Falczynski v. Amoco Oil Co.

533 N.W.2d 226, 4 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 777, 1995 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 116, 71 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1029, 1995 WL 327130
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMay 24, 1995
Docket93-1575
StatusPublished
Cited by61 cases

This text of 533 N.W.2d 226 (Falczynski v. Amoco Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Falczynski v. Amoco Oil Co., 533 N.W.2d 226, 4 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 777, 1995 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 116, 71 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1029, 1995 WL 327130 (iowa 1995).

Opinion

McGIVERIN, Chief Justice.

Danuta Falczynski brought this action against her former employer, Amoco Oil Company, claiming national origin discrimination, disability discrimination, and breach of contract of employment.

In a bench trial, the district court tried the ease as a law action and rejected each of plaintiff Falczynski’s claims. We affirm the district court’s judgment regarding the national origin discrimination claims and the implied contract of employment claim because we find no error in those rulings. However, we reverse and remand the district court’s judgment regarding the disability discrimination claim because in making its determination the district court failed to follow the correct legal analysis.

I. Background facts and proceedings. Plaintiff, Danuta Falczynski, immigrated to the United States from her native Poland in 1984.

In June 1988 the defendant, Amoco Oil Company (Amoco), hired Falczynski as a non-exempt or hourly employee to work in the general ledger section of its accounting department as an accounting clerk. She worked in this capacity for Amoco for almost two years and received two “satisfactory” performance evaluations.

In spite of these ratings, Falczynski’s skill level was not what Amoco expected, and she had difficulty getting her work completed in a timely fashion. Recognizing this, some of Amoco’s supervisors decided she could do better at repetitive work, and, accordingly, on April 30, 1990 transferred her to the capital investment section of Amoeo’s accounting department to perform computer data entry work. In doing so, Amoco made an exception in order to allow the plaintiff to remain at her then current pay and benefit level.

Feeling she was qualified to perform accounting work, Falczynski was not happy with the transfer. She was also unhappy with her new supervisor, Helen Rode. She described Rode as a tough and demanding supervisor who was mean to her and other minorities. At one time in 1990, Falczynski and another Amoco employee of Laotian background went to the human resources department and lodged a complaint against *229 Rode. Although neither employee reported instances of Rode making overt references to their national origin nor examples of Rode’s specific behavior, they stated that they felt that they were treated differently than other nonforeign-born Amoco employees.

Besides plaintiffs alleged problems with her immediate supervisor Rode, she also had problems with her health. In 1989, she began experiencing problems with her lungs. Between March 1989 and December 1989, while plaintiff was still working in Amoco’s general ledger section as an accounting clerk, she had approximately ten medical appointments. Her family physician, Dr. Kelly Bast, initially diagnosed her illness as bronchitis and allergies, but he was unable to prescribe a treatment that could alleviate her symptoms. The plaintiff also visited Amoco’s company nurse, Jennifer Borst, several times and complained of shortness of breath, pleu-ritic chest pain, heart pain, and chest burning.

Suffering from these symptoms and seeking an effective treatment, the plaintiff often missed work to stay home or attend medical appointments. Between January 1990 and October 1990, the plaintiff was absent from work for varying periods of time on the following dates:

—April 11 —May 1 —May 17 —June 14 —July 18 —September 5-7 —October 2 —January 17-24 —April 26 —May 3-4 —May 24 —June 24-26 —August 16 —September 13-24

Throughout Falezynski’s employment with Amoco, Amoco had in force an attendance policy that applied to all non-exempt Amoco employees such as Falczynski. The policy was premised on the concept of an “occasion,” which was defined as an absence from work for a period of time greater than sixty minutes. If an employee was absent for a consecutive period of time due to a specific illness, however, the entire consecutive period was counted as one “occasion.” The policy provided that employees could make up absences in the same week as they occurred to avoid having them counted as an “occasion.”

Under this attendance policy, an employee who accrued four or five “occasions” of absence during a twelve-month period was subject to informal counseling and an employee who accrued seven “occasions” of absence during that same time period was subject to a formal warning letter. Once an employee accrued eight “occasions” of absences during a twelve-month period, the employee was subject to termination.

Throughout 1990, Falezynski’s immediate supervisor, Rode, both informally and formally counseled Falczynski regarding these attendance requirements and the fact that Falezynski’s attendance problem threatened her continued employment with Amoco. Rode encouraged Falczynski to make up some of the missed time on evenings or weekends in order to avoid violating Amoco’s attendance policy.

On August 10, 1990, when Falczynski had accrued ten “occasions” of absence, Rode and one of Amoco’s human resources representatives, Mark Giorgini, met with Falczynski and again reviewed the attendance policy with her. Giorgini and Rode warned the plaintiff that she could be terminated if her attendance problem persisted. Also, on August 15, 1990, Giorgini discussed with Falc-zynski the possibility of taking paid sick and disability leave or unpaid medical leave.

On September 10, 1990, at which time Falczynski had twelve “occasions” of absence, she received and signed a written warning letter from Rode. Through the letter, Rode informed Falczynski that time away from work would have to be made up in order to avoid further “occasions” of absence. The letter further advised her that failure to follow the letter’s instructions could be grounds for immediate termination.

After Falczynski received the warning letter, she accrued two more “occasions” of absence, making a total of fourteen for the year. Amoco then terminated Falczynski on October 16, 1990. Amoco’s stated reason for the termination was Falczynski’s violation of its attendance policy.

Later in October 1990, Falczynski’s illness was diagnosed as an atypical form of asthma.

*230 Following her termination, Falczynski brought three types of claims against Amoco: (1) claims of national origin discrimination under the Iowa civil rights statute, Iowa Code chapter 601A (1989), 1 and under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. sections 2000e — 2000e-17 (1988); (2) a claim of disability discrimination under Iowa Code chapter 601A; and (3) a claim of breach of contract of employment based on Iowa case law.

These law action claims were tried to the court without a jury. The trial court dismissed all of the claims, generally concluding that Amoco terminated Falczynski’s employment because of her excessive absenteeism in violation of its policy rather than because of her national origin or any disability, and that Amoco’s policies were not sufficiently definite in their terms to create an offer of continued employment.

Plaintiff appealed and assigns error concerning the trial court’s findings and conclusions as to each of her claims.

II.

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Bluebook (online)
533 N.W.2d 226, 4 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 777, 1995 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 116, 71 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1029, 1995 WL 327130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/falczynski-v-amoco-oil-co-iowa-1995.