Ala. State Pers. Bd. v. Hancock

151 So.3d 1092

ALABAMA STATE PERSONNEL BOARD

v.Cheryl HANCOCK

Cheryl Hancock

v.Alabama State Personnel Board.

2120091.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

Dec. 20, 2013.

Rehearing Denied April 11, 2014.

Alice Ann Byrne and Tara S. Knee, asst. attys. gen., Alabama State Personnel Department, Montgomery, for appellant/cross-appellee Alabama State Personnel Board.

Norbert H. Williams, Alabama State Employees Association, Montgomery, for appellee/cross-appellant Cheryl Hancock.

Opinion

MOORE, Judge.

This appeal arises from a judgment of the Montgomery Circuit Court (“the trial court”) reversing the decision of the Alabama State Personnel Board (“the Personnel Board”), which had affirmed the termination of the employment of Cheryl Hancock, an employee of the Coffee County Department of Human Resources (“the Coffee County DHR”). Hancock has filed a conditional cross-appeal.

Procedural Background

Brandon Hardin, the director of the Coffee County DHR, initially reprimanded Hancock in writing on October 11, 2007, for alleged insubordination. Hancock responded by sending a rebuttal letter to Hardin on October 18, 2007; that letter contained some remarks to which Hardin took offense. On October 22, 2007, Hancock made certain statements to representatives of a child-advocacy center that Hardin considered to reflect negatively on the Coffee County DHR's administration. Based on those remarks and statements, Hardin issued to Hancock a letter dated November 9, 2007, charging Hancock with disruptive conduct and insubordination. Hancock initially requested a hearing on the charges, but subsequently, on the advice of counsel, she agreed to waive her hearing rights and to accept a 14–day suspension effective January 9, 2008.

On February 5, 2008, Hardin issued a letter to Hancock charging her with improperly disclosing confidential files and information of the Coffee County DHR to a third party, insubordination for having accused Hardin of conspiring to terminate Hancock's employment, and making unauthorized personal telephone calls during work hours so as to be inattentive to her job. On April 10, 2008, Hardin issued another letter to Hancock charging her with abusing her sick-leave and compensatory-time privileges and using work and compensatory time to make excessive personal telephone calls. On August 7, 2008, Hardin issued a third letter to Hancock charging her with using abusive or threatening language, disruptive conduct, and insubordination for informing two coworkers that she could cause the termination of their employment. Hancock began serving a mandatory leave on August 12, 2008. Finally, on August 13, 2008, Hardin issued a fourth letter to Hancock charging her with having used further abusive or threatening language toward a coworker, disruptive conduct, and insubordination.

An independent hearing officer conducted disciplinary hearings regarding the aforementioned charges on April 30, September 29, and October 7, 2008. The hearing officer determined that the Coffee County DHR had presented sufficient evidence to warrant the termination of Hancock's employment. Hardin issued a letter to Hancock, dated December 3, 2008, notifying her that her employment had been terminated based on the findings and recommendation of the hearing officer.

Hancock appealed to the Personnel Board on December 12, 2008. The Personnel Board appointed an administrative law judge to hear the appeal. The administrative law judge (“the ALJ”) conducted evidentiary hearings over four days in June and July 2009, during which 21 witnesses testified and the parties submitted thousands of pages of exhibits. On October 19, 2010, the ALJ issued a 41–page recommendation to the Personnel Board. The ALJ found that the evidence did not sustain the charges of disclosing confidential files and information, of making unauthorized personal telephone calls, and of being inattentive to the job, but that sufficient evidence did prove that Hancock had committed acts of insubordination and disruptive conduct so as to justify her dismissal. The ALJ also concluded that, although it appeared that Hancock had abused her sick-leave and compensatory-time privileges, it was unnecessary to decide that charge given the findings relating to her insubordination and disruptive conduct. The Personnel Board adopted the recommendation of the ALJ and issued its final order upholding Hancock's dismissal on November 17, 2010.

