McAleer v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America

928 F. Supp. 2d 280, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27693, 2013 WL 782600
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedFebruary 28, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 12-10839-DPW
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 928 F. Supp. 2d 280 (McAleer v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McAleer v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America, 928 F. Supp. 2d 280, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27693, 2013 WL 782600 (D. Mass. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DOUGLAS P. WOODLOCK, District Judge.

Plaintiff Christopher McAleer brings this action against his former employer alleging age discrimination and failure to pay sales commissions. He has also amended his complaint to bring common law claims for tortious interference with advantageous relations and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Defendant Prudential Insurance Company of America moves to dismiss, arguing that the discrimination claims are time barred, that the Wage Act does not cover the commissions, and that the state law claims are duplicative and therefore preempted.

I will grant Prudential’s motion to dismiss the discrimination claims because McAleer did not file his complaint within the applicable statute of limitations. However, I will deny Prudential’s motion with respect McAleer’s claims regarding Prudential’s failure to pay sales commissions under the Wage Act and under the common law.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

In 2002, Prudential acquired the company that employed Christopher McAleer, and McAleer became a Prudential employee. Prudential promoted McAleer to New England Division Sales Manager in 2005, responsible for territory ranging from Maine to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but in 2006 Prudential demoted him to Regional Sales Manager responsible only for New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. He was 59 years old when Prudential demoted him and replaced him in the New England Division Sales Manager position with Eric Fauth, who was approximately 40-years-old.

In 2008 and 2009, McAleer’s sales figures started to drop. For the first time, he received evaluations reflecting that he failed to meet expectations. McAleer alleges that his diminished sales figured resulted predominantly from the fact that Prudential twice delayed approval of competitive annuity products for sale in Massachusetts — which regularly makes up 80-85% of Prudential’s total business in New [283]*283England — despite having approved them for sale in the rest of the country months earlier. He approached his supervisor, Fauth, and Fauth’s supervisor, Rodney Al-lain, and asked them to adjust his sales targets to reflect the months when he did not have a competitive product to sell. They declined to adjust his targets and, on June 24, 2009, Prudential fired McAleer for failure to meet evaluation expectations and sales goals. Although Prudential continued to pay McAleer his base salary until the effective date of his termination, December 21, 2009, it stopped paying his commissions after his last day in the office, July 24, 2009.

McAleer contends the delays in approving competitive products for sale in Massachusetts and his supervisors’ refusal to adjust his target goals were a scheme to force him out motivated by age discrimination. McAleer was 62 years old on the effective date of his termination. Both Allain and Fauth were approximately 43 years old.1 McAleer alleges that Prudential hired two younger employees to replace him after he was fired, though he does not specify their ages. He further alleges that while he worked at Prudential, his supervisors, Fauth, Allain, and the Broker Deal Sales Manager, Rick Sing-master, consistently made ageist comments such as “you’re too old for this,” “this is a young man’s job,” and “it’s clear from your condition that you are getting too old to do this job.”

The Human Resources division at Prudential investigated the claims of age discrimination, but informed McAleer on January 29, 2010 — five months after he first lodged his claim and one month after the effective date of his termination — that it found no evidence of discrimination.

B. Procedural History

Fauth issued a final warning letter regarding sales goals to McAleer on May 24, 2009, informing him that he had failed to meet his sales targets and that Prudential would terminate his employment if his sales figures did not improve within 30 days. McAleer first raised his concerns regarding age discrimination to Prudential’s Human Resources department about two weeks later, on June 8, 2009. Prudential informed McAleer of his termination by a letter, dated July 24, 2009. This was also his last day in the office. He was required to return his ID badge, security key card, and any company property, such as computer equipment. The letter noted that McAleer had accrued 58 days of unused paid time off, and therefore calculated that the effective date of his termination would be October 13, 2009. McAleer again notified the Human Resources department of his concerns regarding age discrimination about one week later, on August 1, 2009. After his last day in the office, and on the first day he began to be paid for his unused vacation days, McAleer requested and received short-term disability leave lasting 12 weeks, until October 17, 2009. Because McAleer did not spend his unused vacation time while on disability leave, this extended his effective termination date from October 13, 2009 until December 21, 2009. Prudential issued McAleer a new termination letter, superceding and replacing the previous letter, and memorializing the new effective termination date.

Near the end of his disability leave, on September 30, 2009, McAleer filed a complaint with the Fair Labor Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office demanding payment of commissions not [284]*284paid since his last day in the office. About one year later, on August 81, 2010, he filed claims with both the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (“MCAD”) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”).

MCAD issued McAleer a right-to-sue letter just over one year later, on September 16, 2011. EEOC issued him a right-to-sue letter on November 3, 2011, one year and three months after McAleer filed his claim. Both McAleer and his counsel allege that neither received the letter from the EEOC until McAleer’s counsel contacted the EEOC on February 28, 2012 when the EEOC faxed a copy of the November 3, 2011 letter to McAleer’s counsel.

McAleer filed this action on May 9, 2012, 180 days after the EEOC issued its right-to-sue letter. That was 71 days after McAleer and his counsel received the right-to-sue letter by fax from the EEOC.

McAleer filed an Amended Complaint, now the operative pleading in this case, on October 1, 2012 and Prudential moved to dismiss the Amended Complaint on October 22, 2012.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

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.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (internal citation omitted). “ ‘Naked assertion[s]’ devoid of ‘further factual enhancement’ ” do not constitute adequate pleading. Id. (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). All well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint must be taken as true and all reasonable inferences must be drawn in the pleader’s favor. SEC v. Tambone, 597 F.3d 436, 441 (1st Cir.2010) (en banc). Unless the alleged facts push a claim “across the line from conceivable to plausible,” the complaint is subject to dismissal.

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Bluebook (online)
928 F. Supp. 2d 280, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27693, 2013 WL 782600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcaleer-v-prudential-insurance-co-of-america-mad-2013.