Case Title: Jackson v. Colonial Baking Co.

Citation: 507 So. 2d 1310

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1987-05-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
507 So. 2d 1310 (1987)
Robert Lee JACKSON
v.
COLONIAL BAKING COMPANY, et al.
86-54.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 1, 1987.
Vanzetta Penn McPherson and Billy L. Carter, Montgomery, for appellants.
Robert C. Black of Hill, Hill, Carter, Franco, Cole & Black, Montgomery, for appellee Colonial Baking Co.
Milton C. Davis, Tuskegee, for appellee Buford Roberts.
Jock M. Smith, Tuskegee, for appellee James Vance.
*1311 Tyrone C. Means of Massey, Means & Thomas, Montgomery, for appellee Bobby Layton.
JONES, Justice.
This appeal challenges the trial court's summary judgment in favor of the defendants (employer and co-employees) on the plaintiff's (employee's) claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. We affirm.
For a statement of the pertinent background facts, we quote a portion of the trial court's findings from a hearing on plaintiff's workmen's compensation claim (not in issue on this appeal):
The relevant inquiry, of course, is whether the evidence presents an issue of fact, which, if resolved in plaintiff's favor, would justify a claim premised on the tort of outrage, also known as the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress. American Road Service Co. v. Inmon, 394 So. 2d 361 (Ala.1980), defines this theory of recovery:
Jackson alleges that the defendants, his employer and certain co-employees, mistreated him during the course of his employment after learning of his respiratory problem. More particularly, Jackson points to an incident wherein certain co-employees requested that he climb a ladder and clean some overhead exhaust fans. Jackson refused, citing to his superiors his breathing disability. He says that his co-employees retaliated by reducing his work schedule twice until he had only a 32-hour work week. He asserts that his co-employees knew at the time that he was in danger of bodily injury, considering his respiratory problem as documented by his doctors; and that his loss of income and the pressure *1312 placed upon him by his superiors further caused him mental suffering.
We have carefully studied each of the plaintiff's allegations of specific conduct on the part of his employer and each of his co-employees, and we conclude that this conduct is not "so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized society." 394 So. 2d  at 365. This is not to say that Mr. Jackson, as a natural incident of his work-related injury, did not suffer both physically and mentally; but we are unable to find that these facts, when viewed most favorably to him, support a claim against these appellees for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and SHORES, ADAMS and STEAGALL, JJ., concur.