Moore v. Centralized Mgmt. Servs., LLC

324 So.3d 704

Justin H. MOORE

v.CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT SERVICES, LLC and Episode Solutions, LLC

NO. 2021-CA-0021

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

AUGUST 4, 2021

DAVID P. VICKNAIR, HOPE E. HUGHES, SCOTT VICKNAIR, LLC, 909 Poydras Street, Suite 1100, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112 -and- ANDRE F. TOCE, THE TOCE FIRM, APLC, 969 Coolidge Blvd., Lafayette, Louisiana 70503, COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT

JEFFREY E. RICHARDSON, LAUREN T. TAFARO, ADRIENNE C. MAY, ADAMS AND REESE LLP, 701, Poydras Street, Suite 4500, New Orleans, Louisiana 70139, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE

(Court composed of Chief Judge James F. McKay III, Judge Daniel L. Dysart, Judge Paula A. Brown )

JAMES F. MCKAY III, CHIEF JUDGE

Plaintiff, Justin H. Moore (Moore), appeals the trial court's judgment, dismissing Moore's petition for unpaid wages in favor of defendant, Centralized Management Services, LLC and Episode Solutions, LLC (collectively, CMS). For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Moore began working for CMS on August 28, 2017, as a medical device sales representative. The initial offer of employment letter provided on August 2, 2017, did not include any up-front bonuses or guaranteed commissions. In a follow-up email to CMS, Moore expressed his concern regarding the lack of guaranteed commissions. The parties acknowledge that these bonuses are common practice in the medical device sales industry. Ultimately, CMS provided Moore with an amended employment offer letter, which included the following bonus structure:

You will be given a guarantee bonus of a $12,000 to be paid after the 1st 30 days and included in your monthly pay. You will be given a guarantee bonus of $12,000 to be paid after 60 days of employment and will be included in your monthly pay. You will be given a guarantee bonus of $12,000 to be paid after the first 90 days of employment and will be included in your monthly pay. After the fourth month of employment you will be given a $12,000 draw ($8.7K is the base comp and the difference is the draw). It will be reconciled in your quarterly review.

You will be eligible to participate in the company sponsored benefits beginning August 28^th.¹

Moore accepted the conditions of employment and began work on August 28, 2017. Email correspondence between Moore and CMS representatives reflect the following:

• On September 26, 2017, Moore notified Angela Jones (Jones), his supervisor, and Vail Willis (Willis), Chief Operating Officer for CMS, that he was a recovering alcoholic, was in active recovery, had a relapse, and was taking the proper action. Moore noted that he was disclosing this information on the advice of Katie Schram (Schram), Human Resource director for CMS.

• On September 27, 2017, Moore notified Hutton Eadie (Eadie), Director of Compliance and Legal Affairs for CMS, that he had checked into a treatment facility, where he would have no phone access and limited internet access.

• On October 10, 2017, Moore informed Eadie that in September 2017, he took off Thursday and Friday, September 21 and 22, and Monday, September 25 through Friday, September 29. He explained that he worked the entire month of September besides those seven days.

Moore was released from the treatment facility on Friday, October 27, 2017. CMS terminated his employment on November 1, 2017. Moore's request for the guaranteed bonuses set forth in the employment offer letter was denied. Responding to Moore's inquiry regarding his bonuses, Eadie explained to Moore, in a November 6, 2017 letter, that "your work time with the company did not qualify you for a bonus. The Bonus payment was conditioned on you working 30 days for the company. According to our records, you did not work 30 days and therefore are not entitled to the payment."

On February 3, 2020, Moore filed a petition for unpaid wages against CMS pursuant to Louisiana's Wage Payment Act, La. R.S. 23:631 et seq .² The petition asserts that Moore was entitled to $24,000.00 in guaranteed bonuses under the contract, representing the $12,000.00 bonus after 30 days of employment and the $12,000.00 bonus after 60 days of employment. Finally, the petition avers that the refusal to pay the earned unpaid wages was arbitrary and capricious, thus entitling Moore to penalties and attorney's fees under La. R.S. 23:632.³

The matter was brought to trial on September 9, 2020. Moore testified that he was still "working" for CMS while in the treatment facility. He acknowledged, however, that he had no telephone access and only limited internet access for emergencies.

Moore stated that when he got out of the treatment facility on October 27, 2017, he informed Eadie that he was ready to return to work. Eadie advised him not to speak to any of the physicians in the market until he spoke with Jones. Moore met with Jones on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, at which time, he was terminated without reason. Moore further testified that after the meeting, Willis and Schram told him, for the first time, that there were "performance issues" with his employment.⁴

Eadie testified that September 20, 2017, was the last day Moore worked for CMS. He explained that although Moore was officially terminated on November 1, 2017, he was on unpaid leave after September 20, 2017. Eadie verified the company's payroll records reflecting that Moore received regular salary payments from August 28, 2017, through September 20, 2017. Eadie explained that Moore was denied the guaranteed bonuses because he worked less than 30 days for CMS. On cross-examination, Eadie testified that CMS approved Moore going into rehabilitation. He opined that it was more appropriate to terminate him in person and that CMS did not have an opportunity to terminate him before he left.

At the conclusion of trial, the following reasons were provided from the bench:

[G]oing through the testimony as outlined by Mr. Moore himself, there was not an initial 30 days of employment. The 30 days of work from August 28^th through September 20^th, which was not only outlined in the exhibits that have been properly admitted into evidence, but also Mr. Moore's testimony, does not equate to the minimum of the 30 days.

Judgment was rendered September 21, 2020, denying Moore's claim for unpaid wages and dismissing his petition with prejudice. Moore's timely appeal followed.

LAW AND ANALYSIS

On appeal, Moore asserts that the trial court erred in: 1) failing to apply the clear and unambiguous language of the employment contract, or in the alternative, erred by failing to construe any ambiguous terms against CMS; and 2) failing to award unpaid wages, penalties, attorney's fees and judicial interest pursuant to Louisiana's Wage Payment Act, La. R.S. 23:631, et seq .

Assignment of Error No. 1. Interpretation of the Contract.

Moore maintains that he was employed from August 28, 2017, until his termination on November 1, 2017, for a total of 60 days. He argues that considering the trial testimony and the clear and unambiguous language of the employment contract, he is entitled to $24,000.00 in guaranteed bonuses. Moore further argues that the lower court erred in confusing the terms "worked" and "employed," when finding that Moore did not work a full thirty days. Moore submits that the plain reading of the employment contract demonstrates that he was guaranteed bonuses for the days in which he was "employed."

In support of this argument, Moore relies on the definition of "employment" found in Black's Law Dictionary, as "the quality, state, or condition of being employed; the condition of having a paying job." He asserts that the plain language in the employment contract does not contemplate the days "worked." As such, Moore contends that the trial court erred in considering the days worked rather than the days employed. We disagree.

As CMS correctly points out, the definition of employment in Black's Law Dictionary also includes "[w]ork for which one has been hired and is being paid by an employer." Moreover, trial testimony confirmed that Moore's relapse forced him to miss work from September 21, 2017 through September 27, 2021. Thus, the evidence confirms that Moore only worked twenty-three days for CMS before entering the treatment facility.

Regarding Moore's argument that he continued to work while at the treatment facility, the trial court determined:

You mentioned in your cross-examination, Mr. Moore, that just because - - you know, your job was a 24/7, and that just because you were not there, does not mean that you were not performing work. I think it's clear that with the inpatient treatment, in the e-mail correspondence that you provided to and from the company, that you were not continuing to work, and I think to suggest otherwise would

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