Truitt v. Salisbury Bank & Trust Co.
| Docket Number | Docket No. 21-1002-cv,August Term 2021 |
| Decision Date | 27 October 2022 |
| Citation | 52 F.4th 80 |
| Parties | William Gunnar TRUITT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SALISBURY BANK AND TRUST COMPANY and Salisbury Bancorp, Inc., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Robert B. Lower (Theodore McCullough III, on the brief), McCullough Ginsberg & Partners LLP, New York, New York, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Amber M. Spataro (Jennifer I. Fischer, on the brief), Littler Mendelson P.C., Newark, New Jersey, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: Leval, Chin, and Menashi, Circuit Judges.
In this case, plaintiff-appellant William Gunnar Truitt, an employee of defendant-appellee Salisbury Bank and Trust Company (the "Bank"), announced his candidacy for a New York State Assembly seat. The Bank thereafter advised Truitt that he had to choose between running for office and continuing his employment with the Bank. Truitt decided not to discontinue his campaign, and his employment with the Bank ended.
Truitt brought this action below, contending that the Bank violated New York Labor Law § 201-d by requiring him to cease protected political activity as a condition of retaining his employment at the Bank. The statute makes it unlawful for an employer to discharge or discriminate against an employee for engaging in, inter alia , specified political activities outside of working hours. N.Y. Lab. Law § 201-d(2)(a). Protected activities expressly include "running for public office." Id. § 201-d(1)(a)(1). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Bank, concluding, as a matter of law, that because Truitt voluntarily resigned from his position and was not constructively discharged, his suit could not succeed. The court thereafter denied Truitt's motion for reconsideration, and this appeal followed.
For the reasons discussed below, we vacate the judgment and remand.
On February 26, 2018, Truitt, a part-time Dutchess County legislator, began working for the Bank as a full-time mortgage lending officer trainee. As a trainee, Truitt began a six-month training program, to be followed by a four-month secondary training program. Upon successful completion of both programs, Truitt would be promoted to a full-time mortgage loan officer position in January 2019. Truitt's employment with the Bank was at-will, and both he and the Bank could "terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any legal reason, with or without cause, with or without notice." Joint App'x at 390 (emphasis added).
On April 12, 2018, Truitt announced on Facebook that he was running as a Republican candidate in the upcoming election for the New York State Assembly seat in the 106th District. Candidates elected to the New York State Legislature serve as part-time legislators during the legislative session, which lasts from January to June, in Albany, New York. Truitt did not let the Bank know he decided to run for the seat before he made the announcement.
The next day, after learning about the campaign announcement, Truitt's supervisor Amy Raymond asked Truitt to meet with her and Doug Cahill, the Bank's Vice President of Human Resources. In its Rule 56.1 Statement, the Bank stated that Raymond and Cahill sought to "determine what kind of time commitment such a campaign (and subsequently job) would entail." Id. at 268. Evidence the Bank cited in support of this description does not show that Raymond and Cahill expressed concerns about the time Truitt would spend campaigning, as distinct from the time he would spend discharging the duties of an Assembly member. E.g. , Joint App'x at 95 (); id . at 126-27 ().
The Bank has internal policies and procedures concerning outside employment opportunities for its employees. The Bank's January 2018 Employee Handbook, for instance, explains that an employee who wishes to accept outside employment must "first notify the Human Resource Administrator or the President." Id. at 377. Outside employment, as the Bank's Code of Ethics and Conflicts of Interest Policy also provides, is then permitted only if it is approved in advance by the Board of Directors (or in the case of a non-officer employee, executive management). When deciding whether to approve the employment request, the Board of Directors will consider, inter alia , if the outside employment will "interfere with work assignments or performance." Id. at 222.
Three days later, on April 16, 2018, Truitt emailed Raymond and Cahill a letter "regarding [his] candidacy in this November's elections." Id. at 311. Although the letter stated he was not yet an official candidate on the ballot for the Assembly seat for the 106th District, it explained that he was "on the path" to becoming one, and that he was "officially endorsed" by the Dutchess County Republican Committee. Id. at 312. The letter described the part-time nature of the position, included a copy of the "New York State Legislative Session Calendar for 2018," and attached a link to the state's "Standards of Conduct Relating to Outside Employment or Business Activity." Id. at 312-13. Truitt's letter also explained that he had spoken "with numerous state elected officials and other experienced individuals that are familiar with working in the State Assembly," and that they "made very clear that [he] w[ould] be able to maintain full-time work and be very successful in [his] role as a Mortgage Loan Originator [at] [the] [B]ank while serving as Assemblyman." Id. at 312. He also said that, if elected, he planned to no longer serve as a county legislator and would instead dedicate that role's time to his positions as an assemblymember and at the Bank.
The Bank apparently construed Truitt's notification of his candidacy as a request for approval for outside employment. Raymond, Cahill, and the Bank's CEO, Richard Cantele, reviewed Truitt's submission and determined that he would be unable to work both as an assemblymember and a mortgage lending officer. They were concerned that: (1) if Truitt was elected, he would have to be in Albany two to four business days per week during the six-month legislative session; (2) he had only 21 days of paid time off per year; (3) the Riverside Division that Truitt was hired to serve was an emerging residential lending market that would require a significant time commitment; and (4) residential lenders like Truitt often worked more than 50 hours per week. In short, Raymond, Cahill, and Cantele concluded that Truitt could not devote sufficient hours to his future Bank position if he were elected as an assemblymember. Despite these concerns relating to the demands that would be made on Truitt's time if he served as a member of the Assembly, Cantele did not have any information that Truitt's campaign was or would be interfering with Truitt's ability to do his job at the Bank. Nor did Cantele receive any information suggesting that Truitt's campaign would affect his working hours.
On or around April 26, 2018, Cahill met with Truitt to discuss his campaign. During the meeting, Cahill explained that "the Bank was concerned that [Truitt] could not effectively fulfill the requirements and responsibilities of his future [mortgage lending officer] position as well as the requirements and responsibilities of a State Assembly seat and, therefore, the Bank's management would not provide [him] an exception to the Bank's policy on outside employment." Id. at 270-71.2 Cahill then told Truitt that "he needed to make a decision on whether he was going to run or not and [to] let [the Bank] know" by May 1, 2018. Id. at 125.
The next day, on April 27, 2018, the Bank's Board of Directors met. According to the meeting notes, Cantele reported that an employee "hired as a Mortgage Originator for the Riverside Division" and "currently serving as a Dutchess County Legislator" had "announced his campaign" for a State Assembly seat. Id. at 322. The notes stated that the Bank's management "had determined that this position [the Assembly seat] pays approximately $80,000 per year and requires approximately 65 days per year in Albany." Id. Accordingly, management "intend[ed] to speak with the employee and advise him that this would be a conflict of interest and [that] he must make a decision whether to run for office or to continue employment with the Bank." Id. A memorandum also dated April 27 from Cahill to the Bank's "HR/Compensation Committee," which includes Bassin and other members of the Board of Directors, identified Truitt as the employee. Id. at 323.3 The memorandum stated that the Bank's management was "reviewing whether a conflict of interest exists with the State Assembly campaign and position." Id.
Three days later, on April 30, 2018, Truitt met with Cantele to reiterate his desire to campaign and serve as an assemblymember while he worked for the Bank. Cantele told him that the Bank "did not believe that Truitt would be able to fulfill his position as a residential originator given the responsibilities ... relative to the Assembly position." Id. at 271. Cantele suggested that Truitt and the Bank consider the period from May to November 2018 as a "'time-out' period," and told Truitt that he hoped Truitt would apply for a position with the Bank in the future if he were not elected. Id. at 183.
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