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Gormley v. Coca-Cola Enterprises12/16/2003
Don Gormley (Plaintiff) appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment on his claims of breach of implied employment contract, constructive discharge, age discrimination, and disability discrimination. We reverse in part and remand on the sole issue of breach of contract for duties and hours.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff was employed by Southwest Coca-Cola (Southwest) at its Hobbs, New Mexico, facility beginning in 1983. For approximately ten years, Plaintiff was a route driver and deliveryman, a job requiring manual labor and lifting. Around 1994, at age fifty-eight, Plaintiff was assigned to a warehouse position, in which he performed lighter duties, including loading and checking in trucks, doing janitorial work, performing cashier duties, making bank deposits, filling out paperwork, going to the post office and bus station, getting gas for the forklifts, stacking shelves, and cleaning the trailers of trucks. He had not complained about the work he had been doing on the truck route.
Plaintiff presented deposition testimony of Robert Bolin, regional manager for Southwest at the time of Plaintiff's assignment to the warehouse. In his testimony about the transfer, Bolin explained that at the time, Plaintiff was healthy and "running the route okay" but management was concerned that Plaintiff might be hurt in the future because of his age and workload. Bolin testified that Plaintiff was to continue with fifty-five hours of work per week after his assignment to the warehouse so that Plaintiff would make the same amount he was making as a route driver. Bolin also testified that he discussed with Plaintiff leaving him "in that position until he was ready to retire." Plaintiff testified that Bolin guaranteed him fifty-five hours of work per week and that Bolin "just wanted to make sure that I want to stay with Coke as long as I could, until I got ready to retire, and he didn't want me to get [hurt by] lifting heavy stuff."
In June 1998, Coca-Cola Enterprises (Defendant) acquired Southwest by merger; Defendant acknowledged in oral argument that all of Southwest's legal obligations were assumed through the merger. For a brief period of time after the merger, Plaintiff continued with his "same [warehouse] duties" and with the "same hours." Around July 1998, however, Plaintiff's new supervisor, Ruben Cardona, reduced Plaintiff's hours by five and made it clear that Plaintiff was no longer guaranteed fifty-five hours of work per week. Plaintiff did not protest this decision. Defendant subsequently further decreased Plaintiff's hours and changed certain of his job duties. Plaintiff submitted a letter of resignation to Defendant on August 21, 1999, to be effective September 17, 1999. Plaintiff never received written reprimands or discipline concerning his job performance from Southwest or from Defendant.
In May 2000, Plaintiff filed his initial complaint against Defendant, setting forth his contract and constructive discharge claims and alleging that Defendant's conduct violated public policy against age discrimination, as articulated in the New Mexico Human Rights Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 28-1-1 to -15 (1969, as amended through 2003) (Act). Plaintiff did not file a grievance with the Human Rights Commission, as provided for under the Act. See § 28-1-10. In his complaint, Plaintiff sought reinstatement and damages. On March 9, 2001, Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment on all of Plaintiff's claims. Six days later, Plaintiff filed a motion to amend his complaint to add a count for discrimination, based on perceived disability and failure to continue to reasonably accommodate. The district court granted partial summary judgment on the claims of
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