[Cite as Mitchell v. Dir., Ohio Dept. of Children & Family Servs., 2014-Ohio-3819.]
Court of Appeals of Ohio
EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA
JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION
No. 100702
KEVIN MITCHELL
PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT
vs.
DIRECTOR, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF
CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, ET AL.
DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES
JUDGMENT:
AFFIRMED
Civil Appeal from the
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas
Case No. CV-12-779883
BEFORE: Celebrezze, P.J., Blackmon, J., and E.T. Gallagher, J.
RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: September 4, 2014
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT
Kenneth J. Kowalski
Doron M. Kalir
Cleveland Marshall College of Law
2121 Euclid Avenue LB 138
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEES
For Ohio Department of Children and Family Services
Mike DeWine
Ohio Attorney General
30 East Broad Street
17th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Patrick MacQueeney
Assistant Ohio Attorney General
Ohio Attorney General’s Office
615 West Superior Avenue
11th Floor
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
For Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
Bronius K. Taoras
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
1441 West 25th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
FRANK D. CELEBREZZE, JR., P.J.:
{¶1} Appellant, Kevin Mitchell, challenges the decision in an administrative
appeal that affirmed the decision of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
(“ODJFS”) denying him unemployment benefits. Mitchell argues that the decision is
erroneous as a matter of law and that a previous common pleas appeal is determinative of
the issue. After a thorough review of the record and law, we affirm the decision of the
common pleas court denying Mitchell unemployment compensation benefits.
I. Factual and Procedural History
{¶2} Mitchell worked for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
(“CMHA”) for over 20 years. During that time, he had little disciplinary history until
2008 when he was going through a custody dispute. He took a cell phone call during
work hours and refused to terminate the call when instructed. The incident escalated and
ultimately Mitchell was terminated. He appealed his termination through his union
grievance process. The dispute was settled through arbitration. The arbitrator found
that Mitchell was properly subject to discipline for his conduct, but that termination was
not warranted. The arbitrator modified the CMHA’s disciplinary action to a 30-day
suspension.
{¶3} Mitchell returned to work early in 2010. He was assigned to work under the
Asset Managed Property (“AMP”) Leader, Deborah Goolsby. He was directly
supervised by Ronald King, who reported to Goolsby. Mitchell was also named a union
steward on his return. Goolsby and King described a pattern of behavior best classified
as disruptive and insubordinate from the moment Mitchell returned to work.1
{¶4} Mitchell’s conduct became the subject of an anonymous complaint from a
resident of one of CMHA’s properties. On March 31, 2010, a call was received at a
CMHA office that was directed to King. A resident informed him that a CMHA employee
was using profanity on the grounds of a CMHA property and creating a disturbance near
the corner of Washington Avenue. King walked to the area and observed Mitchell
pacing back and forth and loudly using obscene language while on a cell phone. King
instructed Mitchell to calm down, which he did. Later, Mitchell informed King and
Goolsby that he was being threatened by the president of the union because Mitchell was
running against him. Mitchell called the police to report that the union president had
threatened his life and the life of his family. Goolsby asked CMHA police to respond,
but Mitchell wanted the matter handled by Cleveland police, so he refused CMHA police
assistance and waited for Cleveland police to respond. Goolsby sent a narrative of the
incident to the human resources department, as she had done with past instances of
misconduct. Mitchell explained the incident by stating he was simply repeating what the
union president was saying to him over the phone.
{¶5} A disciplinary hearing was conducted as a result of this and other alleged
instances of improper behavior. The hearing resulted in Mitchell’s termination on April
However, many of these instances were rebutted by Mitchell’s recordings of meetings and the
1
testimony of Damita Phillips, a fellow employee of CMHA called by Mitchell. She indicated
Mitchell was not disruptive in meetings and was not disrespectful to supervisors in her presence.
13, 2010. He attempted to have the decision reversed in proceedings through his union,
but was unsuccessful. On August 18, 2010, Mitchell applied for unemployment benefits.
Hearings were conducted on March 29, 2011 and April 19, 2011. The hearing officer
issued a decision on May 2, 2011, denying benefits. The hearing officer found that
Mitchell was terminated for cause.
