Court Opinion

ID: 9786293
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 23:52:38.697216+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:43.908160
License: Public Domain

Judge SCHWARTZMAN,
Specially Concurring:
In April of 1994, Traci Roberts quit her job working as a legal secretary for Jon Wyman. Wyman refused to tender Roberts her last week’s salary despite her demand to *700do so. The Department of Labor took up her complaint and determined Roberts was owed $828.70, plus statutory penalty. Wyman eventually coughed up $323.23 in the form of a tendered check, marked “paid in full,” for net unpaid wages in November of 1994, just prior to the filing of this lawsuit. The case has since progressed through the magistrate court and district court on appeal, generating attorney fee awards to Roberts in the sums of $12,512.50 and $6,250 respectively. The case now goes back to the trial court for a mini-retrial on the statutory penalty phase of this lawsuit. The combined legal fees for Roberts at this juncture exceed fifty-seven (57) times the original amount in controversy, a $328.70 wage claim, not including what this Court will be awarding on appeal. There is no telling how many more appeals lie in store for this controversy. Mercifully, this case will eventually come to an end. See and compare, Pines, Inc. v. Bossingham, 131 Idaho 714 at 719, 963 P.2d 397 at 402 (Ct.App.1998).
In a shameful display of legal chutzpa,5 Wyman counterclaimed against Roberts for legal secretarial malpractice. Such a tort does not exist — there is no legal duty of care owed in this context that the law of torts would seek to protect. There are no allegations of physical injuries to persons or property, nor is this a special professional relationship such as attorney-client. This case simply arises out of the employer-employee relationship, and the duties are grounded in contract, not tort. Any analysis dealing with apportionment of negligence is, therefore, nugatory in my opinion.6
So, too, I find the analysis dealing with Wyman’s breach of contract counterclaim, i.e., was there a material and substantial breach of the employment contract, unnecessary. As long as an “at-will” legal secretary puts in her hours, she is entitled to her agreed-upon salary. If she7 performs her duties incompetently, the remedy is NOT to withhold earned wages and/or file some sort of breach of contract claim for damages, but simply to FIRE the employee.
In closing, I quote from the learned district judge McKee’s opinion on intermediate appeal:
The employer’s conduct in this case was inexcusable. Few things are more stressful or unfair in life than when the employer refuses to pay an employee for work performed. The ripple of economic consequences to an employee which can result from even one missed paycheck can be insurmountable. The employee should have been paid her wages at the end of her employment at once, in full and without question. The employer brought all of this on by his own intransigence.
If the magistrate, on remand, finds that Wyman stiffed Roberts out of her last paycheck and is thus liable for the statutory penalty, he deserves to be tagged for the full measure of attorney fees generated by this embarrassingly over-tried case. It should have settled on day one (May 4, 1994), the day Roberts demanded her unpaid wages.

. For a definition of CHUTZPA, the reader is directed to Hernandez v. State, 132 Idaho 352 at 358, fa. 13, 972 P.2d 730 at 736, fa. 13 (Ct.App.1998).

. This claim is patently frivolous. Were it otherwise, the opportunity for mischief would be rampant, ranging from, "I cannot tell a lie, your honor, it’s all my legal secretary’s fault,” to “Let's sue the legal secretary!” I'm sure the Idaho Legal Secretary Association can now breathe a collective sigh of relief, even though that worthy organization was not invited to appear as an amicus in this case.

.I do not mean to imply that all legal secretaries are female. I use the female pronoun only as a matter of convenience and in recognition of the plaintiff’s gender in this case.