BEAUMONT – Independent Contract Packaging (ICP) LLC lost its appeal over a former employee's severance benefits.
Plaintiff Albert C. Busse filed a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) claiming the defendant ICP did not honor the terms of the employment agreement when it refused to give him severance pay. The Montgomery County Court at Law No. 2 granted Busse a judgment that entitled him to receive at least $51,000 in unpaid wages. ICP appealed this decision, but Court of Appeals of the 9th District at Beaumont Justices Steve McKeithen, Charles Kreger and Leanne Johnson affirmed the trial court’s decision on Aug. 16.
In the original complaint, Busse, who is a certified lubrication specialist and oil monitoring analyst, alleged was hired to manage sales and marketing for ICP in 2011 and would receive a base pay of $8,500 a month. Busse claims that Oscar Botello, ICP’s owner, made a handwritten note on the employment agreement that alluded to Busse being eligible for three months of severance pay after his first year with the company and six months after his second year.
Given a month’s notice of his termination in 2014, Busse was able to work as he looked for other employment and he claims he was originally told by Botello that his termination was due to ICP losing money and rehiring a former employee that previously held his position. Yet, on his last day, Busse said he was told by Botello that he was being terminated due to poor performance, which would void his severance pay.
Busse said his position required him to finish lubricants, manage lubricant accounts, increase sales of finished packaged lubricants among other things, but he could not fulfill his duties on a consistent basis because ICP did not have products to market. So Busse alleged he worked mostly on the production side.
After Busse filed a wage claim with the TWC, ICP appealed TWC’s wage determination order to the Wage Claim Appeal Tribunal arguing that Busse breached the employment offer when he failed to perform his duties. It also claimed it overpaid Busse by almost $83,000.
The Tribunal ruled in ICP’s favor and dismissed Busse’s wage claim, but Busse appealed the claim with the TWC’s Commission Appeals, who found that the severance alluded to in the agreement was based on length of service in the company, not work performance. TWC found that based on the agreement, ICP owed Busse $8,500 a month for six months and that it violated Texas Payday Law, which regulates final paychecks if an employee is involuntarily separated from the company and orders final pay to be due within six days of discharge.
“The plain language of the parties' written agreement clearly provides that Busse's employment with ICP was at-will, and that either party could terminate the relationship at any time without cause, and that should ICP terminate the relationship in any fashion, ICP would pay Busse severance pay in the amount of his original base salary for up to six months or until Busse found other employment,” McKeithen, Kreger and Johnson said in their decision.
ICP believed TWC’s decision was not supported by any substantial evidence, continuing to claim that the trial court failed to apply proper standard of review or did so erroneously applying damages for an employment agreement that was never fulfilled.
“TWC's authority is limited to evaluating employee wage claims under the Texas Payday Law, the TWC did not consider ICP's breach of contact claim or its claim for overpaid wages,” McKeithen, Kreger and Johnson said.
Court of Appeals for the 9th District at Beaumont case number 09-17-00409-CV