Haavistola v. Community Fire Co.

• Decision Date: 10 February 1993
• Docket Number: No. S 90-1637.,S 90-1637.
• Citation: 812 F. Supp. 1379
• Parties: Paula HAAVISTOLA v. COMMUNITY FIRE COMPANY OF RISING SUN, INC. and Richard G. Ayers, Kimberly Baeder, Raymond Blakely, Betty Cameron, Wesley F. Cameron, Samuel H. Coale, Herrel Curry, William Ewing, Charles R. Goodie, Howard Goodie, William Haines, Wayne L. Ingerson, Jeffrey Kennerd, Harold Montgomery, Jr., Gary R. Moore, Kenneth E. Morris, Jimmy G. Puffenbarger, Carl Rickenboch, Carol Tichnell, Donald K. Wehry, Tamra Wiggins.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

812 F. Supp. 1379

Paula HAAVISTOLA v. COMMUNITY FIRE COMPANY OF RISING SUN, INC. and Richard G. Ayers, Kimberly Baeder, Raymond Blakely, Betty Cameron, Wesley F. Cameron, Samuel H. Coale, Herrel Curry, William Ewing, Charles R. Goodie, Howard Goodie, William Haines, Wayne L. Ingerson, Jeffrey Kennerd, Harold Montgomery, Jr., Gary R. Moore, Kenneth E. Morris, Jimmy G. Puffenbarger, Carl Rickenboch, Carol Tichnell, Donald K. Wehry, Tamra Wiggins.

No. S 90-1637.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

February 10, 1993.

George A. Nilson and Awilda R. Marquez, Piper & Marbury, and Deborah A. Jeon and Susan Goering, American Civil Liberties Union, Baltimore, MD, for plaintiff, Paula Haavistola.

Roger N. Powell, Pikesville, MD, for defendants, Community Fire Co. of Rising Sun, Inc., Richard G. Ayers, Kimberly Baeder, Raymond Blakely, Betty Cameron, Wesley F. Cameron, Samuel H. Coale, Herrel Curry, William Ewing, Charles R. Goodie, Howard Goodie, William Haines, Wayne L. Ingerson, Jeffrey Kennerd, Harold Montgomery, Jr., Gary R. Moore, Jimmy G. Puffenbarger, Carl Richenboch, Carol Tichnell, Donald K. Wehry, and Tamra Wiggins.

Roger N. Powell, Pikesville, MD, and Larry M. Wolf and Anthony V. Teelucksingh, Whiteford, Taylor and Preston, Baltimore, MD, for defendant, Kenneth E. Morris.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SMALKIN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56, which has been opposed by the plaintiff. No oral hearing is needed. Local Rule 105.6 (D.Md.)

I. Factual Background

This suit stems from an occurrence on March 24, 1990, in which the plaintiff, Paula Haavistola, ("Haavistola") alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Kenneth Truitt ("Truitt"). At the time of the alleged assault, both Ms. Haavistola and Mr. Truitt were volunteers at the Community Fire Company of Rising Sun, Inc. ("the Fire Company"). The Fire Company is a Maryland corporation providing firefighting, emergency medical/paramedic, and rescue services to the Rising Sun, Maryland community and elsewhere. (First Amended Complaint at ¶ 5.) Haavistola's service as a volunteer ambulance aide with the Fire Company began in March, 1989. (Id.)

Plaintiff Haavistola alleges that the assault occurred in the ambulance bay at the Fire Company's station, immediately after Haavistola and Truitt had returned from responding to an emergency call. (Id. at ¶ 8.) Shortly thereafter, Haavistola reported the alleged assault to Assistant Fire Chief Carl Rickenboch, who advised her to present her complaint to the Fire Company's Board of Directors at their next monthly meeting, scheduled for March 26, 1990. (Id. at ¶ 9.)

Haavistola did appear before the Board of Directors on March 26, 1990, and reported both the March 24th incident and prior allegedly unwanted touching by Mr. Truitt to the Directors present. (Id. at ¶ 10.) In addition, she indicated her intention to file criminal charges against Truitt. After hearing her account, the Board asked Haavistola to confront Truitt at the meeting with the details of her allegation. (Id. at ¶ 11.) Haavistola agreed to this request. She also agreed to leave the Board's meeting room while the Directors met with Truitt alone. After a short period (approximately five (5) minutes), Haavistola was called back in and confronted Truitt with her allegations, which he summarily denied. The Board, following brief deliberations outside the presence of either of the parties, then suspended both Haavistola and Truitt indefinitely from membership in the Company, with such suspension to take effect immediately. (Id. at ¶ 12.) At that time, the Board conducted no further investigation.

