Lawton v. State Mut. Life Assurance Co. of America

• Decision Date: 10 May 1996
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 92-40141-NMG.
• Citation: 924 F. Supp. 331
• Parties: Maryann E. LAWTON, Plaintiff, v. STATE MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

924 F. Supp. 331

Maryann E. LAWTON, Plaintiff, v. STATE MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 92-40141-NMG.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

May 10, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Roy A. Bourgeois, Worcester, MA, for plaintiff.

Neil Jacobs, Daniel W. McCarthy, Susan M. Curtin, Boston, MA, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

GORTON, District Judge.

On August 25, 1992, the plaintiff in the above-entitled matter, Maryann E. Lawton ("Lawton"), filed suit against State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America ("State Mutual"), for whom she had worked as an at-will employee from 1987 until August 23, 1991. Plaintiff's two-count Complaint sets forth numerous claims of gender discrimination by State Mutual. Count I alleges a violation of federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5, while Count II contains parallel allegations under M.G.L. c. 151B, § 4(1). On June 16, 1995, State Mutual filed the pending motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff opposes the motion. For the reasons stated below, the motion will be allowed.

I. Factual Background

The relevant facts are recited in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. O'Connor v. Steeves, 994 F.2d 905, 907 (1st Cir.1993). From 1970 to 1984, plaintiff worked for numerous insurance companies, including the Hartford Insurance Group, Aetna Insurance, and Prudential Insurance. From 1984 to 1987, Lawton worked as the Director of Planning for Central Massachusetts Health Care in Worcester, a health maintenance organization ("HMO"), where she was responsible for contract arrangements with physicians, hospitals and ancillary service providers.

In 1987, Lawton was contacted by Gerald Guarino ("Guarino"), an employee of State Mutual who earlier had worked with the plaintiff at Prudential. Guarino told Lawton that State Mutual was in the process of developing a joint venture with an HMO in the Boston area and that a person with skills in both insurance and managed care was needed in connection with that project. Lawton interviewed with Robert O'Brien ("O'Brien"), who explained that the joint venture would be with Tufts Total Health Plan, whereby Tufts would provide the network of physicians, hospitals and ancillary service providers while State Mutual would provide medical insurance coverage.¹ O'Brien informed Lawton that a person was needed to put together an operational plan for the joint venture and to make sure that all the pieces fit together. Lawton expressed interest in the job and was subsequently hired at an annual salary of $50,000, a figure she gave to O'Brien as her salary requirement.²

When plaintiff began working at State Mutual on July 20, 1987, she worked almost exclusively on the Tufts joint venture until it became operational in the Fall of 1989. In October, 1987, the area in which Lawton worked underwent numerous organizational changes, including: 1) plaintiff began to report to Robert Young ("Young"), the Vice President of Group Life and Health Marketing and Product Development, 2) plaintiff's title was changed from Director of Group Marketing to Group Marketing Services Director, and 3) plaintiff assumed additional duties, including assembling monthly plan reports. Through November 1988, however, Lawton's principal responsibility was the implementation of the Tufts plan.

The first employment action about which plaintiff complains occurred in the Fall of 1987. Soon after Lawton began reporting to Young, he promoted Christopher Brown ("Brown") to fill the newly-created Director of Product Development position. Lawton had known about the position before it was filled and informed Young that she would be interested in applying when it became available. In January, 1988, Lawton learned that Brown had been chosen for the position, and she told Young that she was surprised that it had already been filled. Young allegedly told Lawton that it was "Chris Brown's turn." Plaintiff did not ask Young what he meant by that comment; rather, she inferred that he meant that it was Brown's turn to advance because he had been with State Mutual for several years (whereas she had been with the company for only a few months). Lawton also thought that Brown was not qualified for the job. As a result of the appointment, Brown's annual salary was increased to $48,000 and his Salary Grade Level from 22 to 24.

In early 1990, Young told Lawton that a position had opened in the Managed Care area and asked her if she was interested in the job. Young told plaintiff that the open position would be good for her because it had a "great deal of growth and promotion opportunity attached to it." Lawton Dep. Vol. II at 93. Plaintiff told Young that she was interested in the position because it would give her an opportunity to utilize all of her job skills and also because managed care was on the "cutting edge" of health care.

