Wooldridge v. Greene County, 27217.

• Decision Date: 23 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. 27217.,27217.
• Citation: 198 S.W.3d 676
• Parties: Richard WOOLDRIDGE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GREENE COUNTY, Missouri, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

198 S.W.3d 676

Richard WOOLDRIDGE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GREENE COUNTY, Missouri, Defendant-Respondent.

No. 27217.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division Two.

August 23, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

George O. Suggs and Nancy M. Watkins of St. Louis, MO, for appellant.

Theodore L. Johnson, III of Springfield, MO, for respondent.

JEFFREY W. BATES, Chief Judge and Presiding Judge.

The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether a petition for judicial review filed by Richard Wooldridge (Wooldridge) arose from an uncontested or contested case within the meaning of the Missouri Administrative Procedure Act (MAPA). See § 536.010 et seq.¹ After Wooldridge's employment with Greene County was terminated, he sought judicial review of that decision as an uncontested case pursuant to § 536.150. The trial court, however, treated the matter as a contested case and dismissed the cause for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the ground that the petition for review had not been timely filed. See § 536.110.1.

Wooldridge's appeal presents three points for our decision, but his first point is dispositive. In this point, Wooldridge contends the trial court erred in dismissing his petition for review because: (1) the time limitation in § 536.110.1 does not apply, in that he was seeking judicial review of an uncontested case; and (2) the court, therefore, had jurisdiction to address the merits of his petition.² We agree. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and remand the case for review by the trial court as an uncontested case pursuant to § 536.150.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

In 1994, Wooldridge began working for the Greene County Highway Department (the GCHD) as an equipment operator.³ Greene County has a Personnel Policy Manual (the Manual) that applies to ten county offices, including the GCHD. In the version of the Manual that became effective on April 17, 2000, employees were required to acknowledge "that the manual is not a contract of employment, express or implied, between me and Greene County, or any elected official thereof, and that I should not view it as such or as a guarantee of employment for any specific duration." Section 1-1 of the Manual reiterated that point by stating that the policies contained therein "are not intended to be a contract between the county, or any elected officials thereof, and its employees and do not create contractual rights for employees." Section 15-2 of the Manual, entitled "Termination for Cause," listed 19 infractions of conduct rules that might result in immediate termination for cause. The sixth such infraction was "[c]onviction of a felony or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude." If an employee is going to be discharged for cause, the Manual provides for a pre-termination hearing upon proper request. At this hearing, all witnesses are required to testify under oath; the parties have a right to be represented by legal counsel; they may present witnesses and engage in cross-examination of opposing witnesses; the employee can have a record of the hearing transcribed at his expense; and, if the employee is terminated, the decision-maker is required to give the employee a decision accompanied by written findings based upon the hearing record summarizing the relevant facts and reasons for the action.

On November 2, 2001, the GCHD and Local 50 of the AFL-CIO entered into a union resolution (the Resolution) that was effective for budget years 2002-2005. Employees like Wooldridge who worked for the GCHD were covered by both the Manual and the Resolution. In the event of a conflict between the provisions of those two documents, the Resolution was controlling.⁴ Article 22 of the Resolution stated:

Section 1. Employee Conduct—Employees are entitled to retain their jobs on the basis of proper conduct and satisfactory performance, including efficiency, productivity and honesty. The Greene County Highway Administrator shall have the right to discipline or discharge any employee who fails to meet the foregoing conditions and particularly may discharge an employee because of the use of intoxicating liquors during working hours, violation of safety rules, absence without leave, excessive absenteeism, dishonesty, insubordination, habitual neglect or carelessness resulting in damage to County property or equipment, sleeping while on duty, or for any other just cause.

Thus, the authority to discharge a union employee for cause was vested exclusively in Greene County Highway Administrator Kevin Lowe (Administrator Lowe).

