Daley v. Aetna Life and Casualty Co.8/3/1999
The named plaintiff, Virginia L. Daley (Daley), an at-will employee, brought an action against her former employer, Aetna Life & Casualty Company (Aetna), and Michele Flynn, a regional manager at Aetna and Daley's supervisor, claiming, inter alia, wrongful termination of her employment allegedly in retaliation for statements that she had made that were critical of Aetna's failure to implement its highly publicized "family-friendly" workplace policies. The trial court directed a verdict in favor of the defendants on certain counts, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants on Daley's remaining claims. Thereafter, the trial court rendered judgment on all counts for the defendants. This appeal followed.
I.
BACKGROUND FACTS
The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. Daley had worked for Aetna from October, 1985, until her discharge in November, 1993. She was hired initially as an interior designer to work on a long-term project to renovate Aetna's home office. In 1989, she transferred to Aetna's corporate leasing department, where she was responsible for coordinating design development and modifying Aetna's field offices nationwide. For the years 1989 and 1990, Daley received annual performance evaluations in which several supervisors expressed dissatisfaction with her work, including her inability to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients, her persistent failure to meet project deadlines, her failure to take action on important assignments, and her failure to accept responsibility for her own shortcomings.
In November, 1990, Flynn began work at Aetna as a regional manager, and Daley's supervisor, in Aetna's corporate leasing department. Soon thereafter, Aetna announced a major reorganization and restructuring, scheduled to begin the following year, which called for a reduction in the number of designers in the corporate leasing department. Around that same time, Daley informed Flynn that she was pregnant.
In early 1991, Flynn assessed Daley's work performance for the previous year and noted in her written evaluation Daley's continued inability to complete projects on time and her failure to update colleagues and clients on the status of ongoing projects. Flynn offered Daley specific suggestions to improve her performance, including suggestions that she organize and manage her time more efficiently, plan her projects more carefully, prioritize her workload, and develop teamwork skills to coordinate and improve communication with team members. Soon thereafter, Flynn approved a $2100 raise for Daley.
In July, 1991, Daley gave birth to a son and commenced a six week period of paid maternity leave, followed by an additional two weeks of paid vacation time. Sometime during her initial absence, Daley telephoned Flynn to request an alternative schedule to take effect upon her return that would enable her to work from home one day per week. After discussing Daley's request with her superiors, Flynn decided that, given the effects of the ongoing reorganization process, including increased workload, the decreased staff, the team-oriented environment, the need to train staff members with new procedures, and the changing needs of the department's customers, she could not accommodate a work-at-home schedule. At the time, Daley considered Flynn's decision to deny her request reasonable.
Daley returned to work on September 15, 1991, in the midst of Aetna's reorganization. By October of that year, eight designers in the corporate leasing department had lost their jobs. Daley, however, was one of the designers chosen to remain in the department. Flynn, in concert with two other regional
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