In at least two subsequent meetings which Haavistola was not permitted to attend, the Board voted not to lift her suspension. (Id. at ¶¶ 13 and 14.) Due to extensive media coverage of this incident, the Board of Directors issued a statement to the press on May 2, 1990, in which it explained the suspensions. (Id. at ¶ 15.) Public interest in this case and the news coverage of these events has continued to the present.

Subsequent to her suspension, Haavistola filed a criminal complaint against Truitt, and he was subsequently cleared of the charges against him in state court in March, 1991. In addition, on April 25, 1990, Haavistola filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), which was deferred to the Maryland Commission on Human Relations.¹ (Id. at ¶ 16a.) The parties entered into a Settlement Agreement in the state matter. Because the defendants have alleged that the plaintiff's attorney breached the Settlement Agreement, defendants now consider the Agreement void. (See Defs.' Reply, Ex. 1a & 1b.) Thus, the state action remains pending.

II. Procedural History in Federal Court

In June of 1990, Haavistola filed this action naming the Fire Company, the individual Board of Directors members, and Kenneth Truitt as defendants.² The original eleven count Complaint included claims against the defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (West 1981 & Supp.1990), 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201-2 (West 1982 & Supp.1990), Article 46 of the Declaration of Rights of Maryland, and Maryland common law. The Fire Company and the individual Board members moved to dismiss the Complaint, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), and for lack of subject matter jurisdiction over the plaintiff's claims. In a Memorandum and Order dated March 19, 1991, the Court dismissed Count 5 (abusive discharge) and Count 6 (intentional infliction of emotional distress) of the Complaint, as well as the plaintiff's claim for punitive damages against the Fire Company. (Paper # 30).

Soon thereafter, plaintiff amended her Complaint to add two additional counts of employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (West 1981 & Supp.1991). In response, the Fire Company filed a motion to dismiss the additional counts for failure to state a claim of unlawful employment practices under the statute. (Paper # 35). Specifically, the Fire Company asserted that it was not an "employer," nor were its members "employees" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e. Analyzing defendant's claims under the standard articulated in Rogers v. Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Co., 883 F.2d 324 (4th Cir.1989), the Court denied the defendant's preliminary motion to dismiss these counts. (Paper # 40).

Defendants then answered the Amended Complaint. Plaintiff next moved to join certain Fire Company Board member defendants who, through inadvertence, were not named in the original or subsequent Complaints. (Paper # 42.) Additionally, Haavistola moved once again for leave to amend the Complaint to include requests for a jury trial and punitive damages under the Civil Right Act of 1991³ and a count of abusive discharge, based upon the Court of Appeals of Maryland's decision in Watson v. Peoples Sec. Life Ins. Co., 322 Md. 467, 588 A.2d 760 (Md.1991). By Letter Order dated May 18, 1992, the Court granted plaintiff's motion for joinder of defendants but denied, without prejudice, the plaintiff's request for leave to file a Second Amended Complaint.⁴

The case was reassigned to this Judge on July 28, 1992, upon the retirement of Judge Norman Ramsey. Pursuant to a Letter Order dated August 31, 1992, defendants submitted the present motion for summary judgment in which, as requested by the Court, they rebriefed the Title VII "employer/employee" issue and focused upon whether the Fire Company could be considered a state actor for § 1983 purposes. Plaintiff duly opposed the motion.

III. Standard for Summary Judgment Motion

A district court may grant summary judgment if there is "no genuine issue as to any material fact...." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The initial responsibility of informing the Court of the basis for the belief that summary judgment is warranted falls upon the moving party. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56; Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Pulliam Inv. Co., Inc. v. Cameo Properties, 810 F.2d 1282, 1286 (4th Cir. 1987). Once a motion for summary judgment is made and supported, however, the nonmoving party "may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of that party's pleading, but ... must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e).

For purposes of a summary judgment motion, a fact is material only if, when applied to the substantive law, that fact affects the outcome of the suit. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A material fact is genuine only if, based on that fact, a reasonable jury could find in favor of the non-moving party. Id. While the Court may not weigh the evidence, it must determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial. As the Supreme Court stated in Liberty Lobby, "the mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the plaintiff's position will be insufficient; there must be evidence on which the jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff." Id. at 252, 106 S.Ct. at 2512. Summary judgment should not be granted, if, although the facts are not in dispute, there exists dispute concerning the conclusions or inference to be drawn therefrom. Phoenix Savings and Loan, Inc. v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Co., 381 F.2d 245 (4th Cir.1967).

IV. Analysis

A. Title VII

In Counts XII and XIII of the First Amended Complaint, Ms. Haavistola alleges injury pursuant to The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and 1991), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (commonly known as "Title VII" or "the Act"). Title VII provides that:

it shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer — (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's

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