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Webb Wheel Products6/3/2005
puted facts. Although we are to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to Hanvey, as the non-movant for the JML, that fact does not require us to consider only the evidence most favorable to Hanvey while excluding undisputed evidence favorable to Webb Wheel. That undisputed evidence included evidence that Webb Wheel was engaged in a bona fide layoff in October 2001, that Hanvey's seniority and job position made him subject to that layoff, and that while Hanvey was separated from his employment he was recalled by Webb Wheel. Because of these undisputed facts, Webb Wheel's motion for a JML should have been granted.
IV.
Because we have held that Hanvey was, as a matter of law, not "terminated" within the meaning of § 25-5-11.1, the trial court erred in failing to grant Webb Wheel's postjudgment motion for a JML on that basis. Accordingly, we pretermit all consideration of Webb Wheel's argument that the award of damages was excessive. The trial court's order denying Webb Wheel's motion for a JML is reversed, and the case is remanded for the trial court to enter a JML for Webb Wheel.
APPLICATION GRANTED; OPINION OF DECEMBER 30, 2004, WITHDRAWN; OPINION SUBSTITUTED; REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Nabers, C.J., and See, Stuart, Smith, and Bolin, JJ., concur.
Lyons, Harwood, Woodall, and Parker, JJ., dissent.
LYONS, Justice (dissenting).
The main opinion accurately recites long-settled principles applicable to the authority of a court in a jury case when considering a post-verdict motion for a judgment as a matter of law ("JML"), stating, "We must decide whether substantial evidence was presented to the jury, which, when viewed in the light most favorable to Hanvey, would warrant a jury verdict in his favor." ___ So. 2d at ___ (emphasis added). The main opinion, I respectfully submit, then ignores this limitation on judicial authority by reviewing the evidence in a light most favorable to Webb Wheel in order to reach its conclusions as to "established" facts. By so doing, the main opinion impermissibly abridges Hanvey's right to trial by jury as secured by § 11, Constitution of Alabama of 1901.
The main opinion marshals "established" facts in its effort to overcome the trial court's finding in its order denying Webb Wheel's motion for a JML "'that Webb Wheel's action toward Josh Hanvey on October 19, 2000, was a termination rather than a layoff.'" ___ So. 2d at ___, quoting the trial court's order. The main opinion states:
"Thus, the undisputed facts at trial were as follows: (1) Webb Wheel was engaged in a bona fide layoff in October 2000 resulting from a slowdown in business; (2) Hanvey's seniority and job position made him subject to that layoff; (3) Hanvey was separated from his employment; and (4) Hanvey was subsequently recalled from layoff by Webb Wheel in accordance with Webb Wheel's layoff policy."
___ So. 2d at ___ (footnote omitted; emphasis added). I have no quarrel with facts numbered (1), (2), and (3). However, only by construing the evidence in a light most favorable to the loser at trial and the movant for a JML, Webb Wheel, can one conclude that the action taken by Webb Wheel toward Hanvey on October 19, 2000, constituted a "layoff." Indeed, the main opinion acknowledges that, as of October 19, 2000, Hanvey was not laid off. The main opinion states: "Although Hanvey did not explicitly urge this point to the trial court or in his written briefs to this Court, an analysis of the record reveals that if Hanvey had been treated precisely like all of the other Webb Wheel employees, he likely would have worked approximately five or six additional days before being laid off." ___
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