Opinion ID: 182845
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether Clancy Interfered With a Protected Right Under Ch. 151B

Text: Clancy contends that even if a direct employment relationship is not required to impose liability under § 4(4A), his conduct did not interfere with Barton's protected right to work in an environment free of unlawful harassment. Clancy emphasizes that he and Barton did not work at the same site and that he was never physically present at Barton's workplace. As discussed above, in certain factual circumstances, the MCAD and at least one Massachusetts appellate decision have interpreted § 4(4A) to impose liability on any person for interference with the plaintiff's right to work in an environment free of unlawful harassment, even where that person is not the plaintiff's employer or employer-agent. However, in each of these decisions the alleged harasser was physically present at the plaintiff's workplace and the harassing conduct occurred on the plaintiff's work site during the work day. See, e.g., Thomas O'Connor Constructors, 893 N.E.2d at 89 (verbal harassment of construction worker by supervisory employee of general contractor on unitary work site); McGrath, 2004 WL 1852966 at  (verbal harassment of supervisory employee by union employees at gas company dig sites); Erewa, 20 MDLR at 38 (verbal and physical harassment of home health care worker during on-site visit to patient's home). Here, by contrast, Clancy was never physically present at Barton's work site and none of the alleged harassing conduct occurred at Barton's workplace, although Barton may have felt some of the effects of that conduct at work. Clancy never visited Barton's office while he was the basketball coach, never attended any of his basketball games or practices, and was never otherwise physically close to Barton while Barton was working as a basketball coach. Clancy also never personally confronted Barton during the time he served as coach and never spoke directly with Barton about the basketball coaching position. Barton does not cite, and we are not aware of, any Massachusetts decisions imposing liability for harassment under § 4(4A) where, as here, the alleged harasser was not the plaintiff's employer or employer-agent, was never physically present at the plaintiff's work site, and did not perform any of the alleged harassing acts on the plaintiff's work site. As a federal court applying the law of the forum state, we will not create new rules or significantly expand existing rules. We leave those tasks to the state courts. Phoung Luc v. Wyndham Mgmt. Corp., 496 F.3d 85, 88 (1st Cir.2007). In light of our conclusion, we need not address Clancy's alternate argument that his actions were not sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a hostile work environment.