Conley v. Georgia Pacific

755 So. 2d 336, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 3714, 1999 WL 1267789
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 30, 1999
DocketNo. 32,385-WCA
StatusPublished

This text of 755 So. 2d 336 (Conley v. Georgia Pacific) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conley v. Georgia Pacific, 755 So. 2d 336, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 3714, 1999 WL 1267789 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinions

hDREW, Judge.

Scott Conley appeals a judgment sustaining a peremptory exception of prescription dismissing his workers’ compensation claim. Concluding that prescription did not commence to run until it was manifest that Conley had a compensable claim, we reverse the trial court and remand for further proceedings.

FACTS

Conley began working for Georgia-Pacific in May of 1986. Originally employed in the shipping department, he was transferred to the maintenance department, where he performed utility clean-up work. Conley alleges that he experienced persistent harassment by his supervisor, Bill Bayles. Reporting that Bayles told him to “bid off’ the job, Conley believed that Bayles wanted him to leave the maintenance department and work elsewhere in the Georgia-Pacific facility.

On June 3, 1996, Bayles allegedly grabbed Conley by the arm. Conley described this incident in his deposition:

Q: Okay. So can you tell me specifically what someone at Georgia Pacific did to cause you to be admitted to the hospital on June 3rd, 1996?
A: Bill Bayles — I had — he grabbed me.
Q: Where did he grab you?
A: On my aim.
Q: Which arm?
A: My left aim.
Q: And why did he grab you?
A: I don’t know.
Q: What did he say? Did he say anything to you when he grabbed you?
A: He — he told me — I told him that I wasn’t feeling good because I had— I had already called my wife.
DQ: How were you not feeling good? What was wrong?
A: I started — nervousness and I was shaking and blanking and just getting mad, real angry. I was — and I was saying I don’t think I’m going to be able to put up with it no more. And I had told him. He told me — I told him I was going home. He said, “I’m tired of this shit,” you know. “Go in the office,” you know. “And I’m going to get a union steward” or something he said. And he grabbed me like this here and jerked me like that.

Conley believed that Bayles was trying to provoke him to hit Bayles so Conley would be fired.

Conley was admitted to Lakeview Regional Hospital on the afternoon of June 3, 1996. His attending physician, Dr. Aruna Gullapalli, gave an admission diagnosis of “[mjajor depression, recurrent, with psychotic features.” The patient admission form states that the admitting diagnosis was “major depressive disorder, recurrent severe with psychotic features.” During his admission psychiatric evaluation, Conley reported to Dr. Gullapalli that he had increased depression and anxiety over the previous few months concerning his job, and that he could no longer handle the building pressure at work. Conley’s job was the only stressor identified at that time.

Conley was discharged from in-patient hospital treatment on June 12, 1996 and admitted to a “partial hospital program” at Lakeview during which he would receive treatment during the day, but would return to his home at night. The Discharge Treatment Plan lists a diagnosis of “major depression, recurrent -with psychotic features.” Conley was eventually transferred to an outpatient treatment program on June 24, 1996. The admission form for this transfer lists “major depressive disorder, single episode with psychotic features” as the admitting diagnosis.

Conley reported to the staff at Lakeview that he thought about going back to Georgia Pacific and killing Bayles and others he felt had treated him poorly. | ¡¡Conley claimed he heard voices, which sometimes [338]*338told him to carry out his homicidal plans. Conley also mentioned that he experienced visions, including a vision of Bayles and others chasing him on horseback while carrying pitchforks.

Conley was discharged from Dr. Gulla-palli’s care on October 21, 1996. Dr. Gul-lapalli reported in his discharge summary:

I really felt that overall, the patient had not gained much insight into his problems, nor had he made any real progress. His ongoing homicidal ideations were of great concern to me and the treatment team. I discussed other outpatient treatment places with him, but was unable to come up with any other options available in this area.
I discussed the patient’s case with Dr. Ragsdill, who did a psychiatric evaluation on the patient. Since the patient was making no progress at this time, I felt that he should be referred to another treatment facility.

While Dr. Gullapalli did not believe that Conley was in “imminent danger” of harming himself or others, he felt Conley needed “further, intensive one-to-one counseling.” Therefore, Dr. Gullapalli referred Conley to Dr. Debora Murphy. Dr. Gulla-palli’s diagnosis at discharge was “major depression, recurrent, without psychotic features.” Our emphasis.

Dr. Debora Murphy is a psychiatrist in Monroe. She began treating Conley on October 18, 1996. According to her notes from Conley’s November 5, 1996 visit, her initial diagnostic impression was “major depression, single episode, with psychotic features by history.” Dr. Murphy recognized that additional evaluation would be required before she could “completely rule in or rule out psychotic thinking.” Dr. Murphy related what Conley told her during this November visit:

And, so, I asked him specifically what was the event that led to the hospitalization. He said he was going home because he wasn’t feeling good, and the supervisor in Maintenance grabbed him and told him he couldn’t leave. And he replied that he had had a very difficult week, he had been working on railroad tracks for a week, and he didn’t want to stay. He found himself shaking and, quote, blanking out. Apparently, he wasn’t thinking clearly, close quote.
He went home to get a gun. He said he was tired of being sick and tired, felt like nobody cared, and he thought he probably would use the gun. When I asked him who he was going to use it on, |4he was talking about using it not only on himself, but also on people at the job.
On January 27, 1997, Dr. Murphy identified Conley as having paranoid delusions and thought he was truly psychotic. Her diagnosis of Conley’s condition was schizo-phreniform disorder paranoid type.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Conley filed a Disputed Claim for Compensation-1008 form on June 26, 1997. Conley alleged that he suffered mental injury as a result of job stress and harassment by his supervisor at Georgia-Pacific. Georgia-Pacific filed the peremptory exception of prescription on July 27,1998. A hearing on the exception of prescription was held on November 2, 1998. By judgment rendered in open court, the WCJ granted the exception of prescription and dismissed Conley’s claim.

DISCUSSION

Conley’s claim is subject to a prescriptive period of one year. La. R.S. 23:1209. Conley argues that prescription did not commence on his claim until he received the diagnosis from Dr. Murphy. We. agree.

As discussed in Stevens v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 27,977 (La.App.2d Cir.11/1/95), 663 So.2d 543, 548:

[T]he year only begins to run from “the point at which it is manifest that the employee has a

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Bluebook (online)
755 So. 2d 336, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 3714, 1999 WL 1267789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conley-v-georgia-pacific-lactapp-1999.