LaManque v. Mass. Dept. of Employment & Training

• Decision Date: 24 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. Civ.A. 94-12060-RCL.,Civ.A. 94-12060-RCL.
• Parties: Mary Ann LAMANQUE, et al, Plaintiffs, v. MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING, et al, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

3 F.Supp.2d 83

Mary Ann LAMANQUE, et al, Plaintiffs, v. MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING, et al, Defendants.

No. Civ.A. 94-12060-RCL.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

February 24, 1998.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Janet Cohan, Whately, MA, for Mary Ann Lamanque.

Benjamin Robbins, Attorney General's Office, Boston, MA, Margaret Monsell, Office of Attorney General, Boston, MA, for Mass. Dept. of Employment & Training, Nils Nordberg, Richard Dill, William R. Lupica, John B. Edwards, Alan Pollard, Gerald Covino, Ed Galante, Carlton Johnson, Joseph Gallante, Jon Tirrell, Janytt Scott.

Benjamin Robbins, Attorney General's Office, Boston, MA, Margaret Monsell, Office of Attorney General, Boston, MA, Edward J. Sylvia, Jr., New Bedford, MA, for Douglas A. Abdelnour, Douglas Island Development Corp.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR PARTIAL JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

LINDSAY, District Judge.

I. Introduction

In this action, the plaintiff, Mary Ann LaManque (the "plaintiff"), alleges that the defendants — her former employer, the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training ("DET"), several named employees of DET, several named employees of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance ("DTA"),¹ and other named individuals — engaged in a concerted effort to discriminate and retaliate against her because of her advocacy of the rights of persons with disabilities. The plaintiff claims that the advocacy, to which the defendants took exception, included her public opposition to DET's plans to move from a handicapped-accessible location on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts to an inaccessible location on that island. The defendants are DET; Nils Nordberg ("Nordberg"), commissioner of DET at all times relevant to the complaint; Richard Dill ("Dill"), assistant commissioner of DET at all times relevant to the complaint; William R. Lupica ("Lupica"), southeast regional director of DET at all times relevant to the complaint; John B. Edwards ("Edwards"), southwest director of DET at all times relevant to the complaint; Allan Pollard ("Pollard"), branch administrator of DET at all times relevant to the complaint; Gerald Covino ("Covino"), manager of real property for DET at all times relevant to the complaint; Ed Galante ("Galante"), an employee of DET at all times relevant to the complaint; Carlton Johnson ("Johnson"), project manager for DET's move on Martha's Vineyard; Douglas A. Abdelnour ("Abdelnour"), trustee and beneficial owner of Douglas Realty Trust; Douglas Island Development Corporation ("Douglas Island"); Joseph Gallante ("Gallante"), commissioner of DTA at all times relevant to the complaint; Jon Tirrell ("Tirrell"), director of the DTA office in Wareham, Massachusetts at all times relevant to the complaint; Janytt Scott ("Scott"), facilities manager of DTA at all times relevant to the complaint; Marilyn Welch ("Welch"), an employee of DTA at all times relevant to the complaint; and Douglas Realty Trust ("Douglas Realty"), owner of record of the real estate at Two Douglas Lane, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts and landlord of DTA at all times relevant to the complaint.

The plaintiff makes a number of claims against these defendants. In Count I she alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., by DET, Nordberg in his official and individual capacities; Dill; Lupica; Edwards; Pollard; Covino; Galante; Johnson; Abdelnour; Douglas Island; Tirrell; Scott; Welch; Douglas Realty; and Gallante, in his individual and official capacities. In Count II, brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the plaintiff seeks equitable relief against Norberg and Gallante, in their official capacities, and damages against all other defendants for claimed violations of her rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States. In Count III she seeks equitable relief against Nordberg and Gallante in their official capacities, and damages against all other defendants for claimed violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3). In Count IV she alleges that all the individual defendants and Douglas Island and Douglas Realty interfered with her civil rights in violation of Mass.Gen.L. ch. 12, §§ 11H-11I. In Count V she seeks damages against all the individual defendants and Douglas Island and Douglas Realty for the intentional infliction on her of emotional distress. In Count VI she alleges that all of the individual defendants and Douglas Island and Douglas Realty engaged in a civil conspiracy to cause her severe emotional distress. In Count VIII she alleges the tortious interference with contractual relations by all the individual defendants and Douglas Island and Douglas Realty. In Count VII she alleges a breach of her employment contract by Nordberg, Dill, Lupica, Edwards, Pollard, Covino, Galante and Johnson. Finally, in Count IX, John H. LaManque ("John LaManque"), the plaintiff's husband, makes claims against all the individual defendants and Douglas Island and Douglas Realty for loss of consortium.