{¶6} Mitchell appealed the decision to the common pleas court after the
unemployment compensation review commission declined review. The court reviewed
the administrative record and found the hearing flawed. The court’s November 29, 2011
decision indicated that claimed instances of boisterous conduct during meetings were
contradicted by recordings of those meetings introduced by Mitchell. The court found
that the record before it
is replete with inconsistencies concerning the conduct for which [Mitchell]
was terminated. It appears that unsubstantiated statements from
non-testifying individuals were accorded substantial weight while
recordings of proceedings were disregarded. Additionally, other witnesses
were excluded entirely.
The court finds that the decision of the Review Commission is not
supported by the evidence in the record and was against the manifest weight
of the evidence currently in the record.
{¶7} The matter was remanded for a new hearing, which was conducted on
February 6, 2012 and February 27, 2012, by a different hearing officer. There,
Mitchell’s witnesses who were previously excluded were allowed to testify. A
representative from CMHA’s human resources department also added new testimony.
The hearing officer mailed his decision on March 12, 2012.2 He found that CMHA had
not established that Mitchell was disruptive or “boisterous” in the instances where
Goolsby claimed Mitchell disrupted meetings. The hearing officer did determine that
Mitchell was terminated for cause based on the use of loud profanity during the March
29, 2010 incident. Because the incident of prior discipline involved similar conduct, the
hearing officer determined Mitchell “knew or should have known that loudly using
profanity in one of the employer’s housing complexes would not be tolerated and could
lead to discharge.” The hearing officer determined that Mitchell’s excuse of merely
repeating the threats and profanity that were being relayed to him by the union president
did not excuse his behavior.
{¶8} Mitchell again appealed the decision to the common pleas court. He argued
that the decision of the hearing officer was unlawful, unreasonable, and against the
manifest weight of the evidence. He also argued that a single instance of profanity was
not just cause for termination as a matter of law. After a review of the administrative
record, the common pleas court, on November 4, 2013, affirmed the decision reached
below, finding the decision was not unlawful, unreasonable, or against the manifest
weight of the evidence.
{¶9} Appellant then appealed from this determination to this court assigning two
errors for review:
The decision indicates it was issued May 2, 2011, but this date is clearly erroneous.
2
I. The evidence presented at the second UCRC hearing should have
resulted in a decision favoring the claimant under the law-of-the-case
doctrine.
II. The second UCRC’s finding that Appellant’s single instance of
repeating another employee’s profane death threats constitutes “just cause”
for termination is erroneous as a matter of law.
II. Law and Analysis
A. Law of the Case
{¶10} Appellant first argues that the decision that resulted from the first appeal to
the common pleas court should preclude any other result than an award of benefits
because of the law-of-the-case doctrine.
“Briefly, the doctrine provides that the decision of a reviewing court
in a case remains the law of that case on the legal questions involved for all
subsequent proceedings in the case at both the trial and reviewing levels.
“The doctrine is considered to be a rule of practice rather than a
binding rule of substantive law and will not be applied so as to achieve
unjust results. However, the rule is necessary to ensure consistency of
results in a case, to avoid endless litigation by settling the issues, and to
preserve the structure of superior and inferior courts as designed by the
Ohio Constitution.
“In pursuit of these goals, the doctrine functions to compel trial
courts to follow the mandates of reviewing courts. Thus, where at a
rehearing following remand a trial court is confronted with substantially the
same facts and issues as were involved in the prior appeal, the court is
bound to adhere to the appellate court’s determination of the applicable law.
Moreover, the trial court is without authority to extend or vary the mandate
given.”
State ex rel. Cleveland v. Astrab, 139 Ohio St.3d 445, 2014-Ohio-2380, ¶ 21, quoting
Nolan v. Nolan, 11 Ohio St.3d 1, 3-4, 462 N.E.2d 410 (1984).
{¶11} However, appellant never argued this below at the commission rehearing or
at the second common pleas court appeal. This new issue raised for the first time on
appeal could have been raised below at varying points and was not. Therefore, this court
will not address it for the first time on appeal. State v. Awan, 22 Ohio St.3d 120, 489
N.E.2d 277 (1986), syllabus.
