Appeals Court panel affirms summary judgment for client in retaliatory termination case
BOSTON (Aug. 24, 2011) – Jennifer Burke and Laura Bange recently persuaded a panel of the Massachusetts Appeals Court to affirm summary judgment for an employer in a case alleging retaliatory termination.
Massachusetts Superior Court judge had previously ruled that the plaintiff, a former school bus driver, failed to demonstrate that he was terminated because he had exercised a right under the workers’ compensation statute.
The firm’s client, a Massachusetts-based transportation company, fired the driver after discovering he had smoked a cigarette on a school bus with a student on board in violation of its strict no-smoking policy. Eight months later he filed a workers’ compensation claim related to a minor work-related injury that had occurred 14 months prior to filing the claim.
In Massachusetts, an employee alleging wrongful termination must demonstrate that the employer discharged the employee after he or she engaged in a protected activity under the state’s workers’ compensation statute, such as filing a claim.
The employer was not aware of the bus driver’s protected activity (filing the workers’ compensation claim) until long after he had been terminated for violating company policy. Burke and Bange successfully argued that a necessary element of the plaintiff’s claim – awareness of the protected activity before taking an adverse employment action – was lacking and their client was entitled to summary judgment as a result. They also successfully argued that the long periods of time between the man’s on-the-job injury, his termination, and filing for workers’ compensation defeated the claim that the firm’s client preemptively discharged the driver to avoid the possibility of a future workers’ compensation claim.
“We are pleased the Appeals Court upheld summary judgment for our client,” said Burke, a partner in the firm’s Boston office. “The facts are clear that the former driver filed his workers’ compensation claim well after he was terminated for cause. His termination had nothing to do with his workers’ compensation claim.”
About Taylor Duane
Taylor Duane is one of New England’s leading civil litigation law firms with offices in Boston and Providence. Its experienced trial attorneys appear regularly in the federal and state courts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Providence Business News has named the firm four consecutive years as one of Rhode Island’s Best Places to Work (2008-2011).
