Court Opinion

ID: 9759715
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:25:55.879014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:06:00.012788
License: Public Domain

*30ZAZZALI, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the comprehensive opinion of the Court that plaintiffs’ hostile work environment claims are not barred by the statute of limitations under the LAD, and that those claims present material issues of fact for a jury to determine. Ante at 17, 803 A.2d at 614. However, I cannot join in the majority’s conclusion that Saylor did not allege sufficient facts to sustain a claim of constructive discharge. The majority reasons that “because Saylor has alleged conduct only ‘minimally necessary to form a hostile work environment claim,’ ... he cannot survive summary judgment under the elevated constructive discharge standard unless he asserts additional facts.” Ante at 29, 803 A.2d at 628. In my view, the record, viewed in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, Saylor, reveals a triable issue regarding both hostile work environment and constructive discharge. I therefore respectfully dissent.
I
A constructive discharge occurs under the LAD where an “ ‘employer knowingly permit[s] conditions of discrimination in employment so intolerable1 that a reasonable person subject to them would resign.’ ” Muench, supra, 255 N.J.Super. at 302, 605 A.2d 242 (quoting Levendos, supra, 860 F.2d at 1231). However, constructive discharge is a “heavily fact-driven determination!)]” Id. at 302, 605 A.2d 242 (citing Levendos, supra, 860 F.2d at 1230). “[C]ourts have found constructive discharge based upon a continuous pattern of discriminatory treatment over a period of years[.]” *31Aman v. Cort Furniture Rental Corp., 85 F.3d 1074, 1084 (3d Cir.1996) (citing Nolan v. Cleland, 686 F.2d 806, 813 (9th Cir.1982); Clark v. Marsh, 665 F.2d 1168, 1175-76 (D.C.Cir.1981)).
The concept of constructive discharge is by definition elusive. The concept generates confusion both in law and in practice. Because the conduct of the employer is sometimes subtle as it pressures an employee to quit, there are rarely bright lines or smoking guns. Therefore, in determining whether conditions were so intolerable that an employee felt forced to resign, we must consider the totality of the circumstances, including but not limited to the frequency or consistency of the allegedly discriminatory or hostile conduct, its severity, and whether it unreasonably interfered with the employee’s work performance.
II
In the present matter, the record reveals facts that could support a jury finding that HDC knowingly permitted conditions of discrimination so intolerable that Saylor was forced to resign. Beginning in 1989 and 1990, HDC was aware that Shepherd and Saylor supported Sampson and Greenfield in their lawsuit. Shepherd and Saylor openly expressed their displeasure about racial discrimination and communication problems with supervisors in Cottage # 22. Both plaintiffs reported those problems to Sclama and Gal and several others in HDC’s administration.
In November 1994, when Sclama and Gal had to appear in court, Sclama and Gal began treating plaintiffs with hostility and engaged in overly-critical supervision of plaintiffs. According to plaintiffs, Sclama and Gal no longer said hello or goodbye and used aggressive, nasty, or hostile tones with plaintiffs. However, Sclama and Gal were friendly and cheerful toward other shift employees. According to Shepherd, on one occasion Sclama was “hostile all night and acted like he was very mad at me and did not talk to me all night, but he talked to CTT Fred Lancaster and was very friendly with him.” On another occasion, Shepherd stated that Sclama was “unfriendly all night to me and Mr. Saylor, but *32was very friendly to everybody else ... [h]e made it obvious that he was mad at me and Mr. Saylor.” In addition, around Christmas time, Sclama gave gifts to all of the staff members on the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift except for Shepherd and Saylor and did not invite plaintiffs to the holiday party for shift employees.
The above conduct may not be reasonably characterized as intolerable, but Sclama and Gal’s treatment of plaintiffs was not limited to unfriendly behavior. Sclama and Gal regularly allowed other shift employees to take extra and extended breaks, but consistently reminded Shepherd and Saylor to be on time when returning from their breaks. For example, on January 19, 1995, Sclama angrily confronted Saylor “about being a minute or two late on his break.” Sclama’s behavior prompted a co-worker, Irene Capitulek, to write a letter to Susan Carty, the Affirmative Action Officer at the HDC, describing the hostility from Sclama and Gal toward Shepherd and Saylor. In the letter, Capitulek stated that since the start of the Sampson-Greenfield trial, the supervisors attempted to provoke arguments among plaintiffs “to get them transferred out of the cottage,” thus revealing that an objective bystander discerned animus on the part of defendants.
