Young v. Warwick Rollermagic Skating Center

• Decision Date: 30 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2008-111-Appeal.,2008-111-Appeal.
• Parties: Theresa YOUNG v. WARWICK ROLLERMAGIC SKATING CENTER, INC., et al.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

973 A.2d 553

Theresa YOUNG v. WARWICK ROLLERMAGIC SKATING CENTER, INC., et al.

No. 2008-111-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 30, 2009.

Appeal from Kent Superior County, Associate Justice O. Rogeriee Thompson.

Timothy J. Robenhymer, Esq., for Plaintiff.

Barbara Harris, Esq., Providence, for Defendant.

Present: GOLDBERG, Acting C.J., FLAHERTY, SUTTELL, ROBINSON, JJ., and WILLIAMS, C.J. (ret.).

OPINION

Justice ROBINSON for the Court.

Theresa Young (plaintiff), appeals to this Court from the Superior Court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, Warwick Rollermagic Skating Center, Inc. and John Durnye (defendants).

We are called upon in this case to decide whether a particular written release agreement is all-encompassing or, as plaintiff contends, is rather more narrow in scope. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, it is our view that the release at issue does indeed clearly constitute a waiver by plaintiff of her right to pursue all claims and demands that she might have had against the entities and persons referenced in the release document at the time that she signed it. Accordingly, it is our opinion that summary judgment was properly granted.

This case came before this Court on January 27, 2009, pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause as to why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. Having considered the record, the legal memoranda filed by the parties, and the oral arguments, we are of the opinion that cause has not been shown and that this case should be decided without further briefing or argument. For the reasons set forth herein, we deny the appeal and affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.

Facts¹ and Travel

The plaintiff in this case was formerly the general manager of Warwick Rollermagic Skating Center. She sustained a work-related injury on July 11, 1996, when she was struck by a patron's automobile in the parking lot of the roller skating rink. She suffered a shoulder injury and was out of work for a time as a result of this accident. Within a short period of time following the accident, she resumed her duties as a manager working—on average, fifty hours every week until her employment was terminated in June of 2000.²

After sustaining the above-referenced injury, plaintiff filed a workers' compensation claim in the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Court, which claim was still pending at the time her employment was terminated. After her termination, she filed a charge of discrimination with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights on March 26, 2001; she alleged that the termination of her employment was the result of unlawful discrimination against her because of her physical handicap.³

On March 27, 2002, plaintiff settled her workers' compensation claim; and, as part and parcel of that settlement, she signed a broadly worded release as well as a resignation from employment.⁴ The release was signed by plaintiff in the presence of a notary public; the document that was signed was entitled, "RELEASE AND SETTLEMENT OF CLAIM." The text of that document reads in its entirety as follows:

"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that the undersigned THERESA YOUNG, (the employee), being of full age, for the sole consideration of $38,038.00 to be paid by or on behalf of ROLLERMAGIC ROLLER RINKS, its insurer(s), and their successors, assigns and companion companies, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby release, acquit and forever discharge said party or parties, and all persons, firms or corporations liable by, through or under the above-named, from all claims and demands, actions and causes of action, damages, costs, loss of service, expenses and compensation or claims for dependency benefits, medical benefits, mental injury, specific compensation, loss of use, and/or disfigurement, and property damages, on account of, or in any way growing out of any personal injuries, whether known or unknown to me at the present time resulting or to result from any and all incidents or injuries occurring during my employment, more especially an occurrence(s) whereby I sustained a work-related injury(s), which injury(s) and occurrence(s) are described in a certain Petition for Commutation of the employee that relates to this Release, which Petition has or will be filed with the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Court, and do hereby covenant to indemnify and save harmless said parties released hereby from and against all claims and demands whatsoever on account of, or any way growing out of said occurrence(s) and injury(s), or their results, both to the person and property.

It is further agreed that this Release expresses a full and complete settlement of a liability claimed and denied, regardless of the adequacy of the aforesaid payments made, and that said payment and acceptance of this Release shall not operate as an estoppel, waiver or bar with respect to any claim the party or parties released may have against the employee." (Emphasis added.)

