Fought v. Stuart C. Irby Co.

523 So. 2d 314, 1988 WL 30452
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 6, 1988
Docket57620
StatusPublished
Cited by143 cases

This text of 523 So. 2d 314 (Fought v. Stuart C. Irby Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fought v. Stuart C. Irby Co., 523 So. 2d 314, 1988 WL 30452 (Mich. 1988).

Opinion

523 So.2d 314 (1988)

Elza FOUGHT
v.
STUART C. IRBY COMPANY, and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

No. 57620.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 6, 1988.

*315 George F. Hollowell, Jr., William Noel Harris, Greenville, for appellant.

Dan McCullen, Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, Jackson, for appellees.

Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and ROBERTSON and ZUCCARO, JJ.

ROBERTSON, Justice, for the Court:

I.

This is another of those troublesome cases in which an employee argues that her admitted mental or psychological disability is sufficiently job connected that she is entitled to workers' compensation. The Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission found that claimant had failed to establish the requisite connection between her employment and her injury, rather, that her disability was attributable to a pre-existing personality disorder. Consistent therewith, the Commission denied benefits. By virtue of the familiar substantial evidence rule limiting our scope of appellate review, we affirm.

II.

A.

Elza Fought (Fought) was born on October 8, 1933. When she resigned from her position at Stuart C. Irby Company (Irby or employer) on May 12, 1981, she was 47 years old. Fought has a high school education and some business school training. She had been employed in clerical/secretarial positions, off and on, since she was 14 years old.

In July, 1974, Fought was hired by Irby to perform office/clerical duties in its Vicksburg store. Her supervisor, and the manager of the Vicksburg store, at that time was Guy Hegwood. Before long, Fought began developing the sale of residential lighting fixtures into a more profitable department. On June 1, 1975, Fought began receiving a three percent commission in addition to her salary. That commission was reduced to 1.5 percent of total sales, effective March 1, 1978. This decrease was not a penalty, but rather, was designed to bring Fought's compensation in line with that of other sales people. From June, 1975, through March, 1978, Fought received several letters of praise from Winston Graves (Graves), who was at that time Irby's Vice-President and General Manager.

In January, 1979, Hugh Fonville, who had been Assistant Manager, became Manager of the Vicksburg store. In May, 1981, he moved up in the company and Michael Vail (Vail) moved in as the Vicksburg Manager. Fought complains that, approximately six weeks after Vail arrived, he called her into his office and told her "he was not satisfied with [her] lack of initiative, that [her] absences were a real problem." Vail's records reflect that between January, 1979, and June, 1980, Fought had taken twenty (20) sick days. Fought testified about her reaction to this criticism:

... my feelings were shock, disbelief, I got dizzy, I got lightheaded. I held onto the facing of the door until I could get to the bathroom, which was just three or four steps across the hall. I let the top down on the commode and I sat there for fifteen or twenty minutes trying to get up ... I stayed there a total of thirty to forty-five minutes before I could regain my composure enough to get up.

No one else testified that they knew about or observed this occurrence. Vail testified that he did not notice if Fought got upset as a result of this meeting and added that "it was not unusual for Elza to spend quite a bit of time in the bathroom."

Fought and Vail continued to have periodic meetings, and Vail gave her lists of long and short-range objectives she was to accomplish, which were in addition to existing responsibilities. According to Fought, these new responsibilities included assembling and hanging a certain number of fixtures per week, seeing that damaged fixtures were repaired or replaced, and, devising a plan for bringing up sales or reducing inventory. From time to time, other responsibilities were added.

Fought routinely informed Vail that she did not have time to accomplish these goals. Her position is and was that Vail *316 was attempting to intimidate her and held these periodic meetings for purpose of harassment and in an attempt to force her to resign. In September of 1980, on the day that yearly inventory was to begin, Fought did in fact resign. However, she returned to work the next day and told Vail that she was sure he would have gotten it in writing if she had in fact resigned.

At a meeting on April 20, 1981, in Vicksburg, Graves and Vail discussed Fought's concerns and at that time put her on probation and gave her a final list of objectives to be accomplished by June 1, 1981. In Graves' opinion, the tasks were routine. Fought resigned on May 12, 1981, and later indicated that she did so because of stress created by "unrealistic assignments, unjust pressure, and job harassment by Mike Vail."

B.

The Claimant/Appellant, Elza Fought, filed her motion to controvert on March 8, 1982. On August 5, 1985, at the conclusion of numerous hearings, the Administrative Judge signed an order dismissing with prejudice Fought's permanent psychiatric disability claim.

The Administrative Law Judge made the following relevant findings:

(1) The date of the alleged injury would be May 12, 1981, the date claimant resigned;
(2) Claimant's mental or psychological well-being began to be adversely affected after the arrival of the new manager, Michael Vail, in the spring of 1980;
(3) Vail's new management policies and/or theory of management caused, to some limited degree, the claimant to develop a serious mental problem because the claimant viewed the changed policies and Vail's criticism of her performance and judgment to be unfair and unreasonable. But numerous other non-work-related factors throughout claimant's life substantially contributed to claimant's mental problems, such that were her injury compensable, apportionment would be mandated;
(4) The medical testimony of psychiatrist, Dr. Gray Hilsman, is accepted for certain limited purposes including the opinion that claimant's employment contributed to her mental condition, described as severe, dystemic mood disorder, including severe depression, and his opinion that she remained temporarily and totally disabled; and,
(5) Clear and convincing evidence establishes that the employer's actions, "although possibly unfair and even unreasonable, both in fact and/or from the claimant's view point, were routine, normal, common, and usual in the context of the American workplace" and "claimant's current mental condition was not caused by any specific incident, accident or traumatic episode or experience between the late spring, 1980, and May, 1981, but was caused to some degree by a continuous management policy which adversely affected the claimant."

On March 14, 1986, the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission affirmed the Administrative Judge's disposition of the case but modified his findings of fact in certain important respects. First, the Commission dismissed the Administrative Judge's finding that the new management policies to some extent caused the claimant's mental condition. The Commission, instead, determined that the claimant had failed to establish, by clear and convincing evidence, the requisite work connection between her employment and her disability. The Commission relied on the following evidence:

(1) The testimony of Dr. Naef and Dr. Mitchell clearly establishing that claimant's mental disability was attributable to a pre-existing personality disorder;
(2) Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
523 So. 2d 314, 1988 WL 30452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fought-v-stuart-c-irby-co-miss-1988.