Title: ConAgra, Inc. v. Turner

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

776 So. 2d 792 (2000)
ConAGRA, INC.
v.
Calvert TURNER.
1981614.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
July 7, 2000.
*793 Robert H. Harris and David W. Langston of Harris, Caddell & Shanks, P.C., Decatur, for appellant.
Mitchell K. Shelly and Robert M. Baker of Alexander, Corder, Plunk, Baker, Shelly & Shipman, P.C., Athens, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
This is a retaliatory-discharge case filed by Calvert Turner against ConAgra, Inc., a feed and flour milling operation with a plant located in Decatur, Alabama. Turner alleged in his complaint that he was terminated by ConAgra for being injured on the job and for seeking workers' compensation benefits. The Legislature has created a statutory cause of action for retaliatory discharge under the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act, § 25-5-11.1, Ala.Code 1975. A jury returned a verdict for Turner against ConAgra and assessed compensatory damages in the amount of $50,000 and punitive damages in the amount of $250,000. ConAgra appeals from this judgment. We affirm.
ConAgra hired Turner as a laborer on September 9, 1997. His duties included unloading the grain barges and cleaning the empty bins and grain elevators. Carroll Tripp, the elevator supervisor, testified that Turner's job required "extremely hard physical labor" and that ConAgra has "a hard time finding people who can work in our elevator situation. We're rough on people."
The record reflects that Turner was a good employee. Carroll Tripp praised his job performance. His immediate supervisor, Frankie Skinner, also testified that Turner was considered a good and diligent *794 employee and that he never saw Turner work in an unsafe manner. The plant manager, Paul Shields, never saw Turner engage in any unsafe conduct.
Turner worked from the date he was hired until he was terminated on January 9, 1998. ConAgra contended at trial that the sole reason it terminated Turner was for failing to work in a safe manner. ConAgra based this contention on three incidents. The first was the bobcat accident. During the unloading of a barge, ConAgra employee Bobby Garrison, who was driving a bobcat, ran over a cable, causing the bobcat he was driving to lean on its side. Turner raced to Garrison's rescue, but as he tried to help Garrison off the machine, it shifted and Turner was pinned between the bobcat and the side of the barge. As a result, Turner sustained injuries to his back, leg, and pelvis. The second incident occurred when Turner and another employee were attempting to unload a railway car full of grain. The process requires an employee to hook one end of a large cable to the railway car, then wrap the opposite end of the cable around a machine with a large spool. Turner's back was injured when the machine and cable jerked him. He testified that he was performing his job exactly as he had been trained. The third incident occurred on January 8, 1998, when Turner sustained another on-the-job injury. The record reflects that Turner reported to work at 2:45 a.m. on a cold morning. A river barge, 200 feet in length and 12 feet in depth, needed to be unloaded. The unloading required two workers to crawl 100 feet through the grain with a 30-pound cable. Another employee, known as the marine operator, was charged with providing the workers with continuous slack on the cable while each worker crawled through the barge. On the day in question, the marine operator failed to provide Turner with continuous cable slack and Turner's back popped while he was pulling the cable. He reported his injury to ConAgra and received medical treatment. The following day ConAgra terminated Turner for allegedly working in an unsafe manner.
ConAgra raises three issues on appeal. First, ConAgra contends that the jury's award of $50,000 in compensatory damages is excessive. However, because ConAgra failed to challenge the excessiveness of the compensatory-damages-award specifically as a ground for a new trial, this issue is procedurally barred. State v. Ferguson, 269 Ala. 44, 45, 110 So. 2d 280 (1959) ("[T]he question of the excessiveness of the jury's verdict will not be considered or determined on appeal unless such question is first presented to the lower court which is usually done by a motion for a new trial. The motion must specifically challenge or question the amount of the verdict as being excessive." (Emphasis added.)) See also § 12-22-71, Ala.Code 1975, Peete v. Blackwell, 504 So. 2d 222 (Ala.1986), and Feazell v. Campbell, 358 So. 2d 1017 (Ala. 1978).
