Martin v. Town of Westport

• Decision Date: 01 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 28524.,28524.
• Citation: 108 Conn.App. 710,950 A.2d 19
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: Robert E. MARTIN, Jr. v. TOWN OF WESTPORT.

950 A.2d 19

108 Conn.App. 710

Robert E. MARTIN, Jr. v. TOWN OF WESTPORT.

No. 28524.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued February 25, 2008.

Decided July 1, 2008.

Ikechukwu Umeugo, West Haven, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Michael J. Rose, with whom were Adrienne R. DeLucca, and, on the brief, Johanna G. Zelman, for the appellee (defendant).

FLYNN, C.J., and LAVINE and BEACH, Js.

LAVINE, J.

This appeal concerns the trial court's granting of a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant, the town of Westport, in an action in which the plaintiff, Robert E. Martin, Jr., alleged that the defendant discriminated against him in violation of General Statutes § 31-290a.¹ Specifically, the plaintiff alleges that the defendant improperly terminated his employment after he was injured during the course of his employment and filed a workers' compensation claim and that the defendant's agents or employees intentionally and negligently inflicted emotional distress on him. On appeal, the plaintiff claims that in granting the motion for summary judgment, the court improperly (1) weighed the evidence as to his allegations under § 31-290a, rather than limiting its decision to whether there were genuine issues of material fact, and (2) determined that governmental immunity barred his emotional distress claims. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The plaintiff commenced his three count action in December, 2004. In count one, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant, through its agents and employees, violated § 31-290a by discriminating against him on the basis of his work-related injury. In count two, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant, through its agents and employees, discriminated against him because he filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits pursuant to § 31-290a.² In count three, the plaintiff alleged that the conduct of the defendant's agents and employees was extreme and outrageous and resulted in negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In response, the defendant alleged several special defenses as to each count.

The plaintiff's claims are predicated on the following facts as alleged in his complaint. The defendant employed the plaintiff as a mechanic in 1984 and later, for fourteen years, as a master mechanic. The plaintiff was the only African-American male employed by the defendant as a master mechanic in the defendant's department of public works. The complaint also alleged that the defendant is a municipal corporation that regularly employs more than fifteen persons. At all times relevant, Stephen J. Edwards was the director of public works.

On March 18, 2002, the plaintiff injured his back in the course of his employment and sought treatment for his injury. The plaintiff's treating physicians, Anthony LaMarca and Nicholas Polifroni, orthopedic surgeons, placed the plaintiff on light duty from 2003 until August, 2004. On April 8, 2003, Polifroni opined that the plaintiff had a 5 percent permanent partial disability of his back and that he had reached maximum medical improvement. The complaint further alleged that the defendant began to mistreat him and place certain conditions on him on the basis of his March 18, 2002 work-related injury. The plaintiff returned to work several times, and the defendant sent him home, despite the plaintiff's having obtained a physician's permission to work. Edwards refused to let the plaintiff perform light duty assignments as permitted by his treating physician.

The plaintiff also alleged that on April 8, 2003, he was able to return to his employment without any restrictions. He alleged that due to his disability or work-related injury, the defendant deprived him of certain privileges that were available to his colleagues, such as permitting him to work with his disability or work-related injury. The plaintiff alleged that he complained about the discriminatory practices of his colleagues but that the defendant did nothing to remedy the situation and violated the duty it owed the plaintiff.

On August 10, 2004, the defendant informed the plaintiff that it had awarded him a disability pension, as the result of his March 18, 2002 back injury, effective September 1, 2004. According to the plaintiff, the defendant's actions against him were extreme and outrageous and created an unreasonable risk of causing him emotional distress. Moreover, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant intended, knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that its extreme and outrageous conduct caused the plaintiff to suffer mental, physical and emotional harm, as well as injury to his self-esteem and sense of self-worth.

The plaintiff alleged that as a direct and proximate result of the defendant's acts and those of its agents and employees, he suffered injury to his physical health, good reputation, humiliation, anguish, embarrassment, mortification, outrage, lost wages and work benefits such as vacation, sick and personal time, salary increases and pension benefits. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant's acts were oppressive and malicious, entitling him to an award of punitive damages.

In March, 2006, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment. In its motion, the defendant claimed that there were no genuine issues of material fact and that it was entitled to summary judgment on the grounds that (1) there was no causal connection between the plaintiff's exercising his right to workers' compensation benefits and his receiving a disability pension, (2) the defendant was entitled to governmental immunity for claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and (3) the plaintiff's claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress failed because the plaintiff's employment was not terminated because he was awarded a disability pension. The defendant supported its motion for summary judgment with copies of medical records from the plaintiff's treating physicians, medical reports issued pursuant to three independent medical examinations, deposition testimony and an affidavit from Edwards and Scott Sullivan, the defendant's highway superintendent.

The plaintiff objected to the motion for summary judgment, arguing that (1) the defendant's awarding him a disability pension violated § 31-290a because it was based on his back injury of March 18, 2002, (2) the defendant assigned him tasks that aggravated his injury, (3) he returned to work capable of doing his job, but the defendant refused to let him do so, (4) the awarding of his disability pension was a case of retaliatory discharge, (5) other employees who sustained injuries were treated differently, and (6) the defendant's conduct was extreme and outrageous. The plaintiff attached his affidavit, some medical records and correspondence to his objection. The defendant responded to the plaintiff's objection in a memorandum of law arguing that the evidence produced by the plaintiff constituted legal conclusions and did not raise genuine issues of material fact.

The court granted the motion for summary judgment in a memorandum of decision on January 17, 2007, and rendered judgment thereon. With respect to the first two counts of the complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of the plaintiff's injury and workers' compensation claim, the court found that there was no dispute that the plaintiff had engaged in a protected activity and that the defendant's awarding the plaintiff a disability pension terminated his employment. The court also concluded that the plaintiff failed to present any facts that created a genuine issue of material fact as to the causal relationship between his injury and workers' compensation claim and the defendant's awarding him a disability pension. The plaintiff failed to offer any evidence that the defendant had awarded him a disability pension for any reason other than that it could no longer afford to pay him for work he could not perform. Although the plaintiff claimed that the defendant treated him differently from other employees who had suffered work-related injuries, he failed to provide any evidence to substantiate his claim. The court therefore concluded that there were no genuine issues of material fact as to counts one and two and that the defendant was entitled to summary judgment.

As to the allegations of count three, the court concluded, citing Pane v. Danbury, 267 Conn. 669, 684-86, 841 A.2d 684 (2004), that the defendant was immune from liability for the alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress by its employees. As to the plaintiff's claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress, the court concluded that a municipality cannot be sued directly for common-law negligence and that the plaintiff failed to allege any statute that would abrogate the common law. The defendant, therefore, was entitled to summary judgment. The court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment, and this appeal followed.

This court's review of a trial court's granting of a motion for summary judgment is plenary in nature. See Reardon v. Windswept Farm, LLC, 280 Conn. 153, 158, 905 A.2d 1156 (2006). Our task is to determine "whether [the trial court's] conclusions are legally and logically correct and find support in the facts that appear in the record." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Pepitone v. Serman, 69 Conn.App. 614, 618, 794 A.2d 1136 (2002). "Practice Book § 17-49 provides that summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the trial court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.... The party moving for summary judgment has the burden of showing ... that the party is ... entitled to judgment as a matter of law." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Kinney v. State, 285...