Sclama and Gal also directly threatened plaintiffs. For example, on November 30,1994, when Shepherd had returned from his lunch break around 2:00 a.m., Gal threatened him, stating that “[Sclama] and I are going to watch everything you and [Saylor] do and we will write down everything in the office.” She also stated “do you know we had to go through the lawsuit and we’re being sued and you and Mr. Saylor are to blame for it? And what goes around comes around and you will be sorry for not writing better statements for us concerning the lawsuit.” That same day, Gal told Shepherd that he and Saylor “would be sorry for not agreeing with her and [Sclama] concerning the lawsuit problems.” Gal repeated her comment that “what goes around comes around,” this time loud enough for Saylor to hear after he arrived for his shift, and twice directly to Shepherd a few weeks later.
*33Also during this time, Shepherd had called in sick and shortly after the New Year he was placed on extended “medical verification” status for an alleged pattern of absences, indicating that management believed he had abused his sick time. Shepherd subsequently filed a grievance with the union and, after a hearing, was removed from medical verification status. Similarly, on April 19, 1995, Searfass issued a “letter of caution” to Saylor in respect of a pattern of sick leave.
In an effort to remedy the situation, on February 1, 1995, plaintiffs each wrote a letter to HDC Superintendent Wall, informing him that the retaliatory harassment in Cottage #22 had resurfaced and worsened, causing them to suffer emotional stress. In response to the letters, the Superintendent called a shift meeting on February 9, 1995, and scheduled a counseling session on March 15. Both men claimed that the shift meeting was ineffective, and due to the late notice, they were unable to attend the counseling session. They were not given the opportunity to reschedule and the Superintendent never followed up on the matter. Moreover, there was no increase in supervision on the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift after the February 2 meeting concerning the retaliation and hostile work environment.
On February 10, Sclama, Gal, and the housekeeper, William Cordes, were laughing and talking about an article in The Star Ledger regarding the Sampson-Greenfield.trial, loud enough for Shepherd and Saylor to hear. Sclama stated that “some of them might have to go to jail before this is over.” Shepherd and Saylor believed that that comment was meant to harass them. They also believed that Sclama was trying to threaten them by insinuating that they would go to jail. Cordes later informed Shepherd and Saylor that “some supervisors had told him it wasn’t too late for [them] to write statements saying that [they] were wrong about what happened in Cottage # 22.” Cordes also told them that he had heard from certain supervisors that “Mr. Wall was mad as hell” and that people who had written statements adverse to their supervisors would be transferred. Shepherd and Saylor believed *34that Selama and Gal were behind Cordes’s comments in view of their close relationship with him.
In March 1995, about the time that Shepherd had transferred out of the cottage, Selama charged Saylor with using the “F” word in front of a client. He also alleged that Saylor approached him and told him that another shift employee was “fucking” with his clients. Saylor denied the incident in a memo to Mrs. Steeker, Assistant Supervisor of Residential Living, claiming that the charge was further harassment by Selama as a result of his support of Greenfield and Sampson. No disciplinary action was taken against Saylor. On April 5, Selama again charged Saylor for using inappropriate language and ethnic slurs. On June 9, the disciplinary action on appeal was dismissed after the hearing officer concluded that management had failed to meet its burden to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the charge was truthful and accurate.
On March 17,1995, Saylor filed for retirement. He last worked in July 1995. Saylor retired despite his previous intention to remain at HDC until he was seventy years old. Saylor alleged that his “working condition[s] [were] so intolerable and therefore [he] was forced to retire.”
