citation: 922 So.2d 865
• Parties: WEBB WHEEL PRODUCTS, INC. v. David Joshua HANVEY.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 865

922 So.2d 865

WEBB WHEEL PRODUCTS, INC. v. David Joshua HANVEY.

No. 1030272.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

June 3, 2005.

Rehearing Denied August 19, 2005.

Tom S. Roper of Carr, Allison, Pugh, Howard, Oliver & Sisson, P.C., Birmingham; and Robert H. Rutherford and F.A. Flowers III of Burr & Forman, LLP, Birmingham, for appellant.

J. Barton Warren of Warren & Simpson, P.C., Huntsville; and Johnny V. Berry of Berry, Berry & Little, Cullman, for appellee.

On Application for Rehearing

PER CURIAM.

The opinion of December 30, 2004, is withdrawn, and the following is substituted therefor.

David Joshua Hanvey sued Webb Wheel Products, Inc., alleging that Webb Wheel had discharged him in retaliation for his filing a claim for workers' compensation benefits. After a trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Hanvey, awarding $80,000 in compensatory damages and $400,000 in punitive damages. The trial court entered a judgment on the jury's verdict. After the trial court denied Webb Wheel's postjudgment motion, Webb Wheel appealed. We reverse and remand.

I.

Webb Wheel manufactures wheels, wheel hubs, brake drums, and disk-brake rotors for large trucks and trailers. It has three manufacturing plants—two in Cullman and one in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Webb Wheel hired David Joshua Hanvey on September 19, 1999, as a production operator working on the drill press at one of the Cullman plants ("Cullman Plant # 1"). Webb Wheel employs approximately 200 people at Cullman Plant # 1.

On July 31, 2000, Hanvey suffered an on-the-job injury to his back. He reported the injury to his supervisor, Phillip Hill, and saw Webb Wheel's authorized physician, Dr. Dan Williams, who advised him not to work for one week. After a week's absence, Hanvey returned to work at his drill-press job. After about three hours, however, his back was hurting so badly that he reported it to Hill and returned to Dr. Williams, who recommended an MRI and a consultation with a neurosurgeon.

Webb Wheel self-insures its workers' compensation claims. At the time of Hanvey's injury, Alternative Insurance Resources ("AIR") was administering the paperwork required for workers' compensation claims, but all claims were paid directly by Webb Wheel, rather than by an insurance company. Lynn Alward, Webb Wheel's personnel manager, was responsible for handling the workers' compensation claims for the company.

Hanvey alleges that, after his second visit to Dr. Williams, Alward told him that he could not work unless Dr. Williams released him with no restrictions. Alward consulted with Diane Ryan, the adjustor at AIR who administered workers' compensation claims for Webb Wheel, and Ryan telephoned Dr. Williams to tell him that an MRI would be authorized and that a neurological consultation could be discussed after the MRI results were received. Hanvey underwent an MRI, which revealed three bulging disks but was otherwise reported as an "essentially negative study." Webb Wheel then transferred Hanvey to another physician, who prescribed physical therapy. Hanvey was unable to work for approximately two and one-half months.

Hanvey testified that during the period in which he was temporarily disabled, he had problems receiving his workers' compensation benefits in a timely fashion. He said his checks were frequently late and sometimes for the wrong amount and that he had difficulty getting reimbursed for certain medical expenses. Because of these problems, Hanvey said, he asked Alward to allow him to pick his checks up at the plant, but she told him that the checks could not be hand delivered but had to be mailed. Alward testified that Webb Wheel's controller, Granville Hooper, told her it was against company policy for an employee to pick up his checks for workers' compensation benefits. Hooper testified, however, that he recalled no such conversation with Alward and that it would have been fine for Hanvey to pick up his checks. Hanvey testified that after his injury, Alward's attitude toward him changed; before his injury, he says, she was kind and helpful, but after his injury she was bitter and unhelpful.

Hanvey was fitted with a back brace, and he returned to work on October 18, 2000. He reported to Hill, who informed him that he would be working in a different department under a different supervisor, Byron Hale. Hanvey says that the first thing Hale said to him was that if he caught Hanvey without his back brace, he would "fire [his] ass." Hanvey was assigned to work in what the parties refer to as the "woodpile." Working in the woodpile involves stacking and repairing the wooden pallets Webb Wheel uses to ship its products. Webb Wheel personnel testified that an assignment to the woodpile is customarily temporary and that such an assignment is used to keep an employee on the job when there is no other work for the employee to do. Hanvey stated that working in the woodpile is more physically demanding than operating the drill press, but Webb Wheel employees stated that there was no work for an additional drill-press operator at the time Hanvey returned to work.

