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Aken v. Plains Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative6/4/2002
In this punitive damages case, we are asked to assess jury awards in favor of Jim Aken and against Plains Electric on Aken's claims for retaliatory discharge and defamation. We conduct an analysis on procedural and substantive levels and affirm the jury awards.
FACTS
On July 28, 1993, Aken had worked for Plains for nine years. He had been selected employee of the month and employee of the year. The evidence was consistent that he was respected and trusted and had a reputation for honesty and integrity. Aken was somewhat unique at Plains in that he tended to stand up to management, particularly on issues of plant safety and sexual harassment in the workplace. When he complained about plant safety, he was told by management that this was "not conducive to long-term employment." When he went to Joanna Simpson, the plant human relations manager, about a female plant employee who had been the victim of sexual harassment, Simpson stated she did not want to hear from him about it.
Aken paid for his stalwartness. He was given an unsatisfactory attendance mark when he took time off to recover from pneumonia and because of the deaths of his mother and uncle. Despite his competence and leadership qualities, he was consistently denied promotions. In 1992, he had volunteered for service on the plant Policy Review Team, and fellow members of the team stated to management in writing that Aken had been "harassed, humiliated, intimidated and retaliated against" in an effort by management to "coerc . . . employees into silence."
During the day of July 28, some unknown person or persons at the plant hid a welding machine from Aken three different times, apparently engaging in "horseplay" typical at the plant. Aken eventually hid the welding machine in a cardboard box in a place where he could have a plant electrician do some work on it the next morning. On July 29, Aken went with the electrician to the place he had put the welder only to discover it was not there. It had been taken by management and hidden in a tool room. Craig Chapman, Aken's immediate supervisor, escorted Aken to a meeting with plant manager Oren Key, supervisor James McCollam, and Simpson, where Aken was to be accused of (and later terminated for) stealing the welder. Chapman knew then that the welder had been placed in the tool room. There was no basis for concluding that Aken had stolen or had attempted to steal a welder; a rational reading of the record strongly suggests that management, who, according to testimony, operated more like a "gang" enforcing closed-mouthedness and mindless toeing of the line on the part of employees, was waiting for an opportunity to terminate Aken, however unfairly.
At the meeting, upon being accused of theft, Aken suffered a stroke. Later, when his wife called Plains asking for an explanation of what had happened, she overheard Key tell Chapman, to whom Aken's wife was talking, that Key would not talk to her and that if Chapman knew "what was good for him, he would keep his mouth shut, too." Simpson and Superintendent of Operations Don Russell also refused to provide Aken's wife with any explanation.
There is nothing in the record which suggests that the source of information that Aken had been fired for stealing a welder, which was disseminated to plant workers in general, was anyone other than members of management. The jury was instructed that Plains itself was susceptible to a punitive damages award if it "authorized, participated in, or ratified" the illegal acts of its managers or other employees. There was credible evidence that at the hospital Chapman told Aken's fellow worker, Twig Hollar, that Aken had stolen a machine. Cha
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