Ill
In my view, the reeprd indicates that Saylor was not subjected to sporadic and isolated incidents of discrimination or maltreatment, but rather endured pervasive, regular and intentional hostility in the form of overly strict supervision, an absence of social contact, both direct and veiled threats, and apparently unwarranted disciplinary charges. I have detailed above the long history of harassment culminating in the intense period marking the months before Saylor left his employment with the HDC. There is one other consideration that should be evaluated in determining whether the situation was intolerable and that is the horrific work environment in which he worked. To be sure, one can view these facts through the semantic prism of employment law and argue *35that a reasonable juror in the workplace would find the situation tolerable. But that crimped view of the landscape ignores the realities of this workplace.
Saylor was responsible for thirty-two mentally retarded adult males, some assaultive or self-abusive. He thus coped daily with violent and destructive “clients.” In turn, he was buffeted by harassing supervisors who either were seeking his removal, or, at the very least, to make his life — and—work difficult. Pressure from both sides operated on him, synergistically creating the atmosphere that he claims caused him to quit. That is not to say that Saylor enjoys a lower or different burden of proof because of his circumstances. He voluntarily chose to work at HDC. However, the line between tolerable and intolerable is an imprecise one. Submission of the question to the jury to determine whether under the reality of life in Cottage # 22 that line was crossed is consistent with the basic principle that provides the benefit of all inferences to non-moving parties.
Therefore, I would hold that a jury reasonably could conclude that Saylor’s decision to retire was based on the cumulative effect of the persistent hostile treatment by his supervisors. The very fact that plaintiff had been subject to continuous discrimination and retaliatory treatment during his employment with HDC is sufficient to support a conclusion that he had simply had enough. Indeed, Capitulek’s observation that “Selama and Gal attempted to provoke argument with plaintiffs to get them transferred out of the cottage,” by itself, creates a significant fact question that, if true, evidences not only a constructive discharge but animus as well. Moreover, in a letter to HDC administration regarding the atmosphere in Cottage # 22, Saylor specifically stated that he did not want to transfer to a different cottage. Additionally, in his certification to the trial court Saylor stated that he had planned to work until he was seventy years old, but could not because his “working eondition[s] [were] so intolerable [that he] was forced to retire.” From the facts alleged a jury could conclude that HDC permitted the conditions of plaintiff’s employment to become “ ‘so *36intolerable that a reasonable person subject to them would resign.’” Muench, supra, 255 N.J.Super, at 302, 605 A.2d 242 (quoting Levendos, supra, 860 F.2d at 1231).
As noted by the Appellate Division,
[viewing the evidence from Saylor’s perspective, his employer discriminated against him over a four-month period by making his working conditions intolerable; there was a close physical working relationship between Saylor and his alleged harassers; Saylor pursued internal grievance procedures to complain about the harassment; and his employer, according to Saylor, half-heartedly responded to these complaints.' Also, Saylor claimed that he did not want to voluntarily transfer, as Shepherd did, because he felt there were distinct disadvantages to starting out all over again in a new cottage. Given the conduct of his immediate supervisors, we believe that the reasonableness of Saylor’s decision to choose to early retirement was a question of fact to be determined at trial.
[Shepherd, supra, 336 N.J.Super. at 421-22, 765 A.2d 217.]
Therefore, like the Appellate Division, I would allow Saylor’s constructive discharge claim to be decided by a jury.
For affirmance in part; reversal in part — Chief Justice PORITZ and Justices COLEMAN, VERNIERO and LaVECCHIA — 4.
Concurring in part; dissenting in part — Justices STEIN, LONG and ZAZZALI — 3. .

 In my view, the "intolerable" standard is too strict. Allegations of difficult and grating working conditions should be sufficient to overcome a motion for summary judgment. Cf. Bourque v. Powell Electrical Manuf. Co., 617 F.2d 61, 65 (5th Cir.1980) (rejecting contention that employee must show intolerable working conditions in favor of demonstration of "difficult or unpleasant” working conditions) (quoting Alicea Rosado v. Garcia Santiago, 562 F.2d 114, 119 (1st Cir.1977)). Although I believe there is a fact question on this record in respect of intolerable conditions, the Fifth Circuit's approach is more in touch with “the realities of modem employment.” Id. at 65.