Hargett v. Metropolitan Transit Authority

• Decision Date: 07 April 2008
• Docket Number: No. 1:06-cv-07094-CM-KNF.,No. 06-CV-7095 (CM)(KNF).,1:06-cv-07094-CM-KNF.,06-CV-7095 (CM)(KNF).
• Citation: 552 F.Supp.2d 393
• Parties: David T. HARGETT, Petitioner, v. METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHOITY, New York City Transit Authority, Stanley Grill, James Harding, Jr., May Mcintosh, Ken Neal, and David Ross. Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

552 F.Supp.2d 393

David T. HARGETT, Petitioner, v. METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHOITY, New York City Transit Authority, Stanley Grill, James Harding, Jr., May Mcintosh, Ken Neal, and David Ross. Respondents.

No. 1:06-cv-07094-CM-KNF.

No. 06-CV-7095 (CM)(KNF).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

April 7, 2008.

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David T. Hargett, pro se.

Robert Kenneth Drinan, New York City Transportation Authority, Brooklyn, NY, for defendants.

DECISION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART RESPONDENT'S MOTION TO DISMISS

McMAHON, District Judge.

Introduction

David T. Hargett commences this action alleging wrongful discharge in violation of his civil rights (42 U.S.C. § 1981), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) (29 U.S.C. § 621 et. seq.), and New York State Human Rights Law § 296 (N.Y.SHRL), as well as defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED), and breach of contract. He sues the New York City Transit Authority (N.Y.CTA or the Authority) and three NYCTA executives—Stanley Grill, Vice President (Grill), David Ross, Chief Operations Officer (Ross), and May Mcintosh, Assistant Chief Operations Officer (Mcintosh)—(collectively, the NYCTA Defendants),as well as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and two MTA employees-Ken Neal, director (Neal), and James Harding, Jr., commissioner (Harding) (collectively, the MTA Defendants). Plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages in connection with his termination from the NYCTA on June 24, 2004.

Plaintiff, acting pro se, commenced these cases on September 16, 2006. The cases were reassigned to me from the docket of the late Judge Richard Conway Casey, and they were consolidated in a conference with the parties on October 5, 2007. Defendants have moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1) and (6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The NYCTA Defendants move to dismiss the HED, defamation, and breach of contract claims as against them, as well as to strike paragraphs 18 through 20 of the complaint. The MTA Defendants move to dismiss all charges against them.

The NYCTA's partial motion to dismiss and the MTA's motion to dismiss and are granted. The NYCTA Defendants' motion to strike paragraphs 18 through 20 in the complaint is denied.

Facts

The following well-pleaded facts are presumed to be true: Plaintiff David T. Hargett is an African American male who was employed by the NYCTA Materiel Division as an Operations Manager for five-and-a-half years, from mid-September 1998 until his termination on June 24, 2004. (N.Y.CTA Comp. ¶¶ 1-2.) Prior to his NYCTA employment, Hargett was a Business Advisor in the Small Business Development Center at Bronx Community College. (Id.) The NYCTA recruited him to his new post, where he was responsible for managing seven fulltime employees and some fifteen contracts valued at over $50,000,000. (Id. ¶¶ 7-8.) Plaintiff underwent finger printing and extensive background and employment checks in the process of being hired. During his time at the NYCTA, plaintiff had an unblemished work record and performed well. (Id. ¶¶ 9, 13.)

Plaintiff reported to NYCTA defendants Ross and Mcintosh, as well as to another man who is not a defendant in this case. (Id. ¶¶ 7, 12.) Plaintiffs initial job description did not include the direct management of subordinates. (Id. ¶ 7.) Over time, however, his supervisors evidently began assigning him routinely under-performing and problematic employees, and asked him to fire them, "to put a black face in-charge to disguise discrimination." (Id. ¶ 11.) Plaintiff refused to fire employees he had no history of supervising; instead, he offered to manage the employees to a satisfactory level, an endeavor with which he appears to have had success. (Id. ¶¶10-11.)

One such employee was a female with over 16 years experience at the NYCTA. (Id. ¶¶ 10-11.) According to Hargett, his supervisors constantly pressured him to take disciplinary action against her, and he did issue her two warning letters. (Id. ¶ 12.) At a meeting among plaintiff, Mcintosh, and the female employee shortly after the warning letters were sent, Mcintosh told the employee that this was her last transfer and that she would be fired upon any further disciplinary action. (Id. ¶ 12.) Plaintiff also claims he heard [that] Mcintosh instructed the employee to build a case against plaintiff to save her job. (Id.)

