Williams v. Regional Transit Authority

• Decision Date: 19 June 1989
• Docket Number: No. 89-C-0114,89-C-0114
• Citation: 546 So.2d 150
• Parties: Ernest WILLIAMS v. REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY and Transit Management of Southeast Louisiana
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 150

546 So.2d 150

Ernest WILLIAMS v. REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY and Transit Management of

Southeast Louisiana

No. 89-C-0114.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

June 19, 1989.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 11, 1989.

Roy Amedee, Jr., for applicant.

Emile Schneider, Kiefer, Kiefer & Schneider, Jerry Jordan, for respondent.

CALOGERO, Justice. ^*

Plaintiff, Ernest Williams, a streetcar operator in New Orleans, brought this claim for workmen's compensation benefits against his employer. Plaintiff alleged that as a result of being arrested at work and wrongfully accused of stealing streetcar fares, he developed a disabling mental injury (post traumatic stress syndrome) which has prevented him from working since the date of the arrest (March 6, 1986).

After trial on the merits, the district court ruled that plaintiff was entitled to worker's compensation benefits because "the arrest of Mr. Williams triggered a post traumatic stress disorder that he's currently suffering from and ...the arrest occurred during the course and scope of his employment." The trial court entered judgment in favor of plaintiff and against the employer for all past and future medical expenses incurred as the result of the mental disability, compensation benefits of $254.00 per week for "so long as his disability persists," statutory penalties of 12% on all past due compensation benefits, and $2,500 in attorney's fees. The court of appeal reversed, holding that "[i]t would be contrary to sound public policy to expand the worker's compensation statutes to include this type of incident." 534 So.2d 11 (La.App. 4th Cir.1988). We granted a writ to review the judgment of the court of appeal. 538 So.2d 600 (La.1989).

We now reverse the court of appeal judgment and reinstate the portion of the trial court's judgment awarding benefits and medical expenses to plaintiff. For the reasons set forth below, we find that plaintiff proved by a preponderance of the evidence that he was wrongfully accused of stealing funds from his employer, and that an injury-causing arrest based on such a wrongful accusation is a compensable accident that arises out of employment. We also find, for reasons considered at length in our opinion issued today in Sparks v. Tulane Medical Center Hospital and Clinic, 546 So.2d 138 (La.1989), that plaintiff's mental injury was compensable even though it was not accompanied by physical trauma. However, we also hold that an award of statutory penalties and attorney's fess against the employer is not justified under the circumstances of this case.

FACTS

Events Leading to Plaintiff's Arrest

Prior to his arrest, plaintiff worked for eighteen years as a streetcar operator in New Orleans. At the time of the arrest, plaintiff was employed by Transit Management of Southeast Louisiana, Inc., which apparently operates the New Orleans streetcar line for the Regional Transit Authority (RTA).

The Transit Police Unit operates as a special division of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). NOPD officers assigned to the Transit Police Unit handle only those complaints related to the operation of the public transit system in New Orleans. Although officers assigned to the unit are employed by the City and supervised by NOPD officers, they work closely with the management of the Regional Transit Authority. In fact, the unit maintains an office at the RTA's facility on Canal Street.

In 1985, RTA's comptroller advised Sergeant Robert Gostl of the Transit Police Unit that revenues from streetcar fares had been declining, and that theft of fares by some streetcar operators was suspected. The RTA did not identify to police any particular streetcar operators suspected of theft, but merely conveyed its general suspicion that such theft could be the cause of revenue losses. As a result of RTA's complaint, the Transit Police Unit began to investigate the possibility that some streetcar operators were "pocketing" fares.

In February, 1985, Sgt. Gostl, riding on a streetcar while he was off-duty and in plain clothes, observed streetcar operator Joseph Magee pocketing fares as they were handed to him by riders. Magee was later arrested. Soon thereafter, Transit Police Unit officers arrested another streetcar operator, Herman Franklin, for stealing fares. Franklin was arrested after he was found to be in possession of marked bills that had been given him in payment of fares by undercover police officers posing as passengers on the streetcar.

