Hewitt v. BS Transp. of Ill., LLC

355 F. Supp. 3d 227
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 10, 2019
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 18-712
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 355 F. Supp. 3d 227 (Hewitt v. BS Transp. of Ill., LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hewitt v. BS Transp. of Ill., LLC, 355 F. Supp. 3d 227 (E.D. Pa. 2019).

Opinion

DuBois, District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff, Carl Hewitt, former employee of defendant BS Transportation, alleges that he was subject to discriminatory harassment by defendant Sunoco's employee, Anthony Perillo. Specifically, plaintiff avers that Perillo harassed him when plaintiff loaded fuel from Sunoco premises in the course of his employment transporting fuel for BS Transportation. In the Second Amended Complaint,1 plaintiff asserts claims of discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000(e) et seq. ("Title VII") and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, 43 P.S. §§ 951, et seq. ("PHRA") against BS Transportation of Illinois, LLC ("BS Transportation") and Sunoco Inc. and Sunoco (R & M) LLC (collectively, "Sunoco"). Plaintiff also asserts claims of aiding and abetting under § 955(e) of the PHRA against defendants BS Transportation, Sunoco, Sunoco employee Mark Frederick, and BS Transportation owner Bruce Schunke.

This case is unusual in that plaintiff seeks to hold his employer liable for discrimination by a nonemployee. The Third Circuit has not addressed this question. Accordingly, for guidance, this Court looks to other courts that have held an employer may be liable "where the employer ... knows or should have known of the conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action." Johnson-Harris v. AmQuip Cranes Rental, LLC , No. 14-767, 2015 WL 4113542, at *8 (E.D. Pa. July 8, 2015).

Presently before the Court are two motions. The first is Defendants Sunoco, Inc., Sunoco (R & M), LLC, and Mark Frederick's Motion To Dismiss the Second Amended Complaint. The second is Motion To Dismiss Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint of Defendant BS Transportation of Illinois, LLC and Bruce Schunke.2 For the reasons that follow, (1) defendants Sunoco and Frederick's motion is granted and (2) defendants BS Transportation and Schunke's motion is granted in part and denied in part.

II. BACKGROUND

The facts alleged in plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint are as follows:

*231Plaintiff worked as a freight driver for BS Transportation from the winter of 1997 or 1998 to April 2009. Sec. Am. Compl. ¶ 21. In May 2009, plaintiff was rehired by BS Transportation and "specifically hauled NASCAR fuel exclusively in conjunction with a contract between Defendant BS and Defendant Sunoco." Id. at ¶ 24. Plaintiff's job responsibilities included loading oil at Sunoco's refinery located in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, on a weekly basis. Id. at ¶ 30.

Beginning in early 2014, Sunoco employee Anthony Perillo "began to make sexual advances toward Plaintiff when he traveled to the [Sunoco] blend plant to fill up with fuel." Id. at ¶ 32. Perillo's conduct began with sexual comments and hand gestures towards plaintiff "at least once or twice a week" when plaintiff would load fuel at the Sunoco plant. Id. at ¶¶ 33-35. Sunoco employees, including Mark Frederick, Perillo's supervisor, were aware of Perillo's behavior "but did nothing to stop it." Id. at ¶¶ 38, 40.

Plaintiff "begged ... Perillo to stop the remarks," but Perillo responded with more aggressive behavior. Id. at ¶¶ 41-42. Examples of this "brazen and physical" behavior include Perillo's "brush[ing] past Plaintiff so as to make body contact" and "parading around in his under garments [sic]." Id. at ¶¶ 44-46. On or about August 10, 2016, Perillo "grabbed Plaintiff by the buttocks with one hand[ ] and shoved Plaintiff into the trailer of [plaintiff's] freight car with his other hand" and "leaned into Plaintiff as he held him and asked 'Do you like that.' " Id. at ¶¶ 47, 49.

On or about the same day, August 10, 2016, plaintiff reported to Frederick that Perillo had been sexually harassing him and had just sexually assaulted him. Id. at ¶¶ 53-54. Frederick told plaintiff that he would "make a report" and "take care of it." Id. at ¶ 55.

Later that day, Bruce Schunke, plaintiff's supervisor and owner of BS Transportation, contacted plaintiff and informed him that he had talked to Frederick and would "handle the matter with Perillo" and "asked Plaintiff not to say anymore [sic] about it." Id. at ¶¶ 56-58. However, Schunke and Frederick3 failed to investigate plaintiff's complaints, and Perillo remained employed at Sunoco. Id. at ¶¶ 60-61.

After plaintiff's August 10, 2016 report, Perillo stopped his harassment until around the end of September 2016, when he "began making sexual hand gestures toward Plaintiff once again."4 Id. at ¶ 63. Frederick "continued to be present when the comments and gestures continued and again did nothing to investigate." Id. at ¶ 68. Perillo also asked plaintiff why he had reported him, and "threatened to bring his gun into the blend plant and kill everyone there." Id. at ¶¶ 64-65.

Plaintiff reported to Schunke that Perillo had resumed "making inappropriate sexual comments and gestures," but Schunke did not notify Sunoco of plaintiff's complaints. Id. at ¶¶ 66-67. Shortly after plaintiff's complaint of renewed harassment by *232Perillo, plaintiff was "constructively terminated."5 Id. at ¶ 70. As a result of the harassment, plaintiff alleges that he suffered pecuniary harm and severe emotional and physical distress. Id. at ¶ 73.

Plaintiff filed his initial Complaint on February 20, 2018. After motions to dismiss were filed by defendants BS Transportation and Bruce Schunke on June 21, 2018, and by defendants Sunoco and Mark Frederick on June 25, 2018, plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint on July 12, 2018. Those defendants again filed motions to dismiss, and plaintiff thereafter filed a Second Amended Complaint on August 3, 2018.

Plaintiff's claims in the Second Amended Complaint are imprecisely plead. The Court concludes that, notwithstanding numerous pleading errors, plaintiff has attempted to assert the following claims: (1) Count I alleging sex discrimination and retaliation6 under Title VII; (2) Count II alleging discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin under Title VII; (3) Count III alleging sex discrimination under the PHRA;7 (4) Count IV alleging retaliation under the PHRA; and (5) Count V alleging aiding and abetting under the PHRA. The claims in Counts I-IV are asserted against Sunoco and BS Transportation; the claims in Count V are asserted against all defendants.

Defendants BS Transportation and Bruce Schunke filed a motion to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint on August 31, 2018 (Document No. 24). Defendants Sunoco and Mark Frederick filed a motion to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint on September 6, 2018 (Document No. 25). Plaintiff responded to both motions to dismiss on September 20, 2018 (Document Nos. 27-28).

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355 F. Supp. 3d 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hewitt-v-bs-transp-of-ill-llc-paed-2019.