In order to recover punitive damages under the statutory cause of action for retaliatory discharge, the statute requires the employee to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, oppression, fraud, malice or wantonness. § 6-11-20, Ala.Code 1975. ConAgra contends that Turner failed to present evidence that will support a punitive-damages verdict of $250,000 based upon oppression, fraud, malice or wantonness. The trial judge, considering ConAgra's claim of excessiveness found as follows:
As stated by the trial judge, the facts clearly support the jury's finding that Turner proved by clear and convincing evidence that ConAgra acted with oppression, malice or wantonness towards him. See Motion Indus., Inc. v. Pate, 678 So. 2d 724, 734 (Ala.1996).
We next consider ConAgra's contention that the $250,000 punitive-damages-award is excessive. The trial judge held a Hammond[1] hearing and concluded that the award is not excessive and does not deny ConAgra due process under the circumstances of this case:
We have carefully studied the trial judge's discussion of the factors established in Hammond v. City of Gadsden, 493 So. 2d 1374 (Ala.1986), Green Oil Co. v. Hornsby, 539 So. 2d 218 (Ala.1989), and BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559, 116 S. Ct. 1589, 134 L. Ed. 2d 809, (1996), and agree with his conclusions.
*799 For the reasons stated above, the judgment of the trial court is due to be affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
MADDOX, COOK, BROWN, JOHNSTONE, and ENGLAND, JJ., concur.
LYONS, J., concurs in the judgment affirming the award of compensatory damages and otherwise concurs both in the judgment and the opinion.
HOOPER, C.J., concurs in the result.
HOUSTON and SEE, JJ., concur in part and dissent in part.
LYONS, Justice (concurring in the judgment affirming the award of compensatory damages and otherwise concurring both in the judgment and the opinion).
I cannot agree with the refusal to review the question of excessiveness of the award of compensatory damages, a refusal based on the defendant's failure to renew its motion for a judgment as a matter of law at the close of all the evidence. In B.A.S.S. Coal, Inc. v. Black Warrior Minerals, Inc., 579 So. 2d 1325 (Ala.1991), the defendants failed to move either for a new trial or for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (now a judgment as a matter of law). This Court refused to consider on appeal an argument that the plaintiff had not presented a scintilla of evidence to justify the amount of damages awarded, because of an improper apportioning of damages among breach-of-contract, fraud, and conversion counts.
The issue of excessiveness of compensatory damages is sufficiently preserved when excessiveness is included as a ground in support of a motion for new trial. ITEC, Inc. v. Automated Precision, Inc., 623 So. 2d 1139 (Ala.1993). Only a hypertechnical reading of ConAgra's motion for new trial supports the view that it attacks only the sufficiency of the evidence to support an award of any compensatory damages. I would hold that ConAgra's motion marginally satisfies the requirement of including the ground of excessiveness of the verdict for compensatory damages. However, it is not clear from the materials before us that the bases for the grounds here argued (inadequacy of proof of mental anguish, inadequacy of proof of out-of-pocket loss, and insufficient basis for a determination of future damages) were presented to the trial court. A trial judge's order should not be reversed for the judge's failing to heed an argument never made in the trial court. See Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Vinson, 749 So. 2d 393 (Ala.1999) (Lyons, J., concurring specially). However, even if these arguments had been made, I could not say that the jury's verdict awarding compensatory damages should be disturbed.
I concur in all other aspects of the opinion.
HOUSTON, Justice (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur insofar as the Court affirms the award of compensatory damages, and I concur to affirm the punitive award up to $150,000. I dissent insofar as the Court affirms the award of punitive damages in excess of $150,000.
SEE, J., concurs.
[1]  Hammond v. City of Gadsden, 493 So. 2d 1374 (Ala.1986).