Opinion ID: 1951668
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Count One of Mr. Freas's Amended Complaint

Text: Count one of Mr. Freas's amended complaint alleges wrongful discharge because he filed and prosecuted a class action against ACSI for deductions from the pay of couriers to cover cargo insurance and workers' compensation insurance. D.C.Code § 36-220.9 makes it unlawful for any employer to: (3) Discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because that employee has filed a complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this subchapter or has testified or is about to testify in any proceeding[.] Under § 36-220.10(a), [a]ny person who willfully violates any of the provisions of § 36-220.9 shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000, or to imprisonment of not more than 6 months, or both. In addition, under § 36-220.11(a), [a]ny employer who pays an employee less than the wage to which that employee is entitled ... shall be liable to that employee.... Under § 36-220.11(b) an employee may sue the employer for damages. D.C.Code § 36-316(a) provides that: No agreement by an employee to pay any portion of premium paid by his employer to a carrier or to contribute to a benefit fund or department maintained by such employer for the purpose of providing compensation or medical services and supplies as required by this chapter shall be valid, and any employer who makes a deduction for such purpose or any employee entitled to the benefits of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000. The class action suit, in which Mr. Freas participated and testified as a lead plaintiff, challenged the unlawful deductions from class members' paychecks to cover workers' compensation insurance premiums, in violation of D.C.Code § 36-316(a). The class action suit was related to the minimum wage provisions of subchapter one of title thirty-six of the D.C.Code, according to the suit, since the paychecks of ACSI couriers were decreased by the amount of the insurance premiums. Moreover, Mr. Freas alleged that when he complained about the deductions, the manager of ACSI's Air Department in New York told him: You're wasting your time! We'll break you before it ever gets that far! If you file suit against us, I will personally guarantee it will cost you your job. Mr. Freas testified in the class action suit on March 20, 1985, and was terminated on April 29, 1985, even though he had been receiving workers' compensation benefits since January 1985 when he suffered an injury while at work. He alleged that he was not replaced on his shift after his firing, but that when he sought to return to work in December 1985 when he was well, he was informed there was no position available for him. Five days after this information was conveyed to him, a new employee was hired, but was not assigned to Mr. Freas's shift. D.C.Code § 36-220.9(3) contains an explicit prohibition on terminating an employee who files a complaint under or related to [the] subchapter concerning minimum wages (emphasis added). The minimum wages subchapter embodies an express mandate that employees in the District should be paid at wages sufficient to provide adequate maintenance and to protect health. D.C.Code § 36-220. [6] Logically related to § 36-220 is the mandate set forth in § 36-316, that deductions from an employee's paycheck to cover workers' compensation insurance premiums are prohibited and punished by a fine up to $1,000. The District's legislature has determined that employers who discharge an employee who files a lawsuit related to minimum wage policies are to be punished under the criminal law (§ 36-220.10), and may be sued civilly (§ 36-220.11). Here, Mr. Freas has alleged facts which, if proven, demonstrate that he was discharged in violation of a mandate explicitly set forth in District law, because he filed and prosecuted a class action suit alleging unlawful workers' compensation insurance premium deductions from the pay of couriers employed by ACSI. ACSI's argument, that Mr. Freas's amended complaint is fatally defective because he did not plead a specific statutory provision until his September 9, 1998 motion to reconsider, is not persuasive. In his amended complaint, Mr. Freas alleged that the deductions from his paycheck for workers' compensation insurance premiums violated the District of Columbia Worker's [sic] Compensation Act, D.C.Code 1981[sic] § [§] 36-101 et seq.  This court has said previously that: Under Super.Ct.Civ.R. 8(a) and (e), a complaint is sufficient so long as it fairly puts the defendant on notice of the claim against him. Scott v. District of Columbia, 493 A.2d 319, 323 (D.C.1985) (citation omitted). By citing to D.C.Code §§ 36-101 et seq., and specifying the unlawful deductions from his paycheck, Mr. Freas's amended complaint informed ACSI of the nature of his civil action. Moreover, ACSI clearly was on notice of the claim against it, and had the opportunity to litigate the issue raised by § 36-220.9(3) at the hearing on ACSI's motion to dismiss. See Moore v. Moore, 391 A.2d 762 (D.C.1978) (parties have impliedly contested a matter ... [where] the party contesting the [matter] received actual notice of the injection of the unpleaded matters, as well as an adequate opportunity to litigate such matters and to cure any surprise from their introduction). 391 A.2d at 768 (citations omitted). Significantly also, from August 1984 to May 1988, ACSI defended the class action suit which Mr. Freas filed and prosecuted, and thus, was aware of Mr. Freas's legal theories regarding workers' compensation insurance premium deductions from the paychecks of couriers.