Roulo v. Keystone Shipping Co.
| Decision Date | 30 October 2018 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 17-5538 (JRT/LIB) |
| Parties | SEAN WILLIAM ROULO, Plaintiff, v. KEYSTONE SHIPPING CO., and RADIO HOLLAND GROUP BV, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
Sean William Roulo, 4168 Fayre Road, Duluth, MN 55803, pro se plaintiff.
Jillian Kornblatt and Trevor C. Brown, DORSEY & WHITNEY, LLP, 50 South Sixth Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402, for defendant Keystone Shipping Co.
James G. Bullard and Steven G. Katras, STINSON LEONARD STREET LLP, 50 South Sixth Street, Suite 2600, Minneapolis, MN 55402, for defendant Radio Holland.
On December 21, 2017, plaintiff Sean Roulo filed an action against defendants Keystone Shipping Co. ("Keystone") and Radio Holland Group BV ("Radio Holland") (collectively, "Defendants"), asserting a number of claims arising out of his prior employment with Keystone. On April 26, 2018, Defendants filed Motions to Dismiss. In response, Roulo filed a Motion to Amend his First Amended Complaint. On August 10, 2018, Magistrate Judge Brisbois filed an Order and Report and Recommendation ordering that Roulo's Motion to Amend be denied and recommending that Defendants' Motions be granted. Roulo timely objected to the Report and Recommendation. Because Roulo does not state a claim on which relief can be granted as to Keystone, and because the Court lacks jurisdiction over Radio Holland, the Court will grant the Motions to Dismiss. Likewise, because admitting Roulo's Motion to Amend would be futile, the Court will deny it.
Keystone Shipping is in the business of cargo vessel transportation and cargo vessel operations management. Along with its sister company Key Lakes,1 Keystone manages Canadian National Railway's USS Great Lakes Fleet. Keystone manages the Great Lakes Fleet from its corporate offices in Pennsylvania and Key Lakes manages from a local office in Duluth, Minnesota. In Pennsylvania, Bruce Fernie, Keystone's Vice President of Operations, and Mitch Koslow, Keystone's Vice President of Engineering, controlled management of the Great Lakes Fleet during all relevant time periods. (PSAC, ¶ 57.) In the Duluth office, William Peterson, Key Lakes' then General Manager and Fleet Manager, managed day-to-day operations from 2004 to May 2015. (Id., ¶ 59.) Since May 2015, day-to-day management has been overseen by John Thibodeau, General Manager, and David Deltano, Fleet Manager. (Id., ¶ 58.)
Sean Roulo is an information technology ("IT") worker. (Id., ¶ 1.) In 2004, Peterson hired Roulo to support the IT needs of the Great Lakes Fleet. (Id., ¶ 64.) Before beginning work, Roulo signed a vendor form, stating that he agreed to be considered an independent contractor and not an employee of Keystone or Key Lakes. (Id., ¶ 74.) The vendor form did not have an expiration date, nor did it impose liability on either party upon separation. (Id., ¶ 75.) Roulo was paid only for the hours that he worked. (Id., ¶ 76.)
In 2008, sensing that he was being misclassified as an independent contractor and instead should be classified as an employee, Roulo informed Peterson of his desire to have the IRS make a formal determination of his status. (Id., ¶ 155.) Peterson responded that, should Roulo do that, "it will make people in the Keystone office very upset." (Id., ¶ 156.) Fearing that doing so may cost him his job, Roulo did not seek an IRS determination,. (Id., ¶ 157.)
In March 2015, Roulo became dissatisfied with the way Peterson was treating him and the fact that he had not received a raise since he started in 2004. (Id., ¶¶ 158-66.) He contacted Maryann Specht, Keystone's IT Manager, about both matters, but she told him that she could not help him with Peterson and did not have the authority to give him a raise. (Id., ¶¶ 167.) She instead pointed him to Peterson's direct supervisor, Fernie. (Id., ¶ 168.) Roulo then told Fernie that if he did not get a raise he would start looking for other employment. (Id., ¶ 170.)
Roulo waited for an answer for six weeks, and finally received and accepted a raise offer during a phone call with Fernie on May 1, 2015. (Id., ¶¶ 171-72.) While Roulo was undoubtedly excited, he still believed he was being misclassified as an independent contractor. (Id., ¶ 176.) Roulo expressed this belief to Fernie during the May 1 phone call and told Fernie that he wanted to fill out an IRS form to prove that Keystone was misclassifying him. (Id.) Fernie responded by telling Roulo, "[y]ou are an independent contractor, do not do that." (Id., ¶ 177.) Following Fernie's instructions, Roulo did not fill out the form. (Id., ¶ 178.)
