Hills v. Borough of Colwyn

978 F. Supp. 2d 469, 2013 WL 5655523, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 149326
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 17, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 13-1076
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 978 F. Supp. 2d 469 (Hills v. Borough of Colwyn) 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
Hills v. Borough of Colwyn, 978 F. Supp. 2d 469, 2013 WL 5655523, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 149326 (E.D. Pa. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

ANITA B. BRODY, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Bryan Hills (“Hills”), Aaron Ockimey, Sr. (“Ockimey”), and John Cizmarik (“Cizmarik”) (collectively “plaintiffs”) bring suit against their employer, Defendant Borough of Colwyn (“Borough” or “Colwyn”); the President of the Colwyn Borough Council, Tonette Pray (“Pray”), in her official and individual capacity; and nine additional members of the Colwyn Borough Council1 (collectively “Council Members”), in their official and individual capacities. Plaintiffs allege that defendants discriminated against them in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C.. § 2000e et seq.; the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (“PHRA”), 43 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 951 et seq.; and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (“§ 1981”), brought via 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“§ 1983”).2 Additionally, Plaintiff Cizmarik alleges that defendants discriminated against him in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.3

[472]*472Three motions are currently pending before the court. First, Defendant Mueser moves to dismiss plaintiffs’ PHRA and § 1981 claims against him in his individual capacity.4 Second, Defendants Borough, Pray, and the eight remaining Council Members (collectively “Colwyn Defendants”) move to dismiss: (1) plaintiffs’ § 1981 claims against all defendants, (2) plaintiffs’ PHRA claims against Defendants Pray and Council Members in their individual capacities, and (8) Cizmarik’s PHRA, Title VII, and ADA claims against the Borough. Third, Colwyn Defendants move to strike punitive damages as to plaintiffs’ § 1981 and PHRA claims. I will grant in part and deny in part each of these three motions for the reasons discussed below.

I. BACKGROUND5

Hills and Cizmarik are white male Borough employees. Ockimey is an African-American Borough employee. Pray, an African-American Council Member, has been president of the council since on or about November 2007. Plaintiffs allege that Pray made employment decisions based on race and enlisted other Council Members to terminate employees on the same basis. Pray has said that Borough employment should “be like UPS — all brown” and, regarding Borough employees (“employees”), “If it’s white, it ain’t right.” Plaintiffs contend that, between June 2008 and the present, Pray and Borough Council took adverse employment actions against them as a result of this race-based campaign.

A. Plaintiff Hills

In 1998, Hills began working for Colwyn Borough as Sergeant-in-charge. In 2001, he became Chief of Police. Beginning in June 2008 and continuing to the present, Pray has withheld his overtime pay, his healthcare reimbursement and his pay for unused vacation time. Pray did this by reducing, delaying, intercepting, or failing to deliver checks. Hills further contends that Pray referred to the Police Department as a “White Boys’ Club,” stated that “Black communities should be policed by black officers and run by black supervisors,” and stated to employees, including Ockimey, that she and Borough Council wanted to remove Hills from his position because of his race. About August 2009, Pray also met with African-American members of the Colwyn Police force and made racially-charged derogatory remarks about Hills. Pray instructed African-American Officers Parham, Robinson, and Reed, as well as Ockimey, to scrutinize Hills’ work and to report information to her that would assist her in terminating Hills’ employment.

Starting in 2009, Borough Council approved several disciplinary actions against Hills, including suspending him without pay in March 2009 and' June 2009, and terminating him in September 2009. Subsequent arbitrations overturned all three of these disciplinary actions as unwarranted. The March 2009 action suspended Hills for two days for alleged insubordination for not following the Borough Council’s directive to avoid scheduling officers to work overtime. In September 2009, an arbitrator overturned the March 2009 sus[473]*473pension as unwarranted and not for just cause. The Council again suspended Hills — this time for ten days — in June 2009 for ‘“neglect or violation of [his] duties’ and ‘inefficiency[,] neglect, disobedience of orders and/or conduct unbecoming an officer.’ ” The dispute again centered around the Council’s directive to avoid scheduling officers for overtime. In March 2010, a different arbitrator overturned the June 2009 suspension and concluded that “faced with limited manpower” Hills had “managed the police department admirably.” Hills claims that the Borough Council “deliberately created an impossible situation for [him] by failing to adequately budget the manpower necessary to conduct police functions, ... in order to build an unfair case against [him].” A part of this effort “was council members’ decision to penalize Hills for unplanned overtime which was necessary to meet the Borough’s policing requirements.”

On September 22, 2009, at a meeting broadcast on local television news, the Borough Council terminated Hills without notice to either Hills or the Mayor of Colwyn. In May 2011, a third arbitrator overturned Hills’ termination and ordered Hills’ reinstatement with back-pay, finding that many of the Borough’s rationales for Hills’ termination were the same issues raised to justify Hills’ previous suspensions. The Borough appealed the final arbitration decision to the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, which affirmed the arbitration award. The Borough then appealed the affirmation to the Commonwealth Court, which affirmed the lower court’s decision. Since the decision, Borough Council has failed to pay Hills’ back-pay, and has not yet reinstated him. Borough Council advised Hills that he must undergo psychological and medical testing before returning to work. Finally, around the time of the issuance of a notice of right to sue to Hills, Borough Council ceased paying Hills’ medical insurance premium.

B. Plaintiff Ockimey

The Borough hired Ockimey as a Colwyn Highway Department laborer in January 2008. In late 2008, the Borough promoted him to foreman — a post previously held by Cizmarik. Around the time of Ockimey’s promotion, Pray told Ockimey that the Borough Council was “going after” the white police department, including Hills. Pray also referred to African-American police officers who supported Hills as “Uncle Toms.” Pray told Ockimey that if he supported her efforts he would be “fine.”

In early 2009, Ockimey observed Pray and Hills in some kind of dispute. Pray demanded that Ockimey write an inaccurate statement about what happened and dictated its contents. Ockimey wrote the statement, because he feared that both he and his son (also a Borough employee) would lose their jobs. Subsequently, during Hills’ first arbitration, Ockimey testified truthfully about the dispute, violating Pray’s instructions to testify in accordance with his previous written statement. After Ockimey testified, Pray and the Council targeted him by not allowing him to make up time on.

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978 F. Supp. 2d 469, 2013 WL 5655523, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 149326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hills-v-borough-of-colwyn-paed-2013.