A second incident which plaintiff claims constitutes gender discrimination arose out of the hiring of Ross Weiner ("Weiner") as a senior consultant in the Group Life & Health Products area. Paragraph 14 of plaintiff's Complaint alleges that, in May of 1991, the company discriminated against her by hiring Weiner "despite the fact that he was less qualified than Plaintiff to assume the responsibilities of this position." In her deposition, Lawton further alleged that Weiner was hired initially as a Salary Grade Level 22 employee but was soon promoted to Level 23 so that he could be included in a company incentive compensation plan. Lawton Dep. Vol. II at 177.³

The third job action that plaintiff alleges constitutes sex discrimination took place in January, 1990, after State Mutual terminated Young's employment. Following Young's discharge, State Mutual eliminated his old job title and restructured its departments such that Guarino and Brown received additional managerial responsibilities. Thereafter they reported directly to Phillip Soule, ("Soule"), who was then Vice President in charge of the Group Life and Health Department and Young's former supervisor. Despite the increase in managerial responsibilities, Guarino received no salary increase or change in his title as a result of the reorganization. Paragraph 13 of plaintiff's Complaint alleges that Lawton was overlooked for this promotion in favor of a less qualified male.

Soon after Young's dismissal, Lawton spoke with Soule about the position in the Managed Care area. Soule told Lawton that the job was still open and that she should seriously consider the position because it afforded a "great degree of potential for growth." In March, 1990, plaintiff accepted the position and became the director of Managed Care Development and Support.

In her new position, Lawton reported directly to Penny Noyes ("Noyes"), who was then the Director of Managed Care. Noyes' direct supervisor was the Second Vice President of Employee Benefit Claims and Managed Care Service ("Second Vice President"), who in turn reported to Soule. Plaintiff's salary and salary grade level were unaffected by the transfer. Lawton's duties continued to include management of the Tufts project and marketing to health care networks with which she had worked prior to her transfer, but she also assumed additional responsibilities, including assisting in the development, implementation, and monitoring of health care networks and "special products PPOs" in various cities nationwide as part of a project with Private Health Care Systems, Inc., a State Mutual subsidiary.⁴

In her deposition testimony, Noyes estimated that, during the course of her employment in the Managed Care area, Lawton spent approximately 75% of her time working on complex network arrangements. By contrast, plaintiff estimates that during the months immediately preceding her termination, she spent approximately 30% of her time working on the creation of new networks with Private Health Care Systems, Inc., 30% trying to establish relationships with existing health care networks in other cities, 30% responding to bid specifications for State Mutual's insurance business, and 10% working with existing State Mutual networks.

Yet another of plaintiff's claims of sex discrimination arises from her exclusion from State Mutual's incentive compensation plan. From 1987 to 1990, the plan included only managerial employees at Salary Grade Level 25 and above. In January, 1991, State Mutual expanded its pool of potential participants in the plan to include employees at Levels 23 and 24, provided that they were nominated by upper-level management and met certain performance criteria. The only employee in the Managed Care Group who participated in the plan in 1991 was Noyes, a Level 25 employee.

In Noyes' department there were a total of three Level 23 and 24 employees, including Lawton. Noyes spoke with each of those employees regarding participation in the plan and actually nominated all three, although none of them were ultimately included in the plan. Lawton learned that she had been excluded from the program in March, 1991, after having a discussion with one of the employees who participated in the plan.

In the Spring of 1991, the position of Second Vice President became vacant, and Soule promoted Guarino to fill that vacancy. Plaintiff never complained to anyone about not being appointed to that position. Although she testified that she "was eligible for the position," she "wasn't interested in it." Lawton Dep. Vol. I at 55.

Upon becoming Second Vice President, Guarino undertook a review of each of the units which reported to him in his new position. In his deposition, Guarino testified that he determined that the Managed Care area directed by Noyes was insufficiently profitable and thus he decided to change the emphasis of that department from developing and supporting of complex networks to utilization management.⁵ Guarino testified that, as a result of this change in emphasis, and because...