Ellett v. Giant Food, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1985
• Docket Number: No. 791,791
• Citation: 66 Md.App. 695,505 A.2d 888
• Parties: Julianna ELLETT v. GIANT FOOD, INC. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 695

66 Md.App. 695

505 A.2d 888

Julianna ELLETT v. GIANT FOOD, INC.

No. 791, Sept. Term, 1985.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

March 11, 1986.

Mercedes C. Samborsky, Joppa, for appellant.

Waldemar J. Pflepsen, Jr. (Ellen Scalettar, Robert F. Condon and Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley & Casey, on brief), Washington, D.C., for appellee.

Argued before BISHOP, ADKINS and WENNER, JJ.

ADKINS, Judge.

Appellant, Julianna Ellett, once was employed by appellee, Giant Food, Inc. She was fired on January 21, 1982, while, according to her, she was absent on medically-ordered worker's compensation leave. On January 7, 1985, she sued Giant in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Count I of her complaint alleged abusive discharge, claiming that she had been fired in retaliation for seeking (and obtaining) worker compensation benefits. Count II was characterized as an "[a]ction for wrongful interference with plaintiff's right to collect unemployment compensation." It was grounded on charges that Ellett had been denied prompt payment of unemployment benefits because Giant had willfully and maliciously given Maryland unemployment authorities a false statement as to the reason for the termination of Ellett's employment.

Summary judgment was entered in favor of Giant. The trial court concluded that Count I was barred by collateral estoppel and that the cause of action asserted in Count II failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted. Ellett, contending that the trial court was wrong in both respects, now seeks reversal. Giant argues that the judgment in its favor was proper, both for the reasons given by the trial judge and for a number of other reasons. We shall set forth facts sufficient to place these issues in context.

Facts

Although, as we shall see, the record before us is sparse, there seems to be no disagreement that Ellett was employed by Giant from September or October 1978 until her discharge on January 21, 1982. She was an employee at will, initially working as an assistant dispatcher at Giant's facility at Landover, Maryland. At some point Ellett, who is white, began dating a black fellow-employee, whom she eventually married. This relationship, according to Ellett, was the cause of harassment by other employees and by Giant. The latter, again according to Ellett, used a pretextual anti-nepotism policy to transfer her to a less desirable job as a clerk. The harassment, she says, continued.

In March 1980 Ellett suffered a work-related injury. She filed a claim under the federal Longshoremen and Harbor Workers' Act, 33 U.S.C. § 902 et seq. ¹ On January 21, 1982, Giant fired her. She claimed unemployment compensation in Maryland, but receipt of benefits was delayed because, she avers, Giant falsified information about her discharge. In May 1982, she settled her workers' compensation claim, with Giant and its insurer.

At some point after her discharge Ellett filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission and, still later, sued Giant in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, where she lost in part and won in part. We shall return to that litigation when we discuss the issues pertaining to Count II of Ellett's complaint in the instant case. We need not dwell on it with respect to Count I, to which we now turn.

Count I

Count I, it will be recalled, alleged abusive discharge. In Maryland, an employer who fires an at-will employee may be required to respond in damages if the discharge violated some " 'clear mandate of public policy.' " Moniodis v. Cook, 64 Md.App. 1, 10, 494 A.2d 212, cert. denied, 304 Md. 631, 500 A.2d 649 (1985) (quoting Adler v. American Standard Corp., 291 Md. 31, 43, 432 A.2d 464 (1981)). The clear mandate of public policy that Giant violated when it fired her was, according to Ellett, Code, Art. 101, § 39A(a), which provides that an employee entitled to Maryland worker compensation benefits "may not be discharged from employment solely because he files a claim for compensation under this article."

Giant argues that this claim is barred by both res judicata and collateral estoppel, because of the prior federal litigation. The trial court accepted the latter theory. For reasons we shall explain when we reach Count II, we believe that was error, but we need not discuss it now, nor need we reach the res judicata issue. There is another basis for affirming the judgment as to Count I. A judgment may be affirmed on any ground adequately shown by the record whether or not relied upon by the trial court. See Joseph H. Munson Co., Inc. v. Secretary of State, 294 Md. 160, 448 A.2d 935 (1982).

