State Police for Automatic Retirement v. Difava

• Decision Date: 05 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. CIV. A. 01CV10053PBS.,CIV. A. 01CV10053PBS.
• Citation: 164 F.Supp.2d 141
• Parties: STATE POLICE FOR AUTOMATIC RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION et al., Plaintiffs, v. John DIFAVA, Superintendent of the Department of State Police, Ellen Philbin, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Police Retirement Board, and Jane Perlov, Secretary of Public Safety, Defendants, and Robert T. Devereaux et al., Intervenors, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Intervenor.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

Page 141

164 F.Supp.2d 141

STATE POLICE FOR AUTOMATIC RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION et al., Plaintiffs, v. John DIFAVA, Superintendent of the Department of State Police, Ellen Philbin, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Police Retirement Board, and Jane Perlov, Secretary of Public Safety, Defendants, and Robert T. Devereaux et al., Intervenors, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Intervenor.

No. CIV. A. 01CV10053PBS.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

September 5, 2001.

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Michael C. McLaughlin, Boston, MA, for Plaintiffs.

Thomas A. Barnico, Deborah S. Steenland, Attorney General's Office, Boston, MA, for Defendants.

James B. Conroy, Jeffrey L. Levy, Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar, Boston, MA, Michael J. O'Brien, NY District Office, Elizabeth Grossman, Lisa Sirkin, Katherine E. Bissell, New York City, for Movants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

SARIS, District Judge.

The State Police for Automatic Retirement Association ("SPARA"), a voluntary association of younger State Police Troopers, has brought a collateral attack on a permanent injunction entered in 1998 barring the State defendants from discharging State Police officers on the basis of age under the State's statutory retirement provisions. SPARA contends that the injunction violates the so-called safe harbor provision of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 623(j), with respect to State Police Troopers who were not named plaintiffs in the original action, and who were erroneously included within the scope of the injunction.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") and several private individuals (many of whom were plaintiffs in the original age discrimination action) intervened in defense of the injunction.

Before the Court are four motions: SPARA's second motion for a preliminary injunction (Docket No. 52); the State defendants' motion to dismiss (Docket No. 70); intervenor EEOC's motion to dismiss (Docket No. 59); and the private intervenors' motion to dismiss (Docket No. 63). For the reasons stated below, SPARA's motion for a preliminary injunction is DENIED, and the motions to dismiss are ALLOWED.

I. BACKGROUND

Pursuant to Chapter 412 of the Massachusetts Acts of 1991, the Metropolitan District Commission ("MDC") Police and Registry of Motor Vehicles Law Enforcement Division ("Registry Police"), along with the Capitol Police, were merged with the Division of State Police to form the consolidated Department of State Police. See 1991 Mass. Acts. ch. 412, § 1. Section 122 of Chapter 412, codified at Mass. Gen. L. ch. 32, § 26(3)(a), mandated that all members of the consolidated Department of State Police retire at age 55. Prior to the enactment of chapter 412, the four law enforcement agencies were operated separately. Applicable Massachusetts statutes provided that MDC, Capitol, and Registry Police officers were required to retire at age 65. See Mass. Gen. L. ch. 32, § 69(d) (repealed by ch. 412, effective July 1, 1992). State Police officers were compelled to retire at age 50. See Mass. Gen L. ch. 32, § 26(3)(a). Chapter 412 mandated retirement at age 55 across the board, thereby adding five years to the mandatory retirement age of former State Police officers, but lopping ten years off of the tenure of former MDC, Capitol, and Registry Police officers.

On December 21, 1992, forty-five officers of the former MDC, Capitol and Registry Police brought an action in United States District Court (the "Gately action") seeking to invalidate the mandatory retirement provisions of chapter 412 as violative of the ADEA. United States District Judge David Mazzone entered a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs that enjoined the State and its officers from "dismissing or retiring plaintiffs or other officers because they are aged 55 or older ...." Gately v. Com. of Massachusetts, 811 F.Supp. 26 (D.Mass.1992) (order granting preliminary injunction) (emphasis added); Gately v. Com. of Massachusetts, 811 F.Supp. 26 (D.Mass.1992). The State appealed the preliminary injunction to the First Circuit, which affirmed the injunction in its entirety; the State then sought review from the Supreme Court, which denied certiorari. See Gately v. Com. of Massachusetts, 2 F.3d 1221 (1st Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1082, 114 S.Ct. 1832, 128 L.Ed.2d 461 (1994).

