Button v. Trimble

14 Mass. L. Rptr. 165
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedSeptember 27, 2001
DocketNo. 991151
StatusPublished

This text of 14 Mass. L. Rptr. 165 (Button v. Trimble) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Button v. Trimble, 14 Mass. L. Rptr. 165 (Mass. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

Butler, J.

This matter is before the court on the motion of defendant Patricia Trimble to dismiss the complaint of plaintiff Stephanie Button pursuant to Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff, who suffered injuries as the result of a non-consensual touching by defendant at the parties’ place of employment, has filed a cross motion for summary judgment.1 The defendant contends that the plaintiffs common law claim is barred by the exclusivity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act, G.L.c. 152, §24 (“the Act”). For reasons set forth below, the defendant’s motion to dismiss is DENIED and plaintiffs motion for summary judgment is DENIED.

BACKGROUND

At the time of her injuries, the plaintiff and the defendant worked at CliniTech Services in Worcester. On September 27, 1995, the defendant walked by the plaintiffs cubicle to deliver blood specimens to a laboratory. The defendant said hello to the plaintiff, who was sitting at her cubicle, but the plaintiff did not respond. Returning some time later, the defendant again greeted the plaintiff, who again failed to respond. The defendant then touched the plaintiff on the shoulder,2 and the plaintiff fell to the floor, suffering injuries. The defendant acknowledges that the touching was intentional and has presented no evidence that the touching was either consensual or justified. She argues, however, that plaintiffs battery claim is barred by the exclusivity provision of the Act because her conduct and plaintiffs injuries occurred in the course of employment.

DISCUSSION

(i) Exclusivity Provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act; Co-employee Immunity

. The Act ensures that employees who give up their . common law right to sue their employers have a mechanism to be reimbursed for employment-related injuries “regardless of fault or foreseeability.” Brown v. Nutter, McClennen & Fish, 45 Mass.App.Ct. 212, 216 (1998) (quoting Neff v. Commissioner of Dept. of Indus. Accidents., 421 Mass. 70, 75 (1995)).3 The exclusivity provision of the Act, G.L.c. 152, §24, bars employees who are injured on the job from bringing civil lawsuits against their employers. Brown, 45 Mass.App.Ct. at 216. The Act also provides the exclusive remedy against co-employees who engage in tortious conduct when that conduct occurs in the course of employment in furtherance of the employer’s interest. O’Connell v. Chasdi, 400 Mass. 686, 690-91 (1987); Fusaro v. Blakely, 40 Mass.App.Ct. 120, 123 (1996).

The Act does not, however immunize employees from liability for intentional tortious acts against co-employees when the tortious act is outside the scope4 of employment or not in furtherance of the employer’s interest. O’Connell, 400 Mass, at 690-91. Generally, “liability for intentional torts is not part of the circumstances of employment. . . Such intentional torts are not an accepted risk of doing business.” See O'Connell, supra at 690-91. Therefore, G.L.c. 152, §24 does not immunize this defendant from liability if the alleged tortious conduct did not fall within the course of employment or further the interests of CliniTech.

In a similar factual situation, the Court found intentional tortious conduct “in no way within the scope of employment furthering the interest of the employer.” O’Connell v. Chasdi, supra, 400 Mass. at 689. In O’Connell, the defendant Chasdi was the director of an educational institute and O’Connell was his assistant. During a business trip, Chasdi engaged in a series of unwanted sexual advances toward and inappropriate touching of O’Connell. Although this conduct occurred in the course of employment, the Court held that the tortious acts committed by Chasdi — assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress — "were not remotely related to the employer’s interests." Id. at 690 n. 5. The Court explicitly stated that it did “not think that the right to commit such acts with impunity was part of the [166]*166general compromise of rights involved in the [A]ct.” Id. at 691.

In a similar case, a legal secretary brought an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress against her employer law firm and one of its attorneys, who forced her to forge his wife’s name on personal documents. Brown v. Nutter, McClennen & Fish, supra, 45 Mass.App.Ct. at 216. In that case, the court held that the exclusivity clause barred plaintiffs action against her employer,5 but did not automatically immunize the individual attorney from liability for an intentional tort that was “not remotely related to the employer’s interests.” Id., quoting O’Connell v. Chasdi, supra, 400 Mass. at 691.

Defendant relies on Anzalone v. Massachusetts Bay Transp. Authy., 403 Mass. 119, 526 N.E.2d 246 (1988), and Fusaro v. Blakely, 40 Mass.App.Ct. 1120, 1123 (1996), which are both distinguishable from the facts here. In Anzalone, an employee police officer alleged that his supervisor intentionally harassed him and unfairly assigned him to perform menial jobs in an unventilated room. The Court upheld the dismissal of the complaint because the supervisor’s conduct “related wholly to [his] position as the plaintiffs supervisor and to the manner in which [he] exercised his supervisory duties.” Anzalone at 125.

Similarly, in Fusaro, an employee sued two co-employee campus police officers for overzealous interrogation during a campus drug investigation. The case went to trial, resulting in a verdict for the plaintiff. On appeal, the Court held that the co-employees were acting in furtherance of their employer’s interest in the drug investigation and “[hjowever distorted [their] understanding of the proper performance of their duties may have been, we cannot say that they were acting outside the scope of their employment.” Fusaro at 124.

It cannot be said at this stage of the litigation that the defendant’s battery occurred only in the course of her employment. See Mulford v. Mangano, 418 Mass. 407, 410 (1994) (defendant is acting in course of employment when he is upon his employer’s premises occupying himself consistently with his contract of hire in some manner pertaining to or incidental to his employment). Id., at 411 (emphasis added). Here, defendant offers scant evidence that the intentional touching was in any way related to defendant’s task of delivering the blood work to the laboratory, or in furtherance of the employer’s interest. In fact, the non-consensual touching distracted the plaintiff from her work and caused commotion within the workplace.6 As a result, the plaintiffs battery claim is not barred by the exclusivity provision of G.L.c. 152, §24, and the defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction must be denied.

(ii) The Plaintiffs Cross Motion for Summary Judgment

Summary judgment shall be granted where there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Allstate Insurance Co. v. Reynolds, 43 Mass.App.Ct. 927, 929 (1997); Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp., 410 Mass. 706, 711 (1991); Cassesso v. Commission of Correction, 390 Mass.

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Related

Anzalone v. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
526 N.E.2d 246 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1988)
Pederson v. Time, Inc.
532 N.E.2d 1211 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1989)
O'CONNELL v. Chasdi
511 N.E.2d 349 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1987)
Waters v. Blackshear
591 N.E.2d 184 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1992)
Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp.
575 N.E.2d 734 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Cassesso v. Commissioner of Correction
456 N.E.2d 1123 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1983)
Mulford v. Mangano
636 N.E.2d 272 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1994)
Neff v. Commissioner of the Department of Industrial Accidents
653 N.E.2d 556 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1995)
Doe v. Purity Supreme, Inc.
422 Mass. 563 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1996)
Fusaro v. Blakely
661 N.E.2d 1339 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1996)
Allstate Insurance v. Reynolds
685 N.E.2d 1210 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1997)
Brown v. Nutter, McClennen & Fish
696 N.E.2d 953 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
14 Mass. L. Rptr. 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/button-v-trimble-masssuperct-2001.