Schoen v. FREIGHTLINER LLC

199 P.3d 332, 224 Or. App. 613, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1790
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 24, 2008
Docket040302555; A130589
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 199 P.3d 332 (Schoen v. FREIGHTLINER LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schoen v. FREIGHTLINER LLC, 199 P.3d 332, 224 Or. App. 613, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1790 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

*615 ROSENBLUM, J.

A jury found defendant, plaintiffs employer, liable for intentional infliction of severe emotional distress. Defendant appeals, assigning error to the denial of its motion for a directed verdict. Defendant asserts that plaintiff failed to adduce sufficient evidence of outrageous conduct or of intent to inflict severe emotional distress. Defendant also argues that plaintiffs emotional distress was not a reasonable response to its conduct. We conclude that there is sufficient evidence in the record from which the jury could have found the facts necessary to establish the elements of plaintiffs claim. See York v. Bailey, 159 Or App 341, 349, 976 P2d 1181, rev den, 329 Or 287 (1999) (stating standard of review for denial of a motion for directed verdict). We therefore affirm.

In reviewing the denial of defendant’s motion for directed verdict, we state the facts, including all reasonable inferences, in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the non-moving party. Id. Defendant is a manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks. Defendant, which is self-insured for workers’ compensation purposes, has a policy of trying to put employees with work-related injuries to work in a light-duty capacity until they become medically stationary, rather than placing them on disability leave. Employees on light-duty work receive the same wages and benefits that they earn doing regular work. Defendant has a policy preference for giving injured employees light-duty work on the production floor, but, if no work is available within a particular employee’s medical restrictions, then the employee is assigned to the nurse’s station at the manufacturing plant. The nurse’s station is operated by Rosemary Rasmussen, an occupational health nurse employed by defendant. Defendant encourages managers and supervisors to notify the nurse’s station when they have light-duty tasks available on the production floor so that injured employees in the nurse’s station can be assigned to do that work.

When an injured employee becomes medically stationary, defendant determines whether a regular job is available within the medical restrictions, if any, that the employee still has. If no suitable jobs are available at that point, then *616 the employee receives workers’ compensation disability benefits and does not continue to work at the plant, even in a light-duty capacity.

Plaintiff began working full time for defendant in 1988 in various aspects of truck production. In 2002, she began to experience repetitive-motion shoulder pain in her right shoulder, which led to her filing a workers’ compensation claim and ultimately having surgery in July 2003. Plaintiff did not work for three months after the surgery. The injury did not heal as quickly as plaintiff had hoped, which caused her distress. Plaintiff had other stressors in her personal life and was taking antidepressant medication. Defendant was not aware of plaintiffs medication or the problems in her personal life.

Plaintiff was released to return to work in a light-duty capacity on October 6, 2003. By doctor’s order, the work that she could perform was very restricted; she was ordered not to lift more than one pound and to do no pushing, pulling, or overhead work. Before plaintiff returned, a clerical worker in the nurse’s station, Jennifer Marple, sent an e-mail to plaintiffs supervisor, Mike Calkins, telling him that, when plaintiff returned, he should not assign her any work: “When [plaintiff] comes back to work[,] under no circumstance, should she cry, whine, beg, plead with you to find her something to do that’s meaningful, productive, any kind of job, tell her you have nothing for her. You have no work for her to do.” Plaintiff was instructed to report to the nurse’s station, where she would be assigned light duty jobs until she was medically stationary.

When plaintiff returned, Rasmussen told her to report to, and work for, Marple. Marple, whom plaintiff had never met before, was unpleasant and hostile toward her from the beginning. She told plaintiff that she was her boss and that plaintiff would have to go wherever Marple wanted. Marple called plaintiff “worthless” almost daily, often in front of other employees. On at least one occasion, she referred to plaintiff as “Ms. Thing.” Rasmussen’s desk was only 10 to 12 feet from Marple’s desk, so she was within earshot when Marple called plaintiff names.

*617 Plaintiff’s first assignment was to clean and organize a filing room, which involved moving 25- to 30-pound filing boxes by herself. After the first day, plaintiff told Marple that it exceeded her medical restrictions. Marple told her to use a rolling cart for any boxes that she didn’t want to carry, but plaintiff still had to lift the boxes onto the cart. After three days, plaintiff complained to her shop steward that she was working beyond her restrictions and that her arm was getting sore. The shop steward talked to Marple about it. She pulled plaintiff off the job, but was angry and complained loudly about the steward’s intervention. Plaintiff spoke with her doctor about the matter, and he faxed even more severe work restrictions to the nurse’s station.

On another occasion, plaintiff was assigned to a light-duty assembly job putting plastic washers on bolts, but the particular washers she was assigned to put on were very tight and required her to push very hard with her thumbs, which led to soreness in her shoulder. Other assembly work was available that did not require that kind of exertion. Plaintiff did not complain about the soreness to anyone, and she had assembled more than 2,000 bolts and washers before she was allowed to take a break. At that point, she could not move her shoulder any more.

Plaintiff was assigned to sell snacks to other employees on the production floor to raise money for a charity, 1 something that was not routinely assigned to other people. Plaintiff was assigned that job at least two or three times a week, and sometimes every day of the week. Plaintiff’s coworkers made insulting and malicious remarks to plaintiff when she performed the job, such as, “get a job,” “lazy bitch,” and “worthless.” It was apparent to other employees that plaintiff was not happy with the assignment. Plaintiff told Marple what was going on and that it was humiliating, but Marple only responded by telling her, “get hustling and get it done.” Once, she suggested that plaintiff wear a low-cut shirt the next day so she would increase her sales.

*618 Marple also ordered plaintiff to circulate a “football pool” and to collect bets on the pool, despite plaintiffs protests that it was illegal. Marple ordered plaintiff to place the first bet to get the pool started. Plaintiff complained to Rasmussen about the pool being illegal, but Rasmussen simply told her to avoid defendant’s human resources manager, Trudy Houghton, so that she would not get into trouble.

Marple and Rasmussen essentially used plaintiff as a personal servant, ordering her to get snacks, sodas, and lunches for them, including going off the premises to get lunches on two occasions, which violated company rules. They never reimbursed plaintiff or even thanked her for buying their food.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
199 P.3d 332, 224 Or. App. 613, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 1790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schoen-v-freightliner-llc-orctapp-2008.