Captain v. MISSISSIPPI EMPL. SEC. COM'N

817 So. 2d 634, 2002 WL 1019213
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMay 21, 2002
Docket2001-CC-00885-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 817 So. 2d 634 (Captain v. MISSISSIPPI EMPL. SEC. COM'N) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Captain v. MISSISSIPPI EMPL. SEC. COM'N, 817 So. 2d 634, 2002 WL 1019213 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

817 So.2d 634 (2002)

Joseph W. CAPTAIN, Appellant,
v.
MISSISSIPPI EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION, Appellee.

No. 2001-CC-00885-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

May 21, 2002.

Joseph W. Captain, Pro Se, attorney for Appellant.

*635 Albert B. White, John Wesley Garrett Jr., attorneys for Appellee.

Before SOUTHWICK, P.J., THOMAS, and IRVING, JJ.

SOUTHWICK, P.J., for the court.

¶ 1. Joseph W. Captain appeals an order of the Board of Review of the Mississippi Employment Security Commission. The Board denied him unemployment benefits because it found that he had been terminated from employment for insubordination. Captain argues that the actions giving rise to the charge of insubordination did not occur at work and did not adversely affect the company. We disagree with these allegations and affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. Joseph W. Captain was employed by Brown and Mitchell, Inc. as a resident project representative. Captain was trained as a wastewater process engineer. Brown and Mitchell, Inc. employed Captain from August 12, 1996 until his termination on September 29, 2000. He was without work for a few days and then was rehired. The claims made here are for benefits covering an eleven-day period. It is, Captain argues, the principle of the thing.

¶ 3. Captain was personally acquainted with some of the individuals connected with a Texas murder case. A woman named Darlie Lynn Routier was apparently convicted of killing her two young children and sentenced to death. It appears that Captain wished to prove that Routier had been wrongfully convicted.

¶ 4. Captain forwarded electronic mail messages to some female co-employees that contained correspondence between Captain and other individuals outside the company concerning their theories of the murder. There were also references in these e-mails to a possible plot by Captain's ex-wife to murder him by arsenic poisoning and another murder that he was possibly investigating. It is unclear how many e-mails Captain may have sent or the time period over which the e-mails were sent. Entered into the record were thirty-two pages of electronic mail messages.

¶ 5. Several employees complained to Brown and Mitchell's president, Bill Mitchell, about the "amount of contact that Mr. Captain was having with them." On August 28, 2000, Mitchell received a complaint from a female employee that Captain sent e-mails to her at work and telephoned her at home. This employee also stated that her being called at home caused her husband concern.

¶ 6. Two days later, Mitchell met with Captain and asked him not to discuss the murder case with any Brown and Mitchell employee. Mitchell explained to Captain that his discussion of the murder case distracted other employees and that his calls to female employees at home should stop.

¶ 7. Another meeting between Mitchell and Captain was held September 1. Also present at the meeting were Don Clark, vice-president, and Perry Griffith, senior engineer. Mitchell explained that this meeting was necessary because it had come to his attention that "there were some more communications." At this meeting, Captain was ordered not to contact any employees, especially female employees, either at the office or outside the office unless the reason for the contact was work related. Captain was informed that further such contact would result in his termination.

¶ 8. On September 26, a female employee informed Perry Griffith that she had received another e-mail from Captain. *636 The e-mail was entitled "land mines and office politics." The e-mail requested that this employee meet Captain for lunch so he could inform her as to what and whom she should avoid at work and also to inform her that "I don't see you making it at the company ... the way you are going." The message also discussed office romantic affairs and that failed office affairs could "make going to work unpleasant." Captain told the recipient that "you are a baby to me."

¶ 9. Griffith turned the e-mail over to Mitchell. After reviewing the e-mail, Mitchell found it to be "undermining to our company." Mitchell also determined Captain violated the order given him at the September 1 meeting not to contact female employees at home concerning non-work related matters. Mitchell felt this was cause for termination, despite Captain's record as a "valuable employee." Brown and Mitchell terminated Captain by letter dated September 29. The stated reasons for termination were Captain's "undermining" of the company and insubordination.

¶ 10. Captain filed a claim for unemployment benefits on October 1, 2000. However, on October 10, Brown and Mitchell sent Captain an offer of employment. The contract provided that for two projects Captain would be paid at the rate of $30 per hour and for two other projects he would be paid $25 per hour. Captain's rate of pay at his termination was only $14 per hour.

¶ 11. On October 19, 2000, the claims examiner denied Captain's claim for benefits. Captain appealed that decision and a hearing before a referee was held November 6. The only persons to testify at the hearing were Mitchell, Griffith, and Captain.

¶ 12. Brown and Mitchell's president, Bill Mitchell, stated that he was most concerned with the September 26 e-mail because he believed there were some statements in the e-mail that would make a female employee uncomfortable and because the statements undermined the company. In his closing statement before the referee, Mitchell stated that he was concerned about possible harassment of female employees. Mitchell stated his primary concern was "the need of Mr. Captain or the desire of Mr. Captain to coach other people and to discuss things such as land mines in the office and office politics." Mitchell stated that a secondary concern was that the sending of the e-mail "was directly counter to what I had requested him to do."

¶ 13. Griffith stated that the employee who received the e-mail came to him and stated that she did not know what to do with it. Griffith stated that he came away from the September 1 meeting believing that Captain should not send e-mails to anyone, but that the meeting was focused on Captain not sending e-mails to female employees. Griffith stated that he was "furious" after reading the e-mail. Griffith stated that as a manager he could not have "people going around to new employees and telling them what they should and shouldn't do." Griffith stated that he was also upset that Captain was using the "e-mail system, what we had said shouldn't be used for anything other than business."

¶ 14. Captain pointed out that the email for which he was terminated was sent from his home computer to the personal email address, and not business e-mail address, of the recipient. Captain stated he was uncertain whether the e-mail was received at work or the recipient's home. He did state that the e-mail could be retrieved from any computer with an Internet connection. Captain stated that he only understood that he was prohibited from discussing the murder case and not that he was to have absolutely no contact *637 with female employees outside the office unless it was work related. As for the September 1 meeting, Captain stated that he gave Mitchell and Griffith his word that he would not discuss the murder case with "Brown and Mitchell employees ... at work, off work or any other time."

¶ 15. Captain admitted to sending the September 26 e-mail.

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Bluebook (online)
817 So. 2d 634, 2002 WL 1019213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/captain-v-mississippi-empl-sec-comn-missctapp-2002.