On December 17, 2010, Hancock notified the Personnel Board that she would appeal its order. See Ala.Code 1975, § 41–22–20(b) & (d). On January 18, 2011, Hancock sought judicial review of the actions of the Personnel Board by filing a complaint with the trial court.¹ See § 41–22–20(d). On July 27, 2011, the trial court entered a judgment reversing the Personnel Board's decision and remanding the case to the Personnel Board with instructions to reinstate Hancock to her employment. The Personnel Board appealed to this court; this court reversed the trial court's judgment and remanded the case for the trial court to enter a judgment stating its reasons for reversing the Personnel Board's decision. See Alabama State Pers. Bd. v. Hancock, 93 So.3d 143 (Ala.Civ.App.2012). The trial court entered a revised judgment on October 16, 2012, in accordance with this court's mandate. The Personnel Board appealed from that judgment on October 26, 2012; however, because Hancock filed a postjudgment motion with the trial court on November 15, 2012, the appeal was held in abeyance pending a ruling on that motion. See Parker v. Parker, 946 So.2d 480, 485 (Ala.Civ.App.2006) (holding that a notice of appeal is held in abeyance pending the resolution of a timely filed postjudgment motion filed after the notice of appeal was filed). The trial court denied the postjudgment motion on February 7, 2013; Hancock filed a cross-appeal on March 21, 2013.²

The ALJ's Findings

The ALJ recommended that Hancock be dismissed from her employment solely on the charges of insubordination and disruptive conduct. The ALJ found that, since Hardin had been appointed director of the Coffee County DHR in 2006, Hancock had consistently undertaken “to demean and degrade Hardin in a confrontational manner” and had “attempted to undermine his authority in the office with other employees and those that came in contact with [the Coffee County DHR].” The first instance of such conduct expressly mentioned by the ALJ occurred in early October 2007. Hardin testified before the ALJ that he had anticipated that he would need to fill the quality assurance (“QA”) position of a retiring employee in October 2007 and that Hancock had begun working with the retiring employee in order to potentially transition from her job as a social worker conducting child-abuse-and-neglect investigations into the QA position. However, at some point in September 2007, Hardin's superiors informed him that the QA position could not be filled. According to Hardin, after he informed Hancock of that development, she came into his office on three different days questioning why he had made that decision and, on one occasion, had stated that she “was going to tell her daddy” on him. Hardin further testified that Hancock had also told him that he needed to stop disciplining one of her coworkers, Dawn Mayberry, and that he was going to be sorry for what he had done to Hancock.

On October 4, 2007, Hancock sent Hardin a letter in which she expressed disappointment with Hardin's leadership, noted that many people in the community did not believe that the Coffee County DHR was performing its functions adequately, questioned why Hardin was mistreating her and rewarding another employee she considered to be substandard, and informed Hardin that he was harming her emotional and physical health by making her job unduly stressful. Hardin responded in writing on October 11, 2007, by officially reprimanding Hancock for what he characterized as her unprofessional tone and comments about him and her coworker, her unauthorized critique of his staffing decisions, her disruptive and factually unsupported accusations that the community looked negatively upon the Coffee County DHR, and her breach of confidentiality regarding personnel matters. Hardin ordered Hancock to report to him the factual basis of any complaints she had received about the Coffee County DHR and to submit to the Employee Assistance Program in order to improve her conduct and to obtain assistance with any emotional or physical health problems she was experiencing.

On October 18, 2007, Hancock sent Hardin a rebuttal letter in which she stated that Hardin had “badgered” her into agreeing to take the QA position only to wrongfully give it to another less-experienced employee, that she had not made any unprofessional comments when inquiring as to the reason for that decision, that Hardin was being unrealistic in asking her not to field complaints from the community, that she had not discussed personnel matters with anyone but Hardin, and that she had been reprimanded without foundation. In that letter, Hancock, “[w]ithout meaning any disrespect whatsoever to [Hardin] regarding his age or experience,” noted that Hardin had been less than nine years old when she had begun working for the Coffee County DHR. The ALJ found that the content of Hancock's letters demonstrated Hancock's unwillingness to submit to Hardin's authority and her disregard for Hardin's leadership and implied a discriminatory attitude toward Hardin based on his age and experience. The ALJ further found that Hancock's remarks were disruptive, disrespectful, and insubordinate.

On October 22, 2007, an employee of the Pike County Child Advocacy Center asked Hancock whether the Coffee County DHR would open a new case. Hancock testified that she had simply informed the employee that she was unsure whether a new file could be opened because of the new rules that had been implemented by the Coffee County DHR that made it more difficult to open cases. Hardin...