Shortly following the appeal, Judge Mazzone modified the preliminary injunction at the request of the State so that it only enjoined the State "from dismissing or retiring plaintiffs or other officers because they are age 64 or younger ...." Gately v. Com. of Massachusetts, 92-CV-13018-MA, 1993 WL 591563, at *1 (D.Mass. Nov. 23, 1993) (emphasis added). Later, the plaintiffs petitioned the Court to restore the original scope of preliminary injunction to prevent the State from retiring officers on the basis of age. Judge Mazzone modified the scope of the injunction accordingly. See Gately v. Com. of Massachusetts, 92-CV-13018-MA (D.Mass. Sept. 26, 1996) (order modifying preliminary injunction).

After a long period during which the parties attempted to effect a legislative solution without success, the individual plaintiffs and EEOC (which meanwhile had intervened as a plaintiff) moved for summary judgment and an order permanently enjoining the enforcement of a mandatory retirement age for officers of the Department of State Police. Judge Mazzone found in favor of the plaintiffs and entered a permanent injunction to prevent the State and its officers "from requiring officers of the Department of State Police to retire solely on the basis of their age." Gately v. Com. of Massachusetts, 92-CV-13018-MA, 1998 WL 518179, at *12 (D. Mass. June 8, 1998). No damages were awarded. The State did not appeal the final order.

In August 2000, Gerald A. Colletta, III, a state police lieutenant and a member of SPARA who was represented by SPARA's attorney, attempted to intervene in the Gately action and seek relief from judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(5) in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Kimel v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 528 U.S. 62, 120 S.Ct. 631, 145 L.Ed.2d 522 (2000) ("Kimel"). Judge Mazzone denied the motion to intervene and ordered the matter closed. The proposed intervenor did not appeal the denial of their motion.

SPARA and a long list of named individuals then initiated the present action in January 2001. The gravamen of SPARA's initial Complaint and First Amended Complaint was that the permanent injunction entered by Judge Mazzone in the Gately action was invalid in light of Kimel. Over SPARA's objection, this Court permitted the EEOC and certain police officers aged 50 or older to intervene.

SPARA first moved for a preliminary injunction based on its reading of Kimel. The Court denied that motion, see SPARA v. Difava, 138 F.Supp.2d 142 (D.Mass. 2001), which is now the subject of an interlocutory appeal. (Docket No. 51.) The State defendants' motion to dismiss the First Amended Complaint was allowed without prejudice. (Docket No. 42.) The Court also allowed the State defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint on qualified immunity grounds, with prejudice, insofar as the plaintiffs sought monetary damages. (Id.)

SPARA amended its complaint two more times to include claims alleging that the injunction in the Gately action is invalid because: 1) the district court in the Gately action misconstrued the applicability of a safe-harbor provision in the ADEA for mandatory retirement plans for State law enforcement officers, 29 U.S.C. § 623(j);¹ 2) the blanket prohibition against requiring the retirement of any State Police officer at age 55 created a de facto class action in violation of Fed. R. Civ. 23; and 3) the injunction impermissibly lacks a termination date. Based on the new claims provided in the Third Amended Complaint,² SPARA has renewed its motion for a preliminary injunction.

The defendants and intervenors have opposed the renewed preliminary injunction motion and have each filed their own motion to dismiss SPARA's complaint.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Motion to dismiss standard

For purposes of this motion, the Court takes as true "the well-pleaded facts as they appear in the complaint, extending [the] plaintiff every reasonable inference in [her] favor." Coyne v. City of Somerville, 972 F.2d 440, 442-43 (1st Cir.1992) (citing Correa-Martinez v. Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 49, 51 (1st Cir.1990)). A complaint should not be dismissed under Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) unless "`it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of [her] claim which would entitle [her] to relief.'" Roeder v. Alpha Indus., Inc., 814 F.2d 22, 25 (1st Cir.1987) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)).

B. Res judicata

The private intervenors argue that SPARA's new claims — all of which constitute a collateral attack on the order of the district court in the Gately action — are completely forestalled by the doctrine of res judicata.

This doctrine, which bars the relitigation of matters settled in a previous action, serves numerous important interests — both public and private — including finality, repose, efficiency, maintaining respect for the judgments of the courts, and avoiding the imposition of inconsistent obligations. These ends justify a rule that generally forbids disregarding an earlier judgment, even if it is wrongly decided. See 18 C. Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 4403, at 17 (1981); Medina v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 737 F.2d 140, 143 (1st Cir.1984) ("A final judgment does not lose its res judicata effect simply because another court might consider the decision erroneous.").

"Three conditions must be met in order to justify an application of the [res judicata] doctrine: `(1) a final judgment on the merits in an earlier suit, (2) sufficient identicality between the causes of action...