The ground we have in mind is found in the document Ellett signed when she settled her worker compensation claim, a claim that was made before her discharge, was pending when she was discharged, and was settled several months later. The settlement document, signed by Ellett, her then-lawyer, and representatives of Giant and its insurer, is attached to Giant's affidavit in support of its motion for summary judgment, and formed one basis for that motion. Ellett does not contend that the document is in any respect inaccurate, that she did not sign it, that she was wrongly induced to sign it, or that she did not understand its contents and effect. The settlement agreement, as the trial court correctly found, is an undisputed fact for summary judgment purposes.

After reciting various details of Ellett's work-related injury and her complaints as a result of it, the document shows that Ellett's compensation claim was settled for $15,000 plus $3,110 in attorney's fees. It further recites (immediately above Ellett's signature):

The carrier has voluntarily advanced the sum of $1,520.00 to the claimant. The advance is to be taken from the total amount of the settlement. The claimant further agrees that she has no Section 49 claim.

The settlement was duly approved by the Deputy Commissioner, 40th Compensation District, U.S. Department of Labor.

As we have seen, Ellett, a resident of the District of Columbia, sought worker compensation under the federal Longshoreman and Harbor Workers Act. The reference to "section 49" in the settlement agreement is to 33 U.S.C. § 948a which reads, in pertinent part:

It shall be unlawful for any employer ... to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against an employee as to his employment because such employee has claimed or attempted to claim compensation from such employer.... ²

This, of course, is the federal counterpart to Maryland's Art. 101, § 39A(a).

When Ellett, for valuable consideration, agreed she had no claim under that statute she effectively agreed that she had not been fired in retaliation for claiming compensation. That statement, made in an agreement settling a disputed compensation claim, is tantamount to a release. Ellett cannot now repudiate it, whether she attempts to do so by invoking the similar provision of § 39A(a) or otherwise. ³ 3] The trial court, therefore, correctly entered judgment for Giant on Count I.

Count II

To recapitulate, Count II stated that Giant had falsely informed the unemployment compensation authorities that Ellett had voluntarily quit. An employee "leaving work voluntarily without good cause" is disqualified for unemployment benefits for a period of time. Art. 95A, § 6(a). In Ellett's view, had Giant advised the authorities that she had been fired, she would have been entitled to immediate benefits. Thus, what she characterizes as Giant's willful and malicious misrepresentation caused her pecuniary loss as well as other harm.

In due course we shall consider whether these allegations make out a cause of action. But we first shall address Giant's contentions that they are in any case barred by res judicata and collateral estoppel.

Some of the basic ingredients of res judicata are unquestionably present here. There was prior litigation (the federal case) between the same parties. The judgment in that case could bar a second suit between them if this case is based upon the same cause of action as was that. And if the bar operates, it is conclusive both as to matters actually decided in the first case and as to matters that might have been decided in it. Jack v. Foster Branch Homeowners Ass'n, 53 Md.App. 325, 332-33, 452 A.2d 1306 (1982). In Maryland, whether causes of action are the same for res judicata purposes is decided by the "same evidence" test: the requisite identity of causes of action is present if the evidence necessary to support a judgment for the plaintiff in the second case would have sustained a judgment for her in the first. 53 Md.App. at 334, 452 A.2d 1306.

To apply the test to Count II, we must scrutinize what we know about the federal case. Ellett's complaint in that matter charged several things. First, it alleged that she had been harassed, discriminated against in various ways, and ultimately discharged because of her association with and eventual marriage to a black man. Giant's actions were said to be in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983 because they "purposefully and intentionally deprived ... [Ellett] of her civil right to associate with members of the Negro race." On the basis of the same factual allegations, Ellett charged Giant with conspiracy to deprive her of equal privileges and immunities under the law in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3).

To these federal claims Ellett appended two pendent State claims. The first charged breach of contract. It had to do with her transfer from the assistant dispatcher position to the clerk job. The second was an abusive discharge claim alleging that "the sole motive for [her] termination stemmed from her marriage to a black co-employee and her association with his friends, and [that] said retaliatory, racially discriminatory termination is and was in violation of the public policy of the State of Maryland...."

Although the record contains no official documentation of the...