DET and those individual employees of DET and DTA named as defendants (collectively the "state defendants") have filed a renewed motion for partial judgment on the pleadings, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c),² with respect to counts I, III, IV, V, and VI of the second amended complaint (the "complaint"). In that same renewed motion, the employees of DTA, named as defendants in the complaint (the "DTA defendants"), claim that the complaint fails to allege facts showing involvement by them in any of the unlawful conduct asserted in the complaint; and for that reason, the DTA defendants seek judgment on the pleadings as to all counts in which they are named.

II. Factual Allegations

The complaint alleges the following.³

The plaintiff worked as a full-time contract employee for DET in various positions in the Edgartown office on Martha's Vineyard from July 1988 through June 1992. From November 1998 through June 1992, she received positive job performance reviews for her work as an interviewer. In October 1989, DET presented her with a statewide Customer Service Award for "outstanding achievement in providing quality service."

On October 12, 1991, a DTA employee told the plaintiff that DET would be relocating from its office in Edgartown to an office building occupied by DTA at Two Douglas Lane in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard. The DTA employee gave as a reason for the move the need to reduce the costs of maintaining a DTA presence on the island. Scott, the facilities manager for DTA, in a letter to the regional planner, confirmed the recommendation of the Oak Bluffs site for relocation.

The Oak Bluffs building was not accessible to handicapped persons and lacked available public transportation, in violation of the ADA and state regulations. The plaintiff alleges no disability of her own, such that she personally would be denied reasonable access to the new DET offices. Nevertheless, she protested the move and called her supervisor, Pollard, in Hyannis, Massachusetts to advise him about the handicapped-accessibility problem and about the new location's failure to meet state requirements. Pollard responded by telling the plaintiff to "call out the troops." He suggested to her that she ask DET claimants to call their local state legislative representatives if such DET claimants opposed the move.

With Pollard's approval, the plaintiff met with local state representatives on Martha's Vineyard to discuss her concerns over the proposed move. Also with Pollard's permission, the plaintiff wrote a nine-point petition offering reasons for keeping DET's office in Edgartown. She placed the petition on a table in the waiting area at the Edgartown office, and by late October 1991, the petition had garnered more than 1,200 signatures. The delivery of the petition to the Governor of the Commonwealth resulted in a temporary suspension of the move. Several days later, however, Pollard told the plaintiff to "call off the troops."

Nothing further occurred until March 1992, when the plaintiff was sent to Hyannis for a supervisory training session. She later learned, however, that while she was in Hyannis, two DET internal controls investigators from Boston traveled to Martha's Vineyard to ask of the plaintiff's co-workers questions about her.

On two other occasions in March and April 1992, the plaintiff was called away from Martha's Vineyard for questioning about her involvement, during October 1990 and October 1991, with the Dukes Conservation District. She also received a formal written warning dated April 6, 1992, from DET's southeast regional director, Lupica, reprimanding her for using DET's telephone number on documents advertising events for the Duke Conservation District, even though she had received Pollard's approval to do so.

On May 28, 1992, Covino, DET's real property manager, notified the landlord of the Edgartown DET office that DET was terminating its lease for its Edgartown office space, effective June 23, 1992. The plaintiff arranged with Pollard and Johnson, project manager for the move, that the move from the Edgartown office to Oak Bluffs would take place at twelve noon on June 23, 1992, and that the office would remain open to serve clients until that time. On the day of the move, Johnson and his moving crew arrived at DET's office at approximately 11:00 a.m. and disrupted service to three clients. Johnson ordered his crew to disconnect telephone and computer wires, began to load the moving truck, and repeatedly shouted at her, "Why aren't the boxes packed?"

When the plaintiff arrived at the Oak Bluffs office she found that conditions there were unprofessional and unhealthy. The windows were left open at night, allowing three cats, belonging to the landlord's sister, to roam freely in the office; rugs were torn and dirty; and ants and cat dander were in the rugs and furnishings. The combination of these...