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Davis v. Manchester Health Center3/15/2005
This appeal arises out of a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Staci Davis, in her two count action alleging wrongful termination of employment in violation of General Statutes § 46a-60 (a) (7) (A), (E) and (G), and negligent infliction of emotional distress under the common law. The defendant, Manchester Health Center, Inc., appeals from the judgment of the trial court following a jury trial resulting in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff on both counts. The defendant claims that (1) the evidence did not support the verdict on the plaintiff's claim that the defendant had discriminated against her because of her pregnancy in violation of § 46a-60 (a) (7) (A), (2) the court improperly construed § 46a-60(a) (7) (E) and (G) by equating actual notice with written notice, and (3) the court improperly denied the defendant's motion for a directed verdict as to the claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress. The defendant also claims that if the plaintiff is not entitled to judgment on her wrongful termination claim, she is not entitled to an award of attorney's fees as provided for in General Statutes § 46a-104. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
I. PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The plaintiff began working as a certified nursing assistant on a part-time basis for the defendant at its nursing home, Crestfield Rehabilitation Center, in Manchester in February, 1997, and became a full-time employee in August, 1998. In September, 1998, the plaintiff learned that she was pregnant, a fact that the plaintiff conveyed to the defendant's management by early October, 1998.
The nursing home facility is divided into several wings. Wings one and three are occupied largely by long-term care patients who are unable to care for themselves and require considerable assistance from the nursing assistants. Wings two and four provide rehabilitation services for patients who eventually will return to the community, whereas wings one and three provide care to patients who require permanent placement. In November, 1998, the patient capacity for wings one through four was approximately thirty-two patients on wing one, fourteen patients on wing two, thirty patients on wing three and twenty patients on wing four. The duties of a certified nurse's aide include carrying, bending, squatting, lifting, pushing and pulling with the whole body on a frequent basis. The highest physical demands of the job are incurred while transferring a resident who requires the assistance of one or more persons in order to go from a prone to a seated position or from sitting to standing or when lifting a resident from a chair, toilet, commode, bed or the floor.
On Sunday, November 29, 1998, the plaintiff reported to work. She was scheduled to work from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on wing two. When she arrived, however, her supervisor, Dorothy Wierzbicki, informed her that she had been reassigned to wing one because the nursing assistant previously assigned to that wing that evening was absent due to illness. Wierzbicki, who at that time had been employed by the defendant for eight years as a nursing supervisor, was the sole supervisor in charge of the defendant's facility at the time of the plaintiff's shift. Concerned with the heavier workload associated with wing one, the plaintiff informed Wierzbicki that she had had cramps while working her shift on the previous day and that she could not tolerate working on wing one. The plaintiff also informed Wierzbicki that the defendant's assistant director of nursing, Susan DeBari, and the director of nursing, Michele Berneski, previously had told the plaintiff that she did not have to work on wing one.
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