Filed Date: Feb. 11, 2009
Case Ongoing
Clearinghouse coding complete
In this class-action lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, a Massachusetts state trial court, several African-American and Hispanic police officers employed throughout Massachusetts alleged that the Massachusetts Human Resources Division engaged in racial discrimination that violated state law in its administration of promotional exams for police sergeants. This case followed a separate (non-class-action) lawsuit, Lopez v. Lawrence ("Lopez I"), filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2007, where several African-American and Hispanic police officers employed by the Cities of Methuen and Lawrence, Massachusetts brought similar allegations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1994.
In Lopez I, several African-American and Hispanic police officers sued the Massachusetts Human Resources Division (HRD), the HRD’s chief executive in his official capacity and the officers’ employers (various municipalities and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Represented by private counsel, the officers brought a disparate impact claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically alleging that the HRD-administered promotional exams had an impermissible disparate impact on the promotion of African-American and Hispanic officers by their employers and lacked a job-related purpose. They also brought claims under Massachusetts state law, and sought declaratory and injunctive relief to address the effects of the examinations on past discrimination, in addition to compensatory damages, including backpay, and attorneys’ fees.
The state defendants (HRD and its chief executive) moved to dismiss and for summary judgment in the alternative, arguing that Title VII abrogates a state’s sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution only when the state functions as an employer. Since the officers were employed by the municipalities and MBTA, rather than the HRD, the state defendants contended that they remained immune from suit. The district court judge denied their motion. On interlocutory appeal, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed, holding that the HRD was not the officers’ employer under Title VII. 588 F.3d 69. Accordingly, the state defendants were dismissed as defendants and, on remand, that case proceeded to go to trial against the municipalities and the MBTA. The District Court determined after a bench trial that the examinations were nevertheless job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity; and that the plaintiffs failed to prove that Boston had refused to adopt an alternative employment practice that would have equally or better served its business needs with less disparate impact. 2014 WL 12978866. The First Circuit affirmed this judgment. 823 F.3d 102.
In response, on February 11, 2009, the officers filed this class action lawsuit on behalf of all African-American and Hispanic police officers who are subject to a Massachusetts civil service law against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the HRD in Suffolk County Superior Court. Represented by private counsel, the plaintiffs alleged that the HRD engaged in discrimination by administering an examination for promotion to the position of police sergeant that had an adverse and discriminatory impact on African-American and Hispanic candidates and were not valid predictors of job performance, in violation of several state laws. The officers alleged that their municipal employers relied on their ranking by exam results, causing them to be denied promotional opportunities. As a result, they contended, there is a substantial disparity between the number of African-American and Hispanic police sergeants and entry-level police officers. The case was assigned to Associate Justice Thomas E. Connolly.
In July 2010, the defendants moved to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction on the basis of the state’s sovereign immunity and, in the alternative, for failure to state a claim. On January 10, 2011, Judge Connolly granted their motion to dismiss on both grounds, without issuing an opinion.
The officers filed an application for direct appellate review to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which was granted on June 23, 2011. Writing for the court, Associate Justice Fernande R. V. Duffly reversed the trial court’s decision on November 9, 2012. 463 Mass. 696. Justice Duffly found that the state and HRD did not have sovereign immunity from the police officers’ claims because the statute prohibiting racial discrimination expressly permitted suit against the state and its agencies. She further determined that the officers’ claim under the statute prohibiting discrimination in terms or conditions by an employer was properly dismissed because neither the state nor the HRD were the officers’ employers; since the officers’ employers, the municipalities and MBTA, were not obliged to rely on the examination when making promotional decisions, Judge Duffly held that they were also not liable. She also held that their claim for aiding and abetting a violation of the statute prohibiting unlawful discrimination was correctly dismissed because the officers did not allege that the municipalities who employed police officers committed distinct underlying acts of discrimination. By contrast, Judge Duffly found that the officers sufficiently alleged that the HRD interfered with their exercise of the right to be free from discrimination in employment because this claim could be established by evidence of disparate impact, and did not require a direct employment relationship. Pursuant to her order, the case was remanded to the Suffolk County Superior Court.
On September 18, 2013, the court denied the motion by defendants to stay the state court proceedings pending resolution of the parallel federal action, and granted plaintiffs’ motion for class certification for liability purposes only, subject to further consideration if the action reached the stage of remedy. The parties proceeded to engage in discovery for two years, during which the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on February 7, 2014. The parties subsequently filed a joint motion to stay the state court proceedings pending resolution of the parallel federal action, however, on April 2, 2015. The court granted this motion on April 9, 2015, staying all proceedings until December 1, 2015. Subsequently, however, the court granted several joint motions by the parties to stay the proceedings.
On June 27, 2018, the defendants moved for judgment on the pleadings, contending that the plaintiffs’ discrimination claim was barred under the doctrine of issue preclusion because of the prior decision in the parallel federal action dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims under Massachusetts state law. Justice Robert N. Tochka of the Suffolk County Superior Court granted their motion on January 7, 2019.
The plaintiffs appealed to the Appeals Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On July 22, 2020, the panel for the Appeals Court—composed of Associate Justice Mary T. Sullivan, Associate Justice C. Jeffrey Kinder and Associate Justice Sabita Singh—reversed, finding that the application of the issue preclusion doctrine was inappropriate with respect to the plaintiffs’ interference claim.
On remand, the case was reassigned to Associate Justice of the Superior Court Douglas H. Wilkins on August 3, 2021. Before Justice Wilkins, the parties continued to engage in discovery. The case went to a bench trial limited to liability, which was held in June, July and September of 2022. Justice Wilkins issued a lengthy opinion with respect to liability on October 27, 2022 in which he found that the “[o]verwhelmingly persuasive evidence prove[d] that HRD interfered with the class members’ rights to consideration for promotion to police sergeant without regard to race or national origin,'' in violation of Massachusetts law. On November 3, 2022, Justice Wilkins ordered the parties to exchange proposals regarding injunctive relief and damages.
On March 10, 2023, the parties had a final pre-trial conference, with a bench trial scheduled for March 30, