Adams v. National Engineering Service Corporation
| Decision Date | 28 May 2009 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 07-cv-1035 (JCH). |
| Citation | 620 F.Supp.2d 319 |
| Parties | Deborah ADAMS, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICE CORPORATION, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
Katalin A. Demitrus, Todd D. Steigman, William G. Madsen, Madsen, Prestley & Parenteau, LLC, Hartford, CT, for Plaintiff.
William J. Kupinse, Jr., Goldstein & Peck, Bridgeport, CT, Kevin Zimmerman, Michael William Coffey, Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, White Plains, NY, for Defendants.
RULING RE: DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT (DOC. NOS. 51 & 65)
This suit revolves around an action brought by plaintiff Deborah Adams against defendants National Engineering Service Corporation ("NESC") and Verifications, Inc. ("Verifications") for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., (the "FCRA") and violations of Connecticut common law. Adams is a resident of West Hartford, Connecticut. NESC is a staffing agency with its principal place of business in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Verifications, which has its principal place of business in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a company that provides background checks and other employment screening services.
Adams alleges that NESC and Verifications caused Northeast Utilities Service Company ("NU"), her potential employer, to believe that she has a criminal history when she does not, thereby causing her various injuries. Adams brings 14 causes of action in the present suit: nine against NESC and five against Verifications. Additionally, NESC and Verifications assert cross-claims against one another, each alleging that Adams' injuries, if any, are the result of the other's misconduct.
Both NESC (Doc. No. 51) and Verifications (Doc. No. 65) have moved for summary judgment as to all of Adams' claims, as well as to the cross-claims filed by Verifications against NESC. For the reasons stated below, the defendants' Motions for Summary Judgment are granted in part and denied in part.
In a motion for summary judgment, the burden is on the moving party to establish that there are no genuine issues of material fact in dispute and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 256, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); White v. ABCO Engineering Corp., 221 F.3d 293, 300 (2d Cir.2000).
Once the moving party has met its burden, in order to defeat the motion the nonmoving party must "set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial," Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, and present such evidence as would allow a jury to find in his favor, Graham v. Long Island R.R., 230 F.3d 34, 38 (2d Cir.2000).
Generally, when assessing the record, the trial court must resolve all ambiguities and draw all inferences in favor of the party against whom summary judgment is sought. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505; Graham, 230 F.3d at 38. "This remedy that precludes a trial is properly granted only when no rational finder of fact could find in favor of the non-moving party." Carlton v. Mystic Transp., Inc., 202 F.3d 129, 134 (2d Cir. 2000). "When reasonable persons, applying the proper legal standards, could differ in their responses to the question" raised on the basis of the evidence presented, the question must be left to the jury. Sologub v. City of New York, 202 F.3d 175, 178 (2d Cir.2000).
The factual background of this suit is largely undisputed. Northeast Utilities Service Company ("NU") contracted with The Guidant Group, Inc., f/k/a Comensura, ("Guidant") to oversee its temporary contractual hiring. See NESC's Local Rule 56(a)(1) Statement, Doc. No. 51-2, at ¶ 2. Under the contract, Guidant received orders for contract employees from NU and submitted the orders to one of 40 or more staffing agencies that were a part of Guidant's program. See Verifications L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt., Doc. No. 65-2, at ¶ 5. Defendant NESC—a staffing agency that provides engineers, information technology specialists, and other professional support personnel on a contract/temporary basis to its client companies—was one of the staffing agencies in the Guidant program. See id. at ¶ 6; NESC's L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 1.
At all times relevant to this action, when a staffing agency received an order from NU through Guidant, the agency submitted candidate resumes to Guidant, which reviewed the resumes and forwarded them to hiring managers at NU. See id. at ¶ 4. The hiring managers at NU decided which candidates to interview and which, if any, to hire. See id. at ¶¶ 5, 6. Once NU hiring managers selected a candidate, NU informed Guidant and Guidant informed the relevant staffing agency. See Verifications' L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 9. The staffing agency then made an offer of temporary employment to the candidate, contingent upon the results of a background check and drug screening test. See Verifications' L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶¶ 9, 10.
Adams applied for a contract analyst position at NU through the employment website www.careerbuilder.com. See Deposition Testimony of Deborah Adams ("Adams Depo."), Exhibit A to NESC's Memorandum in Support of its Motion to Dismiss ("Mem. in Supp.") and Exhibit E to Verifications' Mem. in Supp., at 47-48. On March 29, 2007, Larry O'Keefe of NESC submitted Adams' resume to Guidant. See Affidavit of Larry O'Keefe ("O'Keefe Affidavit"), Exhibit B to NESC's Mem. in Supp., at ¶ 3. Subsequently, Kathy Shapleigh, a Senior Contingent Resource Consultant at Guidant, forwarded Adams' resume to NU. See Deposition Testimony of Kathy Shapleigh ("Shapleigh Depo."), Exhibit C to NESC's Mem. in Supp., at 10. A hiring manager at NU reviewed Adams' resume and contacted Shapleigh to set up an interview. See id. at 10-11.
On April 13, 2007, O'Keefe informed Adams by e-mail that she was to interview with NU's Byron Maddox at 9:00 a.m. on April 19, 2007. See E-mail, Exhibit 1 to NESC's Mem. in Supp. Following Adams' interview with Maddox, NU contacted Guidant to offer Adams the position. See Verifications L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 16. After receiving instruction from NU, Guidant contacted NESC and advised NESC to make the offer. See id. at ¶ 17. O'Keefe called Adams and offered her the NU job, contingent upon Adam's passing a background check and drug screening test. See id. at ¶ 18. Adams orally accepted the offer. See id. at ¶ 19.
Throughout this application process, Adams was working as a 30-day contract employee for C.B. Richard Ellis through the staffing agency Legal Now. See NESC's L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶¶ 23, 24. After accepting the offer from NU, Adams gave C.B. Richard Ellis notice that she would be leaving the company before her 30-day position ended. See id. at ¶ 25. Adams was scheduled to start at NU on May 14, 2007. See Adams Depo. at 114.
In late April 2007, NESC sent Adams an "employee sign-up package" which contained an array of pre-employment paperwork including, inter alia, a form titled "Consumer Report/Investigative Consumer Report Disclosure and Release of Information Authorization" and a form titled "Consumer Report/Drug Test Release." See Exhibits F, G, H to NESC's Mem. in Supp. Adams signed both forms on May 2 2007, thereby: (1) acknowledging that she needed to take and pass a drug test and background check in order to be eligible for the NU assignment; and (2) authorizing NESC and Verifications to perform a background investigation, prepare a report summarizing the information collected, and transmit the information electronically. See id.
After receiving the signed forms from Adams, Maura Demars, a NESC employee, entered Adams' information into Verifications' online system. See Verifications' L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 28. Demars supplied Verifications with Adams' first name, last name, social security number, home address, and date of birth. See NESC's L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 38.
Upon receiving Adams' information from NESC, Verifications searched a database of criminal records collected and maintained by a third-party, National Background Data, using Adams' name and date of birth. See Verifications' L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 29. Based on the results of this search, Verifications identified several possible criminal records which, it believed, could belong to Adams. See id. at ¶ 30.
Verifications subsequently contacted a field researcher in order to obtain additional research on the possible records matches. See id. at ¶ 31. The field researcher searched court records in Pittsylvania County, Virginia and produced a report based on those records. See id. at 32. The report, which the field researcher sent to Verifications, indicated that "Debra Adams" and "Debra Jean Adams," both sharing the plaintiff's date of birth, had felony and misdemeanor convictions in Pittsylvania County. See id. at 33; see also Court Search Record, Exhibit L to NESC's Memo in Supp.
On Tuesday, May 8, 2007, Verifications provided a summarized version of the field researcher's report to NESC. See Verifications' L.R. 56(a)(1) Stmt. at ¶ 34. At approximately 3:49 p.m. that day, Chris Sullivan, an NESC employee, e-mailed Kathy Shapleigh at Guidant concerning Adams' background check. In the e-mail, Sullivan stated that, See E-mail, Exhibit M to NESC's Mem. in Supp. The e-mail also included the following information:
Applicant CONCERN for Deborah Adams.
...
Please note that the following criminal background search has rendered a
FELONY record. The following has a CONCERN.
...
COMMENTS: A criminal record search must be conducted by a researcher or court...
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