Hanvey testified that, the following day, after he had worked approximately three hours stacking pallets, his back started hurting, and he asked Hale if he could get some Tylenol brand acetaminophen for his back. Hale told Hanvey to sit down and that he would return shortly. Approximately two hours later, Hale returned with Hill. Hill and Hanvey then went to Hill's office, where, Hanvey testified, Hill stated, "[W]e're going to have to let you go because of your back." Hill denies making that statement, insisting, as noted below, that Hanvey was merely "laid off." Hanvey also testified that no one told him that he was being laid off, that the layoff was temporary, or that he later could be recalled to work. Hanvey says that after the meeting he was escorted to retrieve his toolbox and then escorted to the door and watched until he got into his vehicle and left Webb Wheel's premises.

During this meeting, both Hanvey and Hill signed a form that Webb Wheel refers to as an "exit report." The form states, in part: "Reason for Termination: Dismissed _____ Lay Off _____ Quit _____." The blank beside "Lay Off" on the form signed by Hanvey is checked. The form contains a space labeled "Employee Statement," but that space on Hanvey's exit report is blank except for his signature. In the space labeled "Supervisor Comments," Hill wrote: "Josh was laid off due to lack of work. He made the statement to me that he expected to be laid off the day he came back." In the space labeled "Superintendent Comments," Dan Allen, the production superintendent of Cullman Plant # 1, wrote "Reduction in work force." In the space labeled "Manager Comments," David Link, plant manager for Webb Wheel, wrote "Questionable recall." Hill testified at trial that Hanvey was laid off because of an ongoing reduction in workforce then underway at Webb Wheel. Hill also said that he was not the person who made the decision to lay Hanvey off. Hanvey says he was not given a copy of the exit report when he signed it, and he was not permitted to obtain a copy later. As previously noted, he did sign the form, but the parties dispute how much of the form was completed when Hanvey signed it.

On October 4, 2000, two weeks before Hanvey returned to work, Webb Wheel had initiated a three-phase reduction in workforce made necessary, it says, by a downturn in business that ultimately resulted in 37 employees, including Hanvey, being laid off at Cullman Plant # 1. Exit reports like the one completed for Hanvey were completed for all 37 laid-off employees. Although Link had the primary responsibility for deciding which employees were to be laid off, the record reflects that Allen had input into the decision and that supervisors were sometimes consulted as well. Management employees testified that the layoffs were conducted pursuant to Webb Wheel's written workforce-reduction policy, which states, in pertinent part:

"In the event that a workforce reduction cannot be avoided, the following procedures apply:

"A. Volunteers are solicited from the employee group in the department in which an excess has been determined. Some may deem a layoff to be to their advantage.

"B. Employees with the least amount of company service, subject to their relative ability to perform the work are removed from the department in which the excess exists and offered other work in accordance with their previous experience, qualifications, and length of service. If no other work is available, employees are laid off based on length of service.

"C. Employees are recalled in reverse order of the reduction."

Although there was some testimony at trial to the effect that seniority is the only factor considered when layoffs become necessary at Webb Wheel, management personnel at Webb Wheel testified that in addition to seniority, an employee's skills were a factor in deciding the order in which employees were to be laid off. They also testified that layoffs could be based on a lack of work in a certain department rather than at the plant as a whole.

Webb Wheel's records indicate that for Cullman Plant # 1 as a whole, during the first phase of the workforce reduction (October 4-7, 2000), 12 employees were laid off. During the second phase (October 18-21, 2000), six employees were laid off. Of those six, two employees were laid off on October 18; Hanvey was laid off on October 19; two employees were laid off on October 20; and one employee was laid off on October 21. During the third phase (October 30-November 1), 19 employees were laid off. The records further indicated that 7 of the 37 employees laid off had initiated workers' compensation claims at some point during their employment.

Nineteen of the 37 laid-off employees worked in Department 116, the department in which Hanvey worked. Department 116, which produced wheels and hubs, was one of the departments hardest hit by...