Several months later, in September of 2002, plaintiff commenced an action against defendants in the Superior Court for Kent County, alleging violations of the following anti-discrimination statutes: the Civil Rights Act of 1990, G.L. 1956 chapter 112 of title 42; the State Fair Employment Practices Act, G.L. 1956 chapter 5 of title 28; and the Civil Rights of People with Disabilities Act, G.L. 1956 chapter 87 of title 42.⁵ The plaintiff filed an amended complaint with the Superior Court on October 8, 2002, which raised substantially identical claims. In due course, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment requesting that summary judgment be entered in their favor and that plaintiff's complaint be dismissed; a hearing on that motion was held on March 26, 2007.

At the hearing on their motion for summary judgment, defendants argued that plaintiff's complaint should be dismissed on the following grounds: (1) that she had resigned from her employment; (2) that she had executed a release of her claims; and (3) that she had not established a prima facie case that she was an individual with a disability under either the State Fair Employment Practices Act or the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act. At the hearing, plaintiff argued that the March 27, 2002 release related only to the workers' compensation case and did not relate to her discrimination claims.

The hearing justice ruled that the language of the release was "global" and "all encompassing," and she further stated that the release was "signed with particular knowledge that there was a pending claim that wasn't specifically exempted from the broad language of the release." Accordingly, the hearing justice determined that plaintiff's physical handicap discrimination action was not exempt from the effect of the release, and she granted defendants' motion for summary judgment.

An order granting defendants' motion for summary judgment was entered on April 2, 2007, and judgment was entered on the same day. The plaintiff filed a timely notice of appeal.

On appeal, plaintiff argues that the release did not apply to her employment discrimination claims because her workers' compensation claim was separate and distinct from those claims and that, therefore, the language in the release should be read as applying only to her workers' compensation claim and not as barring her discrimination claims. The plaintiff contends that the March 27, 2002 release is ambiguous because it does not explicitly refer to her physical handicap discrimination claim despite the fact that the discrimination claim was pending at the time that the release was signed. On that basis, plaintiff contends that, pursuant to this Court's decision in Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Farr, 594 A.2d 379 (R.I.1991), her discrimination claims are not barred by the terms of the above-quoted release.

Standard of Review

It is true that summary judgment is "an extreme remedy that warrants cautious application." Gardner v. Baird, 871 A.2d 949, 952 (R.I.2005). Nevertheless, Rule 56 of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure constitutes a procedural device that, in the proper circumstances, plays an appropriate role in separating the wheat from the chaff in the litigation process.

When this Court reviews the granting of a motion for summary judgment, it does so in a de novo manner, and it applies the same standards as did the motion justice. Planned Environments Management Corp. v. Robert, 966 A.2d 117, 121 (R.I.2009); Carrozza v. Voccola, 962 A.2d 73, 76 (R.I.2009); Estate of Giuliano v. Giuliano, 949 A.2d 386, 391 (R.I.2008).

In conducting such a review, this Court must "review the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party." See, e.g., Cullen v. Lincoln Town Council, 960 A.2d 246, 248 (R.I.2008). And the party who opposes the motion "carries the burden of proving by competent evidence the existence of a disputed material issue of fact and cannot rest on allegations or denials in the pleadings or on conclusions or legal opinions." Accent Store Design, Inc. v. Marathon House, Inc., 674 A.2d 1223, 1225 (R.I.1996); see also Carrozza, 962 A.2d at 76; McAdam v. Grzelczyk, 911 A.2d 255, 259 (R.I.2006).

Once having conducted the review referred to in the previous paragraph, we will affirm the grant of summary judgment "if there exists no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Lynch v. Spirit Rent-A-Car, Inc., 965 A.2d 417, 424 (R.I.2009); see also Carlson v. Town of Smithfield, 723 A.2d 1129, 1131 (R.I.1999) (holding that the granting of summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 will be upheld "when a review of the admissible evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party reveals no genuine issues of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law").

Analysis

I. The Controlling Legal Principles

A release is a contractual agreement,...