School Committee of Brockton v. Massachusetts Com'n Against Discrimination6/19/1996
Anti-Discrimination Law, Sex, Maternity leave, Attorney's fees. Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Limitations, Statute of. Laches. Administrative Law, Substantial evidence, Findings, Evidence, Class action. Contribution.
EDITOR'S NOTE: THE ORIGINAL SLIP OPINION CONTAINED ILLEGIBLE WORDS AND/OR MISSING TEXT. THE LEXIS SERVICE WILL PLACE THE CORRECTED VERSION ON-LINE UPON RECEIPT.
GREANEY, J. We transferred this case to this court on our own motion to consider arguments made by the school committee of Brockton (school committee) alleging error in a decision of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (commission). The commission accepted the decision of a hearing commissioner, which found that the school committee had engaged in unlawful sex discrimination in violation of G. L. c. 151B, § 4 (1) (1994 ed.), by denying accrued sick leave benefits to teachers disabled by pregnancy, and awarded damages and interest to the harmed teachers. The commission itself awarded attorney's fees to the teachers. We affirm the commission's decision.
The background of the case is as follows. On August 17, 1979, the Brockton Education Association (union) filed a class action complaint with the commission against the school committee. The complaint was filed on behalf of teachers in the Brockton public schools who, from January, 1973, to December, 1978, had requested and been denied the use of accrued sick leave for pregnancy-related disabilities. The complaint stemmed from this court's decision on February 28, 1979, in School Comm. of Brockton v. Massachusetts Comm'n Against Discrimination, 377 Mass. 392, 386 N.E.2d 1240 (1979) (Brockton decision), which upheld a commission decision that the school committee had violated G. L. c. 151B, § 4, by discriminating on the basis of sex against Cynthia Zettlemoyer, a Brockton public school teacher, when it denied her January, 1973, request to use her accrued sick leave during her pregnancy-related disability.
On 114 occasions while the Zettlemoyer complaint was pending, public school teachers in Brockton requested to apply their accrued sick leave to the period of their pregnancy-related disabilities. The requests were denied. Each teacher's request was presented to the school committee by the Brockton school superintendent, along with the superintendent's recommendation for handling the request. During 1973, 1974, and the first five months of 1975, the superintendent's recommendations to the school committee were phrased in different ways, but some referred to a test case on the issue of allowing sick leave for maternity-related disabilities, and indicated that the teachers' ultimate eligibility for sick leave benefits would depend on the outcome of the test case. In some cases which arose as early as February 16, 1975, and in all cases which arose on and after May 20, 1975, the superintendent's recommendation to the school committee was to grant any application for maternity leave "without pay and without sick leave pending a court decision."
During 1973, 1974, and the first ten and one-half months of 1975, the school committee responded to pregnant teachers' requests for sick leave benefits with letters which were worded in different ways, some of which stated that the teacher's ultimate eligibility for the requested benefits would depend on the outcome of a court case on the issue. In some cases which arose as early as January 22, 1975, and in all cases which arose after October 15, 1975, the school committee responded to the teachers' requests with a form letter stating that "since the question of sick leave for maternity has yet to be resolved in a test case, it is not possible to grant your requ
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