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Reust v. Alaska Petroleum Contractors10/28/2005
No. 5951
Before: Bryner, Chief Justice, Matthews, Eastaugh, Fabe, and Carpeneti, Justices.
BRYNER, Chief Justice, with whom CARPENETI, Justice, joins, dissenting in part.
I. INTRODUCTION
A jury awarded Dan Reust compensatory and punitive damages after finding that Alaska Petroleum Contractors (APC) wrongfully terminated him in retaliation for testifying in previous litigation between APC and another former APC employee. APC and Reust both appeal.
As to the jury instructions to which APC preserved its objections, we discern no reversible error. We also hold that witness retaliation is against the public policy of this state, that APC failed to preserve its arguments against the emotional distress award, and that sufficient evidence supported an award of punitive damages. But because no reasonable jury could have found that the likely duration of Reust's employment would exceed three years, we remand for reduction of the lost wages awards. We reject Reust's challenges to the constitutionality of the statutes capping punitive damages awards and allocating half of such awards to the state and hold that the superior court did not err in allowing the State of Alaska to intervene, or in the timing of entry of judgment. But because the court applied the wrong punitive damages cap, we also remand for application of the correct cap.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Dan Reust sued Alaska Petroleum Contractors for wrongful termination, claiming his discharge violated the public policy of protecting witnesses. APC contends on appeal that Reust was never actually hired. We view the evidence in the light most favorable to Reust as the party who prevailed at trial.
In April 1998 APC invited Dan Reust to interview for a project manager position. It had intermittently employed Reust in the past. Reust testified at trial that at the conclusion of the interview with APC manager Todd Pizzuto he was offered the job and was given a "hire packet" to complete. Reust returned the completed packet the next day, and Pizzuto asked him to report to the field the following morning. Reust testified that he believed he had been hired when he returned the hire packet. Pizzuto, however, testified that he never offered Reust a job, did not hire him (and did not have the authority to do so), and did not give him a hire packet.
The evening before Reust was to report to the field he received a telephone message from Pizzuto that instructed him to instead meet with Pizzuto the next day. Reust testified that at that meeting he was informed that he was, in his words, being "let go" due to his participation in previous litigation between APC and another former employee. Reust had testified adversely to APC in a 1997 deposition in litigation brought by Richard Jantz.
Pizzuto testified that he did not "recall" whether he told Reust that the Jantz lawsuit was the basis for APC's decision. According to the testimony of Michael Bailey, Pizzuto's superior, it was Bailey who made the adverse decision regarding Reust, and Bailey's decision was based on a conversation Bailey had had with Gary Buchanan in which Buchanan (according to Bailey) stated that Reust was "badmouthing" APC. At trial, however, Buchanan denied making this statement and asserted that he did not even know Reust.
The trial jury found for Reust, finding that he had been hired by APC and that it subsequently terminated him unlawfully. The jury awarded Reust damages of $132,200 for past wage loss, $156,800 for future wage loss, and $100,000 for non-economic losses for " motional istress, ental nguish and nxiety." It also found that Reust was ent
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