Opinion ID: 1221981
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: emotional distress for retaliatory discharge

Text: The defendants contend that the trial court erred in permitting the plaintiff to recover for emotional distress as a part of his compensatory damages in his cause of action for a retaliatory discharge. At trial, plaintiff claimed that he had lost wages in the amount of $8,500 from the date of his firing until he was able to obtain employment at another bank. Plaintiff testified that as a result of the firing he suffered emotional distress by way of humiliation and lost self-confidence and trust. He was unable to properly eat and sleep and had to take medication for his nervous condition and depression. His wife corroborated this condition and indicated that after the firing he isolated himself from his family and friends and was extremely depressed and listless. The law regarding the measure of damages that may be recovered for the tort of retaliatory discharge is rather sparse. Most courts have merely addressed the issue of whether such a cause of action exists in their jurisdiction because the case was dismissed in the lower court or certified to them to determine if such a cause of action was recognized. There has been recognition of compensatory damages by way of wage loss. E.g., Sheets, supra; Palmateer v. International Harvester Co., 85 Ill.2d 124, 52 Ill.Dec. 13, 421 N.E.2d 876 (1981); Kelsay, supra ; [10] Pierce v. Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp., 84 N.J. 58, 417 A.2d 505 (1980); [11] Nees v. Hocks, 272 Or. 210, 536 P.2d 512 (1975). In Smith v. Atlas Off-Shore Boat Service, Inc., 653 F.2d 1057 (5th Cir. 1981), the court sanctioned a cause of action for retaliatory discharge where the injured plaintiff was fired because he exercised his right to file a maritime suit against his employer. The court without any extended analysis of the damage law permitted him to recover compensatory damages in the forms of wage loss and mental anguish but refused to award punitive damages. Some analogy can be provided in cases involving unlawful terminations under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ADEA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-34, which has a rather general damage provision in 29 U.S.C. § 626(b). [12] The federal courts have uniformly permitted as compensatory damages the plaintiff's wage loss and this is not an issue in the present case. [13] Some courts have permitted recovery for emotional distress resulting from the unlawful discharge. [14] The several Circuit Courts of Appeal that have addressed this question however have declined to permit emotional distress or pain and suffering awards perhaps in part because of the Act's provision for liquidated or punitive damages for a willful violation. Vazquez v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 579 F.2d 107 (1st Cir. 1978); Rogers v. Exxon Research & Engineering Co., 550 F.2d 834 (3rd Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1022, 98 S.Ct. 749, 54 L.Ed.2d 770 (1978); Slatin v. Stanford Research Institute, 590 F.2d 1292 (4th Cir. 1979); Dean v. American Sec. Ins. Co., 559 F.2d 1036 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1066, 98 S.Ct. 1243, 55 L.Ed.2d 767 (1978). Cf. Kelly v. American Standard, Inc., 640 F.2d 974 (9th Cir. 1981) (permitting emotional distress under state law). The above courts have formulated a rather liberal test for willful violation. Wehr v. Burroughs Corp., 619 F.2d 276 (3rd Cir. 1980); Kelly, supra . [15] Most of the foregoing cases make no detailed analysis of the underlying reasons for permitting the various classes of damages and this is probably due to their concern with interpreting the statutory language. We have earlier pointed out that a cause of action for retaliatory discharge is a tort and we must therefore utilize our tort damage law in determining the extent of recovery. The right of a plaintiff to recover compensatory damages for emotional distress arising from the wrongful acts of another has been recognized in Monteleone v. Co-Operative Transit Co., 128 W.Va. 340, 347, 36 S.E.2d 475, 478 (1945), where we set out three categories of recovery: First, those mental disturbances that accompany or follow an actual physical injury caused by impact upon the occurrence of the tort; second, where there is no impact and no physical injury at the