B. Termination for Use of Profanity
{¶12} A party dissatisfied with the ultimate decision of the Unemployment
Compensation Board of Review may appeal that decision to the appropriate court of
common pleas, which shall hear the appeal solely on the record certified by the board of
review. R.C. 4141.282; Wigest Corp. v. Todd, 6th Dist. Lucas No. L-96-327, 1997 Ohio
App. LEXIS 1265 (Apr. 4, 1997). Pursuant to the statute, the common pleas court may
reverse the decision of the board only if the decision is unlawful, unreasonable, or against
the manifest weight of the evidence. R.C. 4141.282(H). Absent one of these findings,
the trial court must affirm the board’s decision. Tzangas, Plakas & Mannos v. Ohio Bur.
of Emp. Servs., 73 Ohio St.3d 694, 653 N.E.2d 1207 (1995). The Tzangas court noted
further that an appellate court may not make factual findings or determine the credibility
of witnesses. Id. at 696-697.
{¶13} Rather, factual determinations are the exclusive province of the hearing
officer and the board of review. Hall v. Am. Brake Shoe Co., 13 Ohio St.2d 11, 14, 233
N.E.2d 582 (1968); Brown-Brockmeyer Co. v. Roach, 148 Ohio St. 511, 76 N.E.2d 79
(1947). An appellate court may not weigh the evidence and substitute its judgment for
that of the administrative hearing officer in factual determinations. Simon v. Lake
Geauga Printing Co., 69 Ohio St.2d 41, 45, 430 N.E.2d 468 (1982). Determinations that
are supported by some competent, credible evidence will not be reversed as against the
manifest weight of the evidence. C. E. Morris Co. v. Foley Constr. Co., 54 Ohio St.2d
279, 376 N.E.2d 578 (1978), syllabus.
{¶14} The Ohio Supreme Court has recognized that “the purpose of R.C. Chapter
4141 is to protect employees from economic adversity.” Lorain Cty. Aud. v. Ohio
Unemp. Comp. Rev. Comm., 113 Ohio St.3d 124, 2007-Ohio-1247, 863 N.E.2d 133, ¶ 20,
citing Tzangas. So, in order to be eligible for unemployment compensation benefits in
Ohio, a claimant must satisfy the criteria set forth in R.C. 4141.29(D)(2)(a), which
provides in part that “[no] individual may * * * be paid benefits * * * [f]or the duration of
the individual’s unemployment if the administrator finds that * * * [t]he individual quit
his work without just cause or has been discharged for just cause in connection with the
individual’s work * * *.”
{¶15} Mitchell argues that this case is one involving a single, isolated instance of
objectionable conduct. In that context, he cites to case law involving employees
terminated for a single instance of profanity. Specifically, Mitchell applies the factors
annunciated in Lombardo v. Ohio Bur. of Emp. Servs., 119 Ohio App.3d 217, 695 N.E.2d
11 (6th Dist.1997).
{¶16} In that case, an employee was terminated for a single instance of using
profanity in the workplace. After an analysis of over a dozen Ohio cases dealing with
termination involving the use of profanity, the Lombardo court affirmed that the
termination was not for cause. It set out a list of factors it used to arrive at that
conclusion: “1) the severity of the language used, 2) whether the language was an isolated
incident or part of a pattern of behavior, 3) whether other employees were present, and 4)
whether there was provocation for the outburst.” Id. at 221, citing Hepner v. Bd. of Rev.,
8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 37592, 1978 Ohio App. LEXIS 10014 (July 20, 1978), and
Wilson v. Unemp. Comp. Bd. of Rev., 14 Ohio App.3d 309, 471 N.E.2d 168 (8th
Dist.1984). But the Lombardo court noted the employer’s argument that termination was
justified because the use of profanity violated a work rule and opined that
[t]his might be persuasive had [the employee’s] position on [the
employer’s] progressive discipline ladder been near the point where severe
discipline was warranted. Here, however, the employer’s Director of
Human Resources testified that [the employee] had a relatively unblemished
record and was nowhere near discharge on the progressive disciplinary
scale.
Lombardo at 223.
{¶17} The first factor set forth in Lombardo is the type of language used. Here,
that language was vulgar and can be classified as severe.
{¶18} Second, Mitchell’s conduct was also not an isolated incident, but a pattern
of continuing conduct for which he was previously suspended for 30 days. The reason
justifying Mitchell’s termination for cause was not an isolated incident. Mitchell
returned to work in February 2010, according to his testimony. This was following a
termination that was converted to a 30-day suspension for similar conduct. Less than
two months after his return, he was observed cursing loudly on CMHA property by King.