After his arrest, Franklin confessed to stealing fares and told the police that he had observed plaintiff, Ernest Williams stealing fares on past occasions. Franklin also implicated Magee and another operator, Robert Mitchell. Acting on Franklin's allegations, police then "interviewed" Robert Mitchell. According to police, Mitchell confessed to stealing $250 in fares and also stated that he had seen plaintiff pocketing fares on prior occasions. Mitchell further stated that plaintiff had bragged to him about stealing fares.

Based on the allegations made by Franklin and Mitchell, transit unit police sought a warrant for plaintiff's arrest on the charge of "systematic theft of currency." After reviewing the sworn allegations of the police officers regarding the statements of Franklin and Mitchell, a criminal magistrate issued a warrant for plaintiff's arrest on March 6, 1986.

According to Sgt. Gostl, the transit unit police did not confer with RTA officials regarding the allegations against plaintiff prior to the issuance of the warrant for plaintiff's arrest. After the warrant was issued, police advised RTA's general manager of the charge against plaintiff. RTA indicated that it desired to press charges against plaintiff for theft, and arrangements were then made between police and RTA officials for plaintiff to be arrested at the end of his afternoon streetcar "run" (shift) on March 6, 1986.

Arrest, Interrogation and Detention

On March 6, plaintiff was assigned to operate a streetcar on the St. Charles Avenue line. At about 1:20 pm, as he neared the end of his shift, he brought his streetcar to the RTA facility near the corner of Willow and Carrollton. Earl Pradat, plaintiff's supervisor, boarded the streetcar and advised plaintiff that he was being relieved from duty and that the police wanted to speak with him. As plaintiff stepped off the streetcar, he was arrested, handcuffed and taken to a waiting patrol car.

Plaintiff testified that once he was inside the patrol car, the arresting officers began badgering him and urging him to confess to having stolen fares so that he could avoid going to prison. Plaintiff also testified that the police tried to pressure him into giving them the names of other streetcar operators who had stolen fares. Plaintiff protested his innocence and said that he did not know of any other drivers who had stolen fares. The officers then took him to the Transit Police Unit office at the RTA facility on Canal Street, where, according to plaintiff, they questioned him for one or two hours and tried (unsuccessfully) to pressure him into admitting his guilt and implicating other employees. He was then taken to central lock-up, where he was booked, strip searched and placed in detention. Several hours later, his wife was able to post his bail and he was released from confinement.

The arresting officers denied that they attempted to harass or intimidate plaintiff in any fashion after the arrest. They acknowledged taking him to the Canal Street office for interrogation, but claim that they did so only because plaintiff indicated to them that he desired to make a voluntary statement. It was after plaintiff apparently changed his mind about making a statement, police said, that he was taken to central lock-up and booked.

Events Immediately Following the Arrest

The day after his arrest, plaintiff was instructed to attend a meeting with RTA officials. At that meeting, he was informed that he would be allowed to return to work because RTA "had nothing on him," and that he would be paid for any work he had missed as a result of his arrest and detention. However, plaintiff felt unable to work at that time because he was greatly upset over the events surrounding the arrest and had been unable to sleep the previous night. His supervisors told him that he could take off work until Monday of the following week.

Plaintiff returned to work the following Monday, but soon found himself unable to perform his normal employment duties. He testified that he still had not been sleeping well since the arrest and was very nervous. He was also bothered by the fact that co-employees and passengers on the streetcar who had seen the arrest kept asking him what had happened. Plaintiff worked for two days before leaving his job while in the middle of a streetcar run. He left work because he was extremely nervous and upset and could not operate the streetcar with his left arm shaking so badly. He had difficulty driving home from work that day and was crying as he did so. Plaintiff tried to resume work again the following week, but was unable to do so because he experienced the same problems (nervousness, shaking, anxiety). Subsequent to his second unsuccessful attempt to return to work, plaintiff has not worked for RTA or any other employer in any capacity.

Evidence Pertinent to the Criminal Charges

At trial, plaintiff denied that he ever stole fares or committed any other act of dishonesty during the eighteen year period that he worked as a streetcar operator.

Robert Mitchell, one of the two RTA employees who implicated plaintiff in a statement to police, testified at trial that his statement to police was false and was made under duress. Police told him that they would give him lenient treatment if he implicated plaintiff, so he did so. Mitchell denied ever having seen plaintiff stealing fares and denied that plaintiff had ever talked to him about stealing fares.

Herman Franklin, the other operator who made a...