Court Opinion

ID: 9745738
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 13:30:01.322169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:26:41.651077
License: Public Domain

MATTINGLY-MAY, Judge,
dissenting.
I believe Schwab's company rule against "fighting and assaulting" is too vague to sustain Doughty's discharge. A review of the various company rules included in the exhibits indicates the rules relate to conduct that takes place on the work premises. If we extend beyond the work premises the employer's prohibition against "fighting and assaulting," I believe we misapply our own precedent and open a Pandora's box. I must therefore respectfully dissent.
The asserted basis for Doughty's discharge is Schwab's rule prohibiting "fighting and assaulting." (Exhibits Volume 1, pg. 17.) These terms are not defined in the company's policy. It is implicit in the result the majority reaches, however, that this rule must purport to prohibit an employee from "fighting and assaulting" even when that employee is not at work, and to establish such off-the-job activity as cause for immediate discharge.
To establish a prima facie showing of just cause for termination the employer must show that the claimant knowingly violated a reasonable uniformly enforced rule. Butler v. Review Bd. of Ind. Dept. of Employment and Training Servs., 633 N.E.2d 310, 312 (Ind.Ct.App.1994). To the extent Doughty's discharge was premised on his off-premises and off-the-job activities, I would hold the employer has not shown its rule was reasonable.
The only witness at the hearing as to the alleged "assault" was Kathy Williams. She testified:
Q. All right, so what happened at that time?
| A. I had been to the Schwab plant to put in an application for employment. We left, we were going out 60 west heading towards Owensboro and Mr. Doughty and his wife in a red and white pick-up truck had come around us. She threw a "mountain dew" can at our car.
[[Image here]]
A. Um, they came around the semi and around us. His wife was hanging out the window screaming, giving us fingers. She jetted a "mountain dew" can at the windshield at the car, which the liquid went all over the windshield and the car. The[ly] had made a turn on Highway 271 by Hancock County High School ... And then we went back to Haughsville and filed a complaint with the sheriff's department there....
(Tr. at 21-22.) She later testified that Doughty's car was within one foot of hers when Doughty's wife threw the Mountain Dew can.
It is apparent from our prior decisions addressing discharge for violation of an employer rule that the Schwab rule in the case before us should be interpreted to be limited to workplace fighting and assaults. In Best Lock Corp. v. Review Bd., 572 N.E.2d 520, 523 (Ind.Ct.App.1991) we noted our prior holdings that
a rule which regulates an employee's on-duty activities and which protects the interest of the employer is reasonable[;] . when a rule purports to govern employees' off-duty activities, the conduct regulated must bear some relationship *529with the employer's business interest in order for the rule to be considered reasonable.
(Emphasis in original.) We further noted:
A rule laid down by the employer governing off-duty conduct of his employees must have a reasonable relationship to the employer's interests in order that violation thereof will constitute misconduct barring eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits,. The question of the reasonableness of such a rule is to be tested by the rule's relationship to the business interests of the employer at the time of the making of the rule, rather than at the time of the employee's violation thereof. A rule of this type may be regarded as reasonable where a violation is reasonably likely to harm the employer's business interest, even though the actual violation does not result in actual harm to the business interests of the employer.
Id. at 523-24 (quoting 76 Am.Jur.2d Unemployment Compensation § 57 (1975)) (emphasis in original).4
An employer has a stake in regulating an employee's on-the-job conduct. The employer may want to closely regulate his employee's actions while at work in order to maximize efficiency and assure safety of personnel. Accidents occur at work and the employer has an interest in minimizing those accidents for the sake of his employees as well as for the sake of his own liability insurance. However, the same interest does not always exist in regulating the employee's off-duty conduct. Id. at 524-25. Therefore, in order for an employer rule that regulates an employee's off-duty activity to be considered reasonable, the activity sought to be regulated must bear some reasonable relationship to the employer's business interest. Id. at 525.
While I do not condone "fighting or assaulting" on or off the job, it is not apparent that an employee's off-duty activities of that nature are reasonably related to Schwab's business interests.5 Even though this incident was ill-considered on the part of Doughty and his wife, I do not believe it has the essential nexus to the workplace that Schwab's company policies, to be considered reasonable, must require. Accordingly, I must dissent from the majority's determination that Doughty was discharged for just cause because he violated a reasonable and uniformly enforced employer rule.

. If Schwab had offered evidence that its rule was meant to apply to off-thejob and off-premises activities and that such a prohibition was related to iis business interests, the rule would presumably be reasonable and Doughty's discharge would be for just cause. There was no such testimony or evidence offered below. At one point in the hearing, Doughty's union representative had the following exchange with Schwab's representative:
[Schwab]: That's a clear cut violation of the behavior and code.
[Union]: Unless it occurred on there's not even an allegation this occurred on company property.
[Schwab]: No but it initiated there in both cases and, uh, the people were stalked. Women employees were stalked and assaulted.

. The application of this principle is made more difficult in the case before us, where Doughty's off-duty actions were apparently motivated by a strike at the plant where he worked. However, as we noted in Best Lock, we look to the rule's relationship to the business interests of the employer at the time of the making of the rule, rather than at the time of the employee's violation thereof. There was no testimony as to Schwab's business interests at the time of the making of the policy.