Court Opinion

ID: 9526596
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:20:39.476062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:42.751783
License: Public Domain

*311Abrams, J.
(concurring). I concur with much of what the majority says in denying relief to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs claim that the defendants invaded their right of privacy by requiring them to answer fully a questionnaire which could be used as the basis of a “comprehensive psychiatric evaluation.” The plaintiffs produced some evidence in support of that claim, but no evidence that Bristol-Myers so used the questionnaire. The reason may well be that Bristol-Myers, in the past, has been known as a “non-user” of personality tests. A. Westin, Privacy and Freedom 137, 372 (1967).
I agree that “[m]pst of the unanswered questions were relevant to the plaintiffs’ job qualifications and represented no invasion of the plaintiffs’ rights of privacy protected by law.” Further, in this case the plaintiffs voluntarily1 answered the questions most likely to be viewed as objectionable.2 The plaintiffs refused to answer, or gave flippant answers (see supra at 309 n.ll) to, many relevant and unintrusive questions.3 Therefore, I conclude that the plaintiffs failed to show an invasion of their privacy.
As I read the opinion, it implicitly recognizes that G. L. c. 214, § IB, reflects a legislative concern for basic fairness, and an attempt to limit the extent to which informational *312activities of an employer may intrude on an employee’s privacy. The opinion also suggests that employers may be limited to fair and unobtrusive methods of information collection, and to the collection of information relevant and necessary to a business purpose.
I believe the opinion recognizes that a careful balancing must be made between privacy interests and the need for the requested information, its materiality, and its relevance. Therefore, I would explicitly state the opinion’s underlying premise: that an employee at will has an action for bad faith discharge if an employer discharges the employee for failure to provide private information. In such cases the issue would be “[a]t what point do inquiries about. . . employees become unduly intrusive?” Report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission: Personal Privacy in an Information Society 223 (1977).
Because of the plaintiffs’ lack of proof, the opinion does not, and need not, focus on that issue. Nor does it address whether questions are more intrusive when the information requested is largely irrelevant to any business purpose of the employer.4 See Report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission: Personal Privacy in an Information Society 236-237 (1977); Miller, the Privacy Revolution: A Report from the Barricades, 19 Washburn L. Rev. 1, 19 (1979); Comment, The Use and Abuse of Computerized Information: Striking a Balance Between Personal Privacy Interests and Organizational Information Needs, 44 Alb. L. Rev. 589, 601 (1980); Comment, Employee Privacy Rights: A *313Proposal, 47 Fordham L. Rev. 155, 192-193 (1978). I recognize that these determinations are best made on a case by case basis. “A well settled legal doctrine embodies the work of many minds, and has been tested in form as well as substance by trained critics whose practical interest it is to resist it at every step. These are advantages the want of which cannot be supplied by any faculty of generalization, however brilliant . . . .” O.W. Holmes, Codes, And The Arrangement of the Law, 5 Am. L. Rev. 1 (1870). Therefore, I concur.

 This case does not raise the issue whether there would be a violation of G. L. c. 214, § IB, if the plaintiffs had not voluntarily answered the questions. See A. Miller, Assault on Privacy 185-186 (1971) (“To talk of information being ‘voluntarily’ given in the context of ... an employment relationship ... is to ignore reality”). See also Employment Records, The Report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission, Appendix 3, at 6-7 (1977); Hermann, Privacy, The Prospective Employee, and Employment Testing. The Need to Restrict Polygraph and Personality Testing, 47 Wash. L. Rev. 73, 112 (1971). In this case, the plaintiffs answered some questions and refused to answer others which they felt were intrusive. In these circumstances, one can only conclude that the questions which were answered, were answered voluntarily.

 Cort failed to answer, or gave limited answers to, these questions.

 For example: “Aims: What are your qualifications for this position? What are your principal strengths? What are your principal weaknesses? . . . What income would you need in order to live the way you would like to live? . . . What are your plans for the future?”

 The majority acknowledges that many of the questions asked are of little significance to the company. They concern: home ownership; value of mortgage; maiden name of spouse; spouse’s age and occupation; age and health of parents; occupation of father, brothers, and sisters; off-the-job problems and worries. Other companies have eliminated this sort of question from their questionnaires. For example, the J.C. Penney Company has eliminated from its application forms, on the ground that the items were unnecessary: maiden name, date of birth, leisure activity, and physical or mental condition. International Business Machines Corporation has eliminated date of birth, spouse’s employment and relatives employed by IBM. Privacy Report, Appendix 3, at 39.