Opinion ID: 198518
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Cronin's Cross-Appeal

Text: 77 Cronin raises a single issue in her cross-appeal: whether Lynch was entitled to the district court's award of $4,000 in emotional distress damages based upon her state law claim for intentional interference with advantageous relations. Cronin asserts that the award of emotional distress damages was improper because Lynch failed to demonstrate, as required under Massachusetts law, that she suffered any pecuniary harm from Cronin's interference with her advantageous relations with the City. 78 The jury awarded Lynch $4,000 for emotional distress caused by Cronin's statement on January 13, 1994 that she must clear out her desk. In its original judgment, the district court allocated the $4,000 in emotional distress damages to Lynch's First Amendment claim. After it dismissed Lynch's First Amendment claim, the district court in the amended judgment allocated the jury's $4,000 emotional distress award to Lynch's intentional tort claim. Cronin asserts that this allocation was error. We agree. 79 To prove her claim of intentional interference with advantageous relations, Lynch had to demonstrate that (1) a business relationship existed; (2) Cronin knew of such relationship; (3) Cronin intentionally and improperly interfered with that relationship; and (4) Lynch suffered a loss as a result of that interference. See United Truck Leasing Corp. v. Geltman, 406 Mass. 811, 814-16, 551 N.E.2d 20 (1990). 80 The district court found that Cronin's interference with Lynch's prospective relationship with the City occurred on January 13, 1994 when she told Lynch to clear out her desk. See Lynch, 989 F.Supp. at 298 (An interference occurred on the day that the defendant ordered the plaintiff to clear out her desk.). But as we have stated, supra, the record demonstrates that Cronin's statement did not constitute a communicated decision at that time not to re-hire Lynch for the 1994 Can Share drive. An adverse employment action was made and communicated to Lynch several months later, in June, 1994. By that time, Cronin had reorganized the ESC and hired Markland for the Staff Assistant II position. The jury found that the hiring of Markland in connection with the reorganization of the ESC was not retaliatory and that Lynch was, in any event, not qualified for the Staff Assistant II position. As Cronin did not then intentionally and improperly interfere with Lynch's relationship with the City, there is no liability under Lynch's intentional tort claim. 81 Massachusetts case law is clear, moreover, that a plaintiff cannot recover emotional distress damages in connection with a claim for intentional interference with a prospective business relationship unless she can first demonstrate actual economic damages. See Ratner v. Noble, 35 Mass.App.Ct. 137, 138, 617 N.E.2d 649 (1993). The only actual damages Lynch claims to have suffered arose from her failure to be hired as the 1994 Can Share coordinator. But, as said, the decision not to hire Lynch in June, 1994 was reached for legitimate reasons, namely because Lynch was not qualified for the job. As Lynch has failed to demonstrate that she suffered any actual damages as a result of Cronin's statement on January 13, 1994 that she must clear out her desk, the award of emotional distress damages was improper.