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Templeton v. United Parcel Service11/3/2005
This is an action by the appellant, Todd Templeton, to recover on his claims for outrage and deceit from the appellees: United Parcel Service ("UPS"), James Beavers, and Mark Hagge. The Washington County Circuit Court entered an order granting the appellees' motion for summary judgment on these claims, and Mr. Templeton is appealing that order. We affirm.
This lawsuit arises out of Mr. Templeton's resignation from his job with UPS in Springdale on June 4, 2001. In late May of 2001, Mark Hagge, a security investigator for UPS, received a report from Chris Parrish, a UPS employee, that two other UPS employees had been involved in a theft. During the investigation of that theft, Mr. Hagge interviewed Jeremy Williams and Chris Eubanks. Both Mr. Williams and Mr. Eubanks admitted that they had stolen drugs from the UPS Springdale Center, identified Mr. Templeton as having stolen drugs from the Center also, and signed written statements implicating Mr. Templeton. Specifically, Mr. Eubanks stated that he saw Mr. Williams and Mr. Templeton take two to three bottles of hydrocodone out of the over-goods area. The over-goods area is the area where items that have come out of packages or packages that do not have labels are held for processing in Little Rock. Mr. Eubanks also stated that Mr. Templeton told him that he took a package off of the belt that contained 3000 generic xanax pills. Mr. Williams stated that he and Mr. Eubanks each took one bottle of pills from the over- goods area and then he told Mr. Templeton about the pills being in the area. Mr. Williams stated that, after he told Mr. Templeton about the pills, another bottle of pills disappeared from that area. Mr. Williams also claimed that he gave Mr. Templeton about thirty-five pills for a back injury . Both Mr. Williams and Mr. Eubanks resigned after being given the option of termination or resignation.
After these interviews, Mr. Hagge prepared a summary of the investigation and gave it to Sergeant Shriver of the Springdale Police Department, advising Sergeant Shriver that he had not yet interviewed Mr. Templeton because he was on vacation and that the information was based on the statements of Mr. Williams and Mr. Eubanks only. On June 4, 2001, Mr. Hagge met with Mr. Templeton and the union steward, Tom Dedrich, and explained that Mr. Williams and Mr. Eubanks had admitted stealing some pharmaceuticals and had implicated him in the theft also. Mr. Templeton denied any involvement in the theft, but admitted that Mr. Williams had given him some muscle relaxers in the parking lot after he got off of work one day. Mr. Templeton signed a written statement confirming this.
Mr. Hagge reported this information to the Labor Manager, Walt Dickson, who decided to terminate Mr. Templeton. Jim Beavers, the Springdale Center manager, and Mr. Hagge met with Mr. Templeton on the evening of June 4, 2001, and told him that he was being terminated for the possession of drugs on UPS property. Mr. Hagge told him that he could resign instead, but that if he did not resign, he would be terminated.
Mr. Templeton resigned and then filed this action against the appellees, claiming wrongful termination, breach of contract, outrage, and deceit. In a removal action, the federal court disposed of the breach-of-contract claim and the wrongful-termination claim. Therefore, only the claims for outrage and deceit remain. The circuit court granted the appellees' motion for summary judgment on these claims, and Mr. Templeton appeals.
We set forth the standard of review for summary judgment in Jordan v. Diamond Equipment & Supply Co., __ Ark. __, __ S.W.3d __ (April 28, 2005), stating:
Summary judgment should b
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