time, but a physical injury afterwards results as the causal effect of a nervous shock which in turn was the proximate result of the defendant's wrong; and third, where there was no impact and no physical injury caused by the defendant's wrong, but an emotional or mental disturbance is shown to have been the result of the defendant's intentional or wanton wrongful act. In any of the foregoing classifications we believe that the plain weight of authority sustains a recovery. As noted in Monteleone, the right to recover emotional distress in the absence of some physical injury or a subsequently developed physical injury is ordinarily predicated on some intentional wrong of the defendant. We have cases where emotional distress recovery has been permitted where the underlying cause of action involved an intentional tort. E.g., Sprouse v. Clay Communications, W.Va., 211 S.E.2d 674 (1975) (libel action); Addair v. Huffman, 156 W.Va. 592, 195 S.E.2d 739 (1973) (wrongful suggestee execution); Sutherland v. Kroger Company, 144 W.Va. 673, 110 S.E.2d 716 (1959) (illegal search); Toler v. Cassinelli, 129 W.Va. 591, 41 S.E.2d 672 (1946) (wrongful ejection); Nees v. Julian Goldman Stores, Inc., 109 W.Va. 329, 154 S.E. 769 (1930) (assault); Lambert v. Brewster, 97 W.Va. 124, 125 S.E. 244 (1924) (assault); Jones v. Hebdo, 88 W.Va. 386, 106 S.E. 898 (1921) (false imprisonment). Conceptually, it is difficult to draw a precise line that will serve to accurately define those torts which are deemed intentional and, therefore, permit a recovery for emotional distress in the absence of any physical injury. The clearest categories are those of the traditional nonphysical torts such as false imprisonment, libel and slander, malicious prosecution and wrongful attachment or debt collecting processes. Prosser, Torts § 12 (1972 ed.); Annot., 87 A.L.R.3d 201 (1978); Annot., 64 A.L.R.2d 100 (1959). In these situations, the severity of the underlying act is utilized to support the reasonableness of the claim for emotional distress. Another more difficult category is where the claim for emotional distress arises from a negligent act which produces no physical injury but causes emotional distress. In this area courts are more reluctant to permit recovery for emotional distress particularly where the plaintiff was outside the zone of any physical danger arising from the negligent act and where there is no close relationship with the victim. Annot., 94 A.L.R.3d 486 (1979). We believe that the tort of retaliatory discharge carries with it a sufficient indicia of intent, thus, damages for emotional distress may be recovered as a part of the compensatory damages. The essence of the cause of action is the wrongful and deliberate discharge of the employee who chooses to exercise some substantial public policy right. Some analogy exists to the case of Toler, supra, 129 W.Va. at 598, 41 S.E.2d at 677-78, where we recognized that a tenant who had been wrongfully locked out of her apartment could recover damages for emotional distress resulting from humiliation and embarrassment arising from the incident: The humiliation and mental pain may be considered as an element of damages. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. v. Carless, 127 Va. 5, 102 S.E. 569. See 1 Sedgwick on Damages, Ninth Ed., Sections 42-43. Where unreasonable and wil[l]ful action by defendant inflicts indignity, humiliation and insult on plaintiff, resulting in mental pain and suffering, they are a just basis for compensatory damages. Jones v. Hebdo, 88 W.Va. 386, 106 S.E. 898. See Johnson v. Norfolk & W. Railway Co., 82 W.Va. 692, 97 S.E. 189. We are aware that a claim for emotional distress without any physical trauma may permit a jury to have a rather open-hand in the assessment of damages. Additionally, a jury may weigh the defendant's conduct in assessing the amount of damages and to this extent emotional distress damages may assume the cloak of punitive damages. These same arguments, of course, can be made with regard to an amount for pain and suffering attendant to a physical injury. Obviously, the jury's common sense plays a vital role in both areas and certainly by instruction the element of emotional distress may be defined to properly guide the jury's consideration. Moreover, as discussed in the next section, we do not automatically accord a right of punitive damages in a retaliatory discharge case. [16]