Sometime in 2001, Wooldridge was charged with possession of methamphetamine. This charge arose out of a traffic stop that occurred during non-work hours. On April 4, 2002, Wooldridge pled guilty to the class C felony of possession of a controlled substance. He was given a suspended imposition of sentence (SIS) and placed on probation for a period of five years. It was Wooldridge's understanding from discussions with his attorney that the SIS disposition meant his guilty plea did not result in a felony conviction. Although at least one of Wooldridge's co-workers was aware of this incident, Wooldridge did not report the guilty plea to his crew leader, supervisor or Administrator Lowe.

Over two years later, Wooldridge applied for the position of crew leader. As a part of the interview process, Wooldridge's name was run through the Greene County Circuit Court website. That search revealed the aforementioned guilty plea. Administrator Lowe checked with Wooldridge's supervisor and learned that he had not been apprised by Wooldridge of the charge or the plea. After additional discussions with Wooldridge's crew leader and other members of the work crew, Administrator Lowe decided to terminate Wooldridge's employment. On July 6, 2004, the GCHD operations director sent Wooldridge a letter notifying him of Administrator Lowe's decision. In pertinent part, the letter stated:

Recently the Greene County Highway Department learned you had been charged with the felony possession of controlled substance. We believe your conduct surrounding this charge constitutes dishonesty as set out in the Resolution. In particular, you concealed from your employer the fact that you had been charged with this felony and later pled guilty to it. Moreover, at no time did you ever report this to your employer and deliberately concealed all of these things from us. Accordingly, we have no choice other than to terminate your employment with the Greene County Highway Department effective immediately.

Section 2 of the Resolution provided that an employee like Wooldridge was entitled to receive assistance from the union in all meetings involving possible disciplinary action. The Resolution also contained a progressive, six-step grievance procedure which may be generally summarized in the following fashion: (1) an informal discussion between the employee and his immediate supervisor; (2) a written notice of grievance filed with the division director; (3) a discussion of the grievance directly between the business agent and the Administrator's designee; (4) review by the Harmony Committee and the right to appeal the decision to the Administrator; (5) an alternative, original decision by the Administrator if the Harmony Committee cannot reach a majority decision; and (6) a final decision binding on all the parties by the Administrator.

On July 9, 2004, Clark W. Brown (Brown), the union's business agent, sent a letter on Wooldridge's behalf to the operations director enclosing Grievance Report Form # 1045 and requesting a meeting with the parties involved. This initiated the grievance procedure at Step two.

On July 20, 2004, Administrator Lowe sent a letter to Brown. In pertinent part, the letter stated: "This is in reference to Grievance # 1045 concerning Mr. Richard Wooldridge. We have discussed in great detail the areas concerning this matter. We cannot tolerate issues of this nature concerning employee conduct and dishonesty and have no choice but to terminate Mr. Wooldridge's employment with Greene County."

Step three of the grievance procedure was unsuccessfully exhausted on July 22, 2004. That same day, Brown sent a letter to Administrator Lowe requesting that the grievance procedure move to Step four, which was a review by the Harmony Committee. This committee was to be composed of two persons selected by the union, two persons selected by management and one neutral person drawn from a joint pool submitted by Greene County and the union. According to the Resolution, the following procedure was to be utilized during this review process:

(1) The Highway Department Administrator or his designate and representative shall have the right to be present at the hearing. The Employee and his representative shall have the right to be present at the hearing, except only the Harmony Committee shall be present at the time of deliberations upon a decision made.

(2) Each party shall have the right to question the witnesses before the Harmony Committee, however, each side shall be given only one opportunity to examine witnesses unless agreed to be [sic] the Harmony Committee. The Harmony Committee shall question witnesses following the questioning be [sic] each side. No questions shall be asked after the Committee questions a witness, unless agreed to by the Harmony Committee.

(3) The decision of the Harmony Committee may be appealed to the Department Administrator following decision by either side.

The Harmony Committee met on August 26, 2004. The only record of what transpired is contained in certain "Minutes" of the meeting. The identity of the person who prepared this eight-page document is not disclosed by the record. Although the Resolution gave the committee the right to make a binding decision on the grievance by majority vote, that is not what actually took place. Rather than deciding the matter, the minutes of the Harmony Committee meeting make it clear that...