A week later, Roulo received another phone call from Fernie, who informed Roulo that he would not be allowed to ask for another raise for five years. (Id., ¶ 187.) Fernie then sent an email to Roulo asking him to sign a letter that read:
(Decl. of Sean William Roulo ("Roulo Decl."), Ex. F at 5, May 17, 2018, Docket No. 53-6.) Roulo signed the letter and sent it back. Roulo signed the letter in part because he was afraid to negotiate and in part because he believed the letter was a five-year commitment from Keystone. (Id., ¶¶ 172, 188.) The letter was never signed by Keystone.
Shortly thereafter, Peterson was replaced by Thibodeau as General Manager of the Key Lakes office. (Id., ¶ 58.) At the same time, Deltano joined Thibodeau as Fleet Manager. (Id.) Thibodeau had an "intense personal bias against Roulo" due to Roulo's close relationship with Peterson. (Id., ¶ 217-18.) Roulo and Thibodeau's poor relationship caused significant issues for Roulo and affected his ability to carry out his work. For instance, at one point Thibodeau declined to provide Roulo with the authorization he needed to complete a job. (Id., ¶ 242.) On another occasion, Thibodeau left Roulo a profanity-laced voicemail. (Id., ¶ 243.) While Roulo believed that Thibodeau and Deltano wanted to terminate him as soon as possible, Roulo was also the only IT employee for the Great Lakes Fleet, and would therefore need be replaced before he could be let go. (Id., ¶ 246.) Thus, Thibodeau and Deltano began ordering Roulo to create work lists and network diagrams that they could use to train new workers, without telling Roulo about their intentions. (Id., ¶¶ 249-51.)
On April 20, 2015, shortly before Peterson left, Roulo attended a sales presentation with him. (Id., ¶ 266.) The presentation was put on by Radio Holland USA ("RHUSA"), who "leases VSAT satellite Internet bandwidth" and then "resells portions of this leased Internet bandwidth to clients." (Id., ¶ 267.) RHUSA is a subsidiary of Defendant Radio Holland. (Id., ¶ 2.) RHUSA assured Peterson and Roulo that the internet it could provide would be faster than that already in use on the Great Lakes Fleet, and Key Lakes subsequently signed a three-year equipment and service agreement. (Id., ¶ 284.)
Despite the promises made by RHUSA, Roulo quickly realized that the internet it was providing was subpar. (Id., ¶¶ 286-87.) Roulo also knew that, as the sole IT employee, he was the only person who could demonstrate to his managers that RHUSA was the source of Key Lake's internet issues. (Id., ¶ 287.) When he brought the poor performance to light, RHUSA "chose to defame" Roulo to discredit his findings. (Id., ¶ 293.) Specifically, it "chose to cast doubt on Roulo's work by suggesting the problem lied in Roulo's work" and that he "didn't understand satellite Internet systems." (Id., ¶¶ 355-56.) Roulo believed RHUSA was motivated to discredit him and potentially have him removed from his job because he was exposing its failures. (Id., ¶ 359.)
Despite Roulo's contentions, Thibodeau and Deltano ignored RHUSA's failures and instead used them "as a false excuse to blame Roulo's work and start stripping Roulo of his job responsibilities." (Id., ¶ 365.) On January 19, 2016, Roulo was called into Thibodeau's office, where Thibodeau informed him that two of the vessels he was responsible for would be taken away from him and the IT work given to new employees. (Id., ¶¶ 410-11.) In the office with Thibodeau was Greg Drickhammer, Key Lakes' purchasing manager. (Id.) Thibodeau told Roulo that the vessels were being taken from him because: (1) "you mean well but you tinker too much with the system which sometimes it seems adds unreliability to the systems;" (2) "since I have taken this job you are the biggest problem I've had to deal with, and I want that problem to go away;" and (3) "you don't work well with people." (Id.)
Sensing that his job was in trouble, Roulo sent an email to Specht the next day stating that "it appears that doing a great job does not guarantee me anything." (Id., ¶ 414.) Specht offered her support to Roulo, telling him, "I will do my best to keep you employed . . . you have proven to me that you are very good at your job." (Id., ¶ 415.) During the ensuing months, despite Specht's support, Thibodeau and Deltano continued to hinder Roulo's efforts to perform his job, and the relationship continued to deteriorate. (Id., ¶¶ 425-45.) As a result, on March 20, 2016, Roulo emailed Fernie and...
To continue reading
Request your trial