About a week later, the female employee complained of receiving inappropriate emails from Hargett. (Id. ¶ 13.) Plaintiff denied the allegations, but thereafter defendants initiated a comprehensive investigation into his background and credit history. (Id.) Claiming that Hargett had violated the company's email policy, the NYCTA suspended plaintiff without pay and without dependent care benefits on June 24, 2004. (Id. ¶¶ 3, 14.) Security guards escorted plaintiff from the building without his personal belongings. (Id. at 14.)

The female employee sent a letter to Grill about six months later recanting her charges against Hargett, and saying that while they worked together he had, "... always been professional and respectful." (Id. ¶ 15; Opp. Memorandum, Exh. A.) In the letter, she claimed that Mcintosh encouraged her to build an email file against the plaintiff, and that the company's Labor Relations department later urged her to make sexual harassment allegations against him and forced her to sign a statement saying that he had sent her the inappropriate emails. (Opp.Memorandum, Exh. A.) Following receipt of the letter, no new action was taken on the matter. (NYCTA Comp. ¶ 15.)

At some point, either before or after his termination, the plaintiff wrote two letters of complaint to MTA defendants Neal and Harding, alleging disparate treatment by his superiors. Plaintiff claims no action was taken on those letters. (MTA Comp. ¶ 19.)

Standard of Review

On a motion to dismiss, the court must accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true. In re Xethanol Corp. Sec. Litig., No. 06 Civ. 10234(HB), 2007 WL 2572088, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Sept.7, 2007) (citing Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights, Ltd., ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2499, 168 L.Ed.2d 179 (2007)). The Conley v. Gibson standard, which held that dismissal is inappropriate "unless it appears beyond a doubt that plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief," 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957), was recently "retired" by the' United States Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). The Bell Court held that, "While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiffs obligation to provide the `grounds' of his `entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions', and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Id. at 1964-65 (citations omitted). For a plaintiff to survive a motion to dismiss, his, "Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level on the assumption that all the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact)." Id. at 1965 (citations omitted). In a postBell decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, interpreting Bell, stated, "[T]he [Supreme] Court is not requiring a universal standard of heightened fact pleading, but is instead requiring a flexible `plausibility standard,' which obliges a pleader to amplify a claim with some factual allegation in those contexts where such amplification is needed to render the claim plausible." Iqbal v. Hasty, 490 F.3d 143, 157-58 (2d Cir.2007).

Discussion

The NYCTA Defendants' Motion to Dismiss Is Granted and Motion to Strike Is Denied

The NYCTA admits that it is plaintiffs employer. The NYCTA Defendants do not move to dismiss plaintiffs claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the NYSHRL, or the ADEA, but they move to dismiss plaintiffs IIED, defamation, and contract claims, as well as his claim for punitive damages. That motion is granted. The NYCTA Defendants also move to strike certain paragraphs of the complaint, and that aspect of its motion is denied.

A. Plaintiffs IIED Claim

1. Is Plaintiffs IIED Claim Barred Because of Failure to Serve Notice of Claim?

Plaintiff alleges a claim for IIED against his employer, the NYCTA, and the individual NYCTA defendants—Grill, Ross, and Mcintosh.

Turning first to the claim against the NYCTA, New York Public Authorities Law § 1212 sets out specific procedures for complainants to follow in commencing tort actions against the NYCTA. It provides in pertinent part that complainants must serve notice of a claim on the NYTA within ninety days after the claim arose, in compliance with the procedures set forth in New York General Municipal Law § 50-e. N.Y. Pub. Auth. L. § 1212(2) (2007); Gen. Municipal L. § 50-e(1)(a) (2007). The NYCTA argues-and plaintiff does not dispute-that plaintiff failed to comply with this statutory requirement.

The statute also requires the plaintiffs complaint to contain an allegation that at least thirty days have passed since a notice of claim was served on the NYCTA. N.Y. Pub. Auth. L. §§ 1212(1), (4); Walker v. N.Y.C. Transit Auth., No. 99 CIV. 3337(DC), 2001 WL 1098022, at *14 (S.D.N.Y. Sept.19, 2001). Plaintiff made no such allegation in the complaint he filed on September 15, 2006, and he does not now move to amend his complaint.

Therefore, plaintiffs IIED claim against the NYCTA is dismissed for failing to comply with the requirements of § 1212.

The notice of claim requirements do not apply to the IIED claims as against Ross, Grill, and Mcintosh—the individual NYCTA defendants. General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(b) provides that, "Service of the notice of claim upon an officer, appointee or employee of a public benefit corporation shall not be a condition precedent to the...