Casey v. St. Mary's Bank

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedMay 22, 2024
Docket1:22-cv-00252
StatusUnknown

This text of Casey v. St. Mary's Bank (Casey v. St. Mary's Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Casey v. St. Mary's Bank, (D.N.H. 2024).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

William Casey

v. Case No. 1:22-cv-00252-PB Opinion No. 2024 DNH 041 St. Mary’s Bank

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

William Casey sued his former employer, St. Mary’s Bank (SMB), for violating the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) and wrongfully terminating him. SMB now moves for summary judgment on both of Casey’s claims. For the reasons set forth below, I grant SMB’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 20) as to Casey’s USERRA claim but deny it as to his wrongful termination claim. I. BACKGROUND Casey worked at SMB as a sales and services representative from December 2019 until December 2021. Doc. 20-2 at 20-21, 24, 85. He typically worked Tuesdays through Saturdays, and he was responsible for welcoming customers and assisting them with various financial matters. Id. at 25, 39. Throughout his tenure at SMB, Casey was also a member of the Massachusetts National Guard. Doc. 21-1 at 1. As a member of the Guard, Casey was required to attend monthly weekend trainings for nine months of the year and two weeks of annual training every August. Id.

Casey informed SMB of his military commitments when he was hired. Doc. 16 at 2. Shortly thereafter, SMB provided Casey with its “Employee Electronic Manual” (Manual). See Doc. 8-1 at 10. The Manual includes a “Military Leave Policy” that entitles military employees to “retain certain

rights with respect to reinstatement, seniority, layoffs, compensation, and benefits as required by [USERRA] and any other applicable federal or state laws.” Doc. 20-13 at 1. The policy includes two key provisions: an “Annual Training” provision and an “Active Duty” provision. Id. at 1-2. The Annual

Training provision provides in relevant part that: Regular employees serving in the Military Reserves or National Guard will be granted military leave to enable them to attend training as reservists or guard members. In this case, eligible employees will be paid the difference between their military pay and their regular straight-time pay for up to ten days of training leave each calendar year (assuming their military pay is less than their regular pay from [SMB]). . . . If additional time is needed to fulfill reservist or guard training obligations, an employee may take unpaid leave or banked Paid Time Off (PTO) for this purpose. Id. at 1. The Active Duty provision similarly provides that: Regular employees who are military reservists or National Guard members and who are called to active duty, will be paid the difference between their military pay and their regular straight- time pay for up to 12 months (assuming that their military pay is less than their regular pay from [SMB]). Id. at 2. SMB’s Manual also includes a “Paid Time Off (PTO) Policy” in which

eligible employees accrue PTO on a biweekly basis according to their employment status and years of consecutive service. Doc. 20-14 at 4-5. PTO may then be used for “vacation, personal time, personal illness, or family illness.” Id. at 1. However, “[t]ime off regarding company holidays, jury duty,

military duty, and funeral leave do not fall under the PTO Policy and are covered under separate [SMB] Policies.” Id. (emphasis in original). Between December 2019 and May 2020, Casey worked at SMB and attended his monthly weekend military trainings. Doc. 20-2 at 25. On these

weekends, Casey was forced to miss his regularly scheduled Saturday shifts at SMB. Id. at 26-17. To “offset” his military time, SMB began to schedule Casey to work on one Monday per month that he otherwise would have had off. Id.

In the spring of 2020, Massachusetts activated its National Guard to respond to various issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Doc. 16 at 2. Casey served on state active duty from May 2020 until June 2021, helping the state process a flood of resulting unemployment claims. Doc. 20-2 at 28,

37. During this period, Casey did not work any shifts at or receive any pay from SMB, see id. at 38, 110, and he was not eligible for certain benefits, such as the ability to accrue PTO or participate in the bank’s health insurance plan, Doc. 16 at 2; see Doc. 20-14 at 4-5; Doc. 20-13 at 2.

While Casey was on active duty, he remained in contact with his branch manager. Doc. 21-7. In May 2021, nearly a year into Casey’s leave, his branch manager texted him to say that she had held his position for him because he was “amazing and worth it” and to ask whether he would be

returning to SMB by June 1. Id. at 8. She wrote that the military “need[s] to release you” and “[i]f you can’t come by June 1, I will fill your position. If you can, your seat at [the branch] is secure.” Id. Casey responded that he would, in fact, be returning to work in early June 2021, and his branch manager

replied, “The job is yours!” Id. at 9. She then noted that the military “took their pound of flesh and then some” and asked whether it “want[ed] [him] to give up a chance at a career or keep [him] in the Army?” Id. Casey’s active duty service ended in early June 2021, and he resumed

his regular shifts at SMB as well as his monthly Guard trainings. Doc. 20-2 at 38, 62. Upon his return, one of SMB’s human resources specialists informed Casey that his benefits would not be reinstated until the first full month of his reemployment, as was the bank’s policy for new hires. Id. at 39-

40; see Doc. 20-6 at 2. Casey believed that his benefits should begin immediately, and he raised the issue with the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), an office within the Department of Defense dedicated to supporting relations between employers and their military employees and resolving conflicts under USERRA. Doc. 20-2 at 40-41. Around

the same time, the human resources specialist reached out to the bank’s benefits provider for clarification on Casey’s rights under federal law. Doc. 20-6 at 2. The benefits provider stated that Casey could not be subject to any waiting periods, id. 1, and shortly thereafter, Casey’s benefits were

reinstated, Doc. 20-2 at 42. Upon his return to SMB, Casey also invoked his rights under the Manual’s Active Duty provision to recover what he claimed was the difference between his military pay and his regular pay at SMB. See Doc. 20-2 at 109-

10. Although Casey asserts that he provided SMB with records supporting his pay differential claim, the bank failed to provide him with any additional compensation for the time he was on active duty. Id. Over the next several months, Casey continued to balance his work at

SMB with his military obligations. He attended his two weeks of annual training in August 2021, for which he was not required to use PTO, and continued to attend his monthly trainings. Id. at 60-61. But in late November 2021, Casey’s supervisors informed him that, in order to cover his weekend

military leave, he would either have to work additional hours on Monday or use his accrued PTO “until it was exhausted.” Id. at 63. Casey contested this practice and expressed his discontent to SMB’s management, including his assistant branch manager, who subsequently removed him from the schedule altogether. Doc. 21-10 at 2-3. Casey texted her a copy of the schedule and

wrote, “I said I won’t work Monday so you remove me from the entire schedule.” Id. at 3. She responded, “Lol yup.” Id. They continued to text about the schedule and SMB’s new PTO policy over the next several days. Casey explained that he was planning to use PTO to cover the Monday shift and

that human resources could reimburse him the PTO hours once the “conflict” between SMB’s policy and USERRA was resolved. Id. at 5. His assistant branch manager responded that SMB’s policy and the government’s policy “could be two different things.” Id. at 6. She also asked whether Casey

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Casey v. St. Mary's Bank, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casey-v-st-marys-bank-nhd-2024.