Court Opinion

ID: 9692999
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:15:22.329423+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:59:28.419580
License: Public Domain

SCHLEGEL, Judge
(dissenting).
As a matter of law, the use of vulgar language in these circumstances was not misconduct.
We have held that in some circumstances the use of vulgarity and abusive language can amount to misconduct. Budding v. Iowa Department of Job Service, 337 N.W.2d 219, 222 (Iowa Ct.App.1983). We have provided criteria for determining if the use of vulgar language constitutes misconduct. Budding states that the use of vulgar language is not misconduct if:
1) The use of vulgar language is an isolated incident;
2) it occurs in an environment where decorous language is not required; and
3) it is not occasioned by a deliberate refusal to obey a reasonable directive.

Id.

First, I am not convinced that this is more than an isolated instance. The incident arose out of the questioning of the employee and his wife by their respective supervisors concerning a day off taken by the husband and wife to fix plumbing in their home. Petitioner made two vulgar remarks. He told his supervisor “You can kiss my ass or fire me or whatever.” He told his wife’s supervisor, “I am going to tell you the same thing that I told Joe. You guys can all kiss my ass.” I believe our language in Budding referring to isolated instances of vulgarity contemplates a repeated pattern of vulgarity in order to constitute misconduct, not two separate sentences emanating from the same incident. See also Annot. 92 A.L.R.3rd 106 (1979). The majority’s distinction of this case from Budding on the basis of two “kiss my ass” comments separated by a short period of time and stemming from the same incident is, at the least, strained.
Second, the evidence established that such language was used in this environment. As in Budding, here swearing was heard in this factory at least occasionally.
Third, the vulgar language was not occasioned by a deliberate refusal to obey a reasonable directive. There was no deliberate refusal by the employee to obey a directive by the employer. Neither of the conversations between employee and employer were witnessed by anyone other than the participants.
In our cases dealing with vulgarity as disqualifying misconduct, we have either looked to the fact that customers or other employees overheard the questionable language, see e.g. Zeches v. Iowa Department of Job Service, 333 N.W.2d 735, 736 (Iowa Ct.App.1983), or we have looked to the fact that the vulgarity was accompanied with a refusal to obey supervisors, see e.g. War*247rell v. Iowa Department of Job Service, 356 N.W.2d 587, 589 (Iowa Ct.App.1984). Budding’s examples of where vulgarity could amount to misconduct go directly to situations where the use of such language clearly impairs the operation of the essential functioning of the business or service. Budding v. Iowa Department of Job Service, 337 N.W.2d at 222.
Since the factors listed in Budding to determine misconduct were not met in this instance, I do not see how, as a matter of law, we can here say that the petitioner’s conduct constituted misconduct.