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Cendant Corp. v. Commissioner of Labor10/25/2005
authority adopting an alternate burden-shifting framework, we find unpersuasive the plaintiff's sole reliance on the reasoning of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Rice v. Sunrise Express, Inc., supra, 209 F.3d 1018, to support its contention that the McDonnell Douglas Corp. framework should apply to interference claims. Moreover, logic dictates that the McDonnell Douglas Corp. framework, which "is intended to provide guidance to fact finders who are faced with the difficult task of determining intent in complicated discrimination cases"; (emphasis added) Craine v. Trinity College, 259 Conn. 625, 637, 791 A.2d 518 (2002); is inapplicable in analyzing a class of claims, such as interference claims, for which intent is not a consideration. The Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal explicitly have rejected the use of the McDonnell Douglas Corp. framework for interference claims on precisely this basis. See, e.g., Liu v. Amway Corp., supra, 347 F.3d 1136; Smith v. Diffee Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, Inc., supra, 298 F.3d 963; Bachelder v. America West Airlines, Inc., supra, 259 F.3d 1125. Because we already have concluded that the FMLA regulation established the correct burden-shifting framework, and because the McDonnell Douglas Corp. framework was created explicitly to address claims where proof of an employer's intent is required, we reject the use of the McDonnell Douglas Corp. framework for analyzing interference claims under the leave statute.
For all of the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the trial court properly affirmed the analytical framework used by the commissioner in analyzing an interference claim under the leave statute. In the present case, the trial court affirmed the commissioner's use of the strict liability standard, which does not require that the employee alleging a claim of interference prove the employer's intent. In deferring to the commissioner's legal conclusions, the trial court also implicitly affirmed the commissioner's choice to use the burden-shifting framework that placed the ultimate burden of proof on the plaintiff to show that Persky would not have been employed at the time she sought reinstatement. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court properly affirmed the analytical framework employed by the commissioner.
III.
The plaintiff also challenges the trial court's affirmance of several of the commissioner's factual findings. Specifically, the plaintiff claims that, regardless of the allocation of the burden of proof, the trial court improperly concluded that there was substantial evidence in the record to support the commissioner's findings that: (1) there was a causal connection between Persky's termination and her leave; and (2) Persky would have retained her position had she not taken leave. The defendants counter that the trial court properly determined that there was substantial evidence in the record to support the commissioner's findings. We agree with the defendants.
As a preliminary matter, we state the applicable standard of review. In reviewing the commissioner's factual findings and conclusions, "[the court must] determine whether there is substantial evidence in the administrative record to support [these] findings of basic fact and whether the conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable. . . . Neither this court nor the trial court may retry the case or substitute its own judgment for that of the administrative agency on the weight of the evidence or questions of fact." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) JSF Promotions, Inc. v. Administrator, Unemployment Compensation Act, 265 Conn. 413, 417, 828 A.2d 609 (2003). With these standards in mind, we examine the plaintiff's claims. Because the question of whether
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