Corpes v. Walsh Construction Co.

130 F. Supp. 3d 638, 2015 WL 5331725, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122201
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedSeptember 14, 2015
DocketNo. 3:14-CV-181 (MPS)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 130 F. Supp. 3d 638 (Corpes v. Walsh Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Corpes v. Walsh Construction Co., 130 F. Supp. 3d 638, 2015 WL 5331725, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122201 (D. Conn. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

Michael P. Shea, United States District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Diane Ceruti (“Ceruti” or “Plaintiff’), has sued Walsh Construction Company (“Walsh” or “Defendant”), for wrongful termination. Specifically, Ceruti claims that Walsh wrongfully terminated, her employment as a Payroll Coordinator/Administrative- Assistant because she complained to her supervisor that Walsh’s payroll practices illegally failed to track the hours worked by' construction laborers, and resulted in denying them overtime payments for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.1 . An employer in Connecticut may generally terminate an individual’s employment at will, but Ceruti’s wrongful termination claim invokes a narrow exception to this rule, recognized by Connecticut common -law, for terminations that violate some public policy and for which the employee would otherwise have no remedy. Walsh moves to dismiss the claim, arguing that Ceruti has alternative statutory remedies to contest her termination.' A recent Second Circuit, case shows that Walsh is correct. The Court of Appeals recently held that the anti-retaliation provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3), prohibits discharging an employee for’ making internal complaints to an employe^ about violations of the FLSA. Greathouse v. JHS Sec. Inc., 784 F.3d 105, 107 (2d Cir.2015). Great-house makes clear that Ceruti.may bring an anti-retaliation claim under the FLSA for her termination as a result of complaining to her employer about payroll violations. And the language of the FLSA anti-retaliation provision itself, which, Greathouse confirms, is to be construed broadly to effectuate its remedial purpose, demonstrates that it embraces Ceruti’s complaints, even though they related.to the pay of others and not herself. Thus, because Ceruti has an alternative statutory remedy, her common-law claim must be dismissed.

[640]*640Nonetheless, because Greathouse, which was decided after briefing of Walsh’s motion was completed, overruled an earlier Second Circuit precedent holding that the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision did not apply to internal company complaints, it appears that Ceruti was not on notice that she had an alternative statutory remedy when she was terminated and when she brought this action. Therefore, the Court will give her an opportunity to amend her complaint to plead an FLSA retaliation claim.

As discussed in detail below, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s renewéd motion to dismiss ’(ECF No. 62) and DENIES as moot Plaintiffs motion for leave to file a sur-reply brief. (ECF No. 69.)

II. BACKGROUND

CerUti began working for Walsh on or about August 29, '2011, in its New Haven and Milford, Connecticut offices. (Am. Compl., ECF No. 60 ¶ 4.) Ceruti worked full-time for Walsh as a Payroll Coordinator/Administrative Assistant for the Moses Wheeler bridge project. (M ¶¶ 4, ,7.) Her duties included entering payroll data into Walsh’s system, working with purchase orders, and processing new hires, layoffs, and payroll. (Id. ¶ 5.)

Ceruti soon discovered “discrepancies between the hours laborers reported to her that they actually worked and those that appeared on the foremen’s daily sheets.” (Id. ¶ 11.) Ceruti told the foreperson, Marie DiBenedetto (“DiBenedetto”), “that she was being given the wrong hours for the laborers,”- and that “this was not right.” (Id. . ¶ 12.) Ceruti also told DiBenedetto and - her supervisor, James Doyle (“Ijoyle”), of her “desire to. run a ‘perfect payroll’ each week, but she was told that would never happen.” (Id.) The foreperson and Doyle did not address Ceruti’s concerns, and the “laborers often were not paid overtime for hours [they] worked in excess of 40 per week.” ' (Id. ¶ 13.) Ceruti alleges that she told Doyle about these overtime violations and questioned the legality of Walsh’s payroll practices. (Id. ¶¶ 14, 15.) She told Doyle, “[t]his isn’t right. If they work the hours they have to be paid the hours,” and “[t]hey have to be paid properly.” (Id. ¶-15.) “She further told Doyle that she wanted to run one payroll and have it be correct.” (Id.) Nevertheless, Ceruti alleges that Walsh continued the same payroll practices, and her supervisors “would often avoid signing and authorizing the payroll figures,” and instructed her “to run the payroll without the authorizations she had previously been instructed as being required to run payroll.”2 (Id. ¶ 16.)

The Amended Complaint states that on October 27, 2011 — apparently within two weeks of these events — Doyle and another Walsh supervisor terminated Ceruti’s employment, ostensibly because she was not conforming to Walsh’s procedures concerning payroll. (Id. ¶ 17.)

Ceruti brought this action in Connecticut Superior Court, and Walsh removed it to this Court on October 28, 2014. (See Ceruti v. Walsh Constr. Co., 3:14-cv-01593 (MPS), ECF No. 1.) The case was consolidated with several others under Corpes v. Walsh Constr. Co., 3:14-cv-181 (MPS) on October 15, 2014. (ECF No. 33.) On October 24, 2014, the Court dismissed plaintiff Jose Corpes’s claim for common law wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, in which he alleged that he was wrongfully discharged in retaliation for complaining to his supervisor about .Walsh’s failure to pay him for overtime work, (see ECF No. 46, “Corpes Ruling.”) Ceruti, along with several other Walsh em[641]*641ployees, has also filed a related action under the Connecticut Minimum Wage Act (“CMWA”) and the FLSA, Alicen Alicea, et al. v. Walsh Construction Company, Civil Action No. 3:13-cv-00102 (MPS)'(the “FLSA Action”), to recover overtime pay owed, but never paid because of Walsh’s allegedly improper timekeeping .procedures. Ceruti asserts, however, that she did not discover the overtime violations in her own case until after she was terminated, and the Amended Complaint alleges that her complaints to her supervisors about payroll practices related solely to the pay of other employees. (Am. Compl. ¶ 18; PL’s Opp. Br. at 7.)

III. STANDARD

“To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face. A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). In evaluating a motion to dismiss, the Court accepts as true all of the complaint’s factual, non-eonclusory allegations, Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), and must “draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party.” Vietnam Ass’n for Victims of Agent Orange v. Dow Chem. Co., 517 F.3d 104, 115 (2d Cir.2008).

IV. DISCUSSION

A.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Smith v. Perez
D. Connecticut, 2023
Rodowicz v. Stein
D. Connecticut, 2023
Boisjoly v. Aaron Manor, Inc
D. Connecticut, 2022
Miro v. Bridgeport
D. Connecticut, 2022
Worth v. Picard
D. Connecticut, 2021
Mokrov v. Aeroflot
S.D. New York, 2021
Cadoret v. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
323 F. Supp. 3d 319 (D. Connecticut, 2018)
Dunn v. Sederakis
143 F. Supp. 3d 102 (S.D. New York, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
130 F. Supp. 3d 638, 2015 WL 5331725, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/corpes-v-walsh-construction-co-ctd-2015.