Southern Glass & Plastics Co. v. Duke12/12/2005
Opinion
Heard October 11, 2005
AFFIRMED IN PART and REVERSED IN PART
Southern Glass & Plastics Co. instituted an action against Angela Duke, one if its former employees, seeking to recover money it alleges she distributed without authorization. Angela denied the allegations and asserted numerous counterclaims. The trial court granted summary judgment for Southern Glass on Angela's defenses of waiver and estoppel, and on her counterclaims for outrage, abuse of process, and wrongful termination. The trial court also granted partial summary judgment on Angela's counterclaim for defamation. Angela appeals from this order, and we affirm in part and reverse in part.
FACTS
Angela worked as the administrative office manager for Southern Glass from May 1992 until her termination in October 2001. For the majority of the time Angela worked there, Alan and Joanne Epley each had a fifty percent ownership interest in the company. Joanne was Angela's immediate supervisor.
At some point, the Epleys' relationship soured, and from 2000 to 2001, they were involved in both a divorce action and a shareholder derivative action. While the couple's divorce was pending, an order was issued in the derivative action which required Alan and Joanne to discuss and come to an agreement on issues such as hiring, firing, promoting, demoting, changing compensation, and awarding benefits. Several months after the order was issued, Joanne sent a copy of it to Angela with a cover memo explaining that "there are to be no changes in compensation of any managerial level employees without agreement between Alan Epley and Joanne Epley . . . ." After receiving the memo, Angela conferred with a human resource consultant who told her the order applied to the actions of Joanne and Alan, but not to her own actions.
In June of 2001, Angela e-mailed Joanne to ask about the status of her bonus, which Angela had received every year since 1996. Joanne replied via e-mail, explaining Southern Glass had not performed as well as expected, and therefore, Angela would not be receiving a bonus this year. Six weeks later, however, Joanne e-mailed Angela announcing that Southern Plastics was now showing a profit. Because the company's numbers had improved, Joanne directed Angela to include a $4,500 bonus for herself and a $6,500 bonus for another employee (who happened to be Joanne's sister) on the payroll transmission for August 13, 2001. Angela did so, and Joanne signed the checks.
After the checks had been prepared, but one day prior to their disbursement, Alan told Angela to disobey any instructions Joanne had given her regarding checks. According to Angela, this directive was issued by Alan because two insurance checks had been voided and re-cut, and he wanted information on the two additional checks. Alan, however, claims that he specifically asked Angela about the bonus payments, and she told him she knew nothing about them.
In the early fall of 2001, the Epleys settled their divorce action. In the settlement, Joanne agreed to sell Alan her interest in Southern Glass. On October 4, 2001, Joanne, Alan, and Southern Glass executed a release in which all parties agreed to "forever discharge each other, together with any and all of their . . . employees . . . who are or may be responsible for or jointly or severally liable for the same, from any and all liabilities, causes of action, claims . . . that they have asserted or could have asserted in [the divorce proceeding or shareholder derivative suit]." The release further explains that its intent is to "fully and finally release all other parties from any and all claims, past, present, o
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