Mitchell admitted to using such language. The hearing officer found that the other
instances of improper conduct used by Mitchell’s employer to justify termination were
unsubstantiated, and that decision is not under attack in the instant appeal. However,
Mitchell’s attempts at isolating an instance of improper conduct fails in light of prior
discipline for similar conduct. This also distinguishes this case from others involving
only a single instance of a violation of a workplace policy as recognized in Lombardo.
Mitchell was at the end of his employer’s progressive disciplinary policy and, as the
hearing officer determined, knew or should have known that loudly using profanity while
at work could result in disciplinary action.
{¶19} The third factor concerns to whom the profanity is directed or by whom it is
heard. It is true that other employees were not present but, according to King, a resident
— a customer of Mitchell’s employer — heard the outburst and complained. This factor
does not weigh against disciplinary action as Mitchell claims.
{¶20} Finally, there was provocation for the language used according to Mitchell.
Mitchell was repeating the threats to life and family made by another CMHA employee,
and Mitchell produced police reports indicating he reported the threats to authorities.
But his excuse for this conduct is inadequate given the other factors set forth above. He
argues that he was merely repeating the words used by his union president, which
threatened his life and the life of his family. Mitchell could not control what was said on
the other end of the phone call, but he was responsible for his side of this conversation.
He was in his place of work and created a disturbance that resulted in a complaint from a
resident.
{¶21} Here, we are not faced with a single instance of profanity used to justify
termination. We are concerned with a prior disciplinary history of a 30-day suspension
and another instance of the loud use of profanity within a few months of returning to
work. The hearing officer’s weighing of these factors to arrive at the conclusion that
Mitchell was terminated for cause is supported by competent, credible evidence, as is the
common pleas court’s decision to affirm that finding.
{¶22} Mitchell also argues the policy was not evenly applied and cites mainly to
the use of profanity by Goolsby in a meeting. These rather tame uses of profanity are not
similar in degree to that used by Mitchell when he created a disturbance for at least one
resident. The other instances where employees were disciplined for using profanity,
introduced during the testimony of former union president David Patterson, demonstrate
that CMHA enforced its policy regarding profanity. This contrasts with the employer
cited by Mitchell in Apex Paper Box Co. v. Admr., Ohio Bur. of Emp. Servs., 8th Dist.
Cuyahoga No. 77423, 2000 Ohio App. LEXIS 2038 (May 11, 2000).
{¶23} There, this court held that “[w]hen the reason for discharge is a policy
violation, the reason can only constitute just cause if the policy was fair and was fairly
applied.” Id. at *4-5, citing Shaffer v. Am. Sickle Cell Anemia Assn., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga
No. 50127, 1986 Ohio App. LEXIS 7116 (June 12, 1986); Eagle-Pitcher Indus., Inc. v.
Ohio Bur. of Emp. Servs., 65 Ohio App.3d 548, 550-551, 584 N.E.2d 1245 (3d
Dist.1989). This court affirmed the award of unemployment benefits where an employer
fired an individual for time clock violations where that policy was not enforced and no
other instances of enforcement of the policy were set forth in the record. Id. at *6.
Here, testimony establishes that CMHA disciplined employees for using profanity in the
workplace. While Goolsby was not disciplined for the use of minor profanity, such as
“damn,” other employees were disciplined for more severe uses of profanity, and
therefore the common pleas court’s decision on this issue is supported by some
competent, credible evidence.
{¶24} The common pleas court’s decision to affirm the commission’s decision is
supported by competent, credible evidence and will not be disturbed on appeal.
{¶25} Judgment affirmed.
It is ordered that appellees recover from appellant costs herein taxed.
The court finds there were reasonable grounds for this appeal.
It is ordered that a special mandate be sent to the common pleas court to carry this
judgment into execution.
A certified copy of this entry shall constitute the mandate pursuant to Rule 27 of
the Rules of Appellate Procedure.
FRANK D. CELEBREZZE, JR., PRESIDING JUDGE
PATRICIA A. BLACKMON, J., and
EILEEN T. GALLAGHER, J., CONCUR