K-Smith Truck Lines, Inc. v. Coffman

770 S.W.2d 393, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 497, 1989 WL 34543
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 11, 1989
DocketNo. 54171
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 770 S.W.2d 393 (K-Smith Truck Lines, Inc. v. Coffman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
K-Smith Truck Lines, Inc. v. Coffman, 770 S.W.2d 393, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 497, 1989 WL 34543 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

KAROHL, Judge.

Defendants, employee and wife, appeal judgments on three counts in favor of employer. The trial court awarded plaintiff a judgment on Count III [an action for conversion of checks payable to plaintiff] for actual damages with interest and punitive damages; on Count V [an action for recovery of money advanced to defendant employee, but not credited or repaid] for actual damages and interest; and, on Count VI [an action for recovery of overpayment of wages paid defendant employee] for actual damages in the amount of overpayment of wages. Defendant employee contends plaintiff failed to make a submissible case on all counts. Defendant employee and his wife contend Counts V and VI were barred by a five year statute of limitations because they were added to the lawsuit in an amended petition as new claims where the original four counts were timely but the additional counts were not timely. Defendants also claim the court erred in allowing some documentary evidence, over a best evidence objection, and, that the award of prejudgment interest was improperly calculated for two reasons. We affirm.

In this court tried case we affirm unless there is no substantial evidence to support the judgment, it is against the weight of the evidence, or erroneously declares or erroneously applies the law. Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976). On the submissibility issue, preserved by defendant employee, “the evidence is to be considered in the light most favorable to plaintiff, plaintiff is to receive the benefit of all inferences reasonably drawn from the evidence, and defendant’s evidence that does not support plaintiff’s case is to be disregarded.” Fahy v. Dresser Industries, Inc., 740 S.W.2d 635, 638 (Mo. banc 1987), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1576, 99 L.Ed.2d 891 (1988).

By following these rules of law the evidence would support findings of the following facts based upon evidence offered by plaintiff. Except for one documentary exhibit offered in plaintiff’s case by defendants, they offered no evidence.

[395]*395For approximately seventeen years defendant Jack Coffman was employed by plaintiff K-Smith Truck Lines, Inc. as a truck driver. During the last five or six years before he was fired on November 27, 1981, he regularly drove plaintiffs truck from St. Louis to Buffalo, New York to deliver United States mail. On return trips from Buffalo to St. Louis, defendant Jack Coffman would either return plaintiff’s truck without a load, or haul a trip lease with cargo in route to St. Louis. If he returned empty he was paid wages of $7.50 an hour for ten hours. If he returned with a shipment it was agreed plaintiff would receive sixty percent of the revenue generated and defendant Jack Coffman would receive forty percent in lieu of wages.

Between March, 1979, and November, 1981, defendant Jack Coffman returned from Buffalo carrying shipments on numerous occasions, only some of which were reported to plaintiff. Coffman would go to Southwest Freight Lines in Buffalo to obtain return shipments, a “load back.” On his next trip to Buffalo he would deliver a copy of the shipping documents for the prior shipment. For each “load back,” Southwest Freight Lines produced and delivered to Coffman three checks, one for plaintiff for sixty percent of the shipping charges, one to Coffman for forty percent of the shipping charges and one for advances for expenses. Plaintiff paid expenses during this period as if Jack Coff-man returned without cargo.

Every other week Coffman submitted by mail a time record which became the basis for salary. By agreement Coffman was not to submit or be paid salary for hours for return trips if he carried a “load back.” Jack Coffman gave the Southwest Freight Lines checks, which were payable to plaintiff, to his wife and informed her of his hours to be recorded on his time cards. She prepared hut he signed the time cards and instructed wife to mail the checks payable to plaintiff and the time cards to plaintiff. After plaintiff discovered it was not informed of all return trips with loads and did not receive checks payable to plaintiff from the freight line for return loads, plaintiff fired defendant Jack Coffman.

Plaintiff K-Smith Truck Lines, Inc., was owned by Kenneth Smith and Wilma Smith, his wife. In November, 1981, they were driving from St. Louis to Kansas City when they observed defendant Jack Coffman driving their truck eastbound towards St. Louis. Smith called Jack Coffman and asked if Coffman “loaded back.” Coffman denied he had a load back and that he had taken a load west of the area where he was seen. In fact, he had delivered a “load back” from Buffalo to a plant near Kansas City. The Smiths investigated and obtained copies of numerous checks payable to plaintiff, delivered to Jack Coffman, but not received by plaintiff. Mrs. Coffman had forged the plaintiffs endorsement on the checks and deposited them in joint accounts she had with her husband in two banks. Subsequently, plaintiff obtained the originals of the checks and copies of trip leases, for which the checks were payment, and delivered them to police authorities in St. Louis County, Missouri. The investigation disclosed that defendant Jack Coffman had loaded back almost every week for approximately two years.

Defendant Patricia Coffman was charged criminally with forging checks payable to plaintiff and depositing them in defendants’ bank accounts located at Lindbergh Bank in Hazelwood, Missouri and Centerre Bank of Florissant. She subsequently entered a plea of guilty and received probation. By deposition she admitted these acts but claimed her husband knew nothing about her activities, which included forging the checks and mailing plaintiff time cards that included hours for return trips even though Jack Coffman had return loads. Because the time cards claimed hours for return trips plaintiff could not have learned from the time cards that defendant employee was returning with loads. Defendant Jack Coffman signed the time records, but denied any knowledge that they contained hours for return trips when he carried cargo. Defendant Jack Coffman testified he first learned of his wife’s activities when he was arrested and charged with forging the checks which he carried from the shipper to his wife with directions to mail to plaintiff. [396]*396There was no direct evidence that defendant Jack Coffman ever forged any of the checks or that he intentionally participated in presenting false time records to plaintiff. He was not prosecuted.

On these facts defendant Jack Coff-man argues the trial court erred in finding a judgment against him on all counts. He not only cites the standard of review in Murphy v. Carron, 586 S.W.2d at 32, but also argues the facts of that case in support of his position that the evidence was insufficient to support judgments against him. In Murphy, the Supreme Court reversed a judgment as to husband because there was no evidence that he participated in a loan from plaintiff to his wife. Similarly, defendant Jack Coffman claims plaintiff “has shown no first hand evidence, or evidence of personal knowledge that appellant Jack Coffman knew of what his wife was doing.” The fallacy in defendant’s argument is that plaintiff is entitled to the benefit of all evidence and reasonable inferences supported by all evidence. See, Fahy v. Dresser Industries, Inc., 740 S.W.2d at 638. Defendant Jack Coffman was seen west of St.

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Bluebook (online)
770 S.W.2d 393, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 497, 1989 WL 34543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/k-smith-truck-lines-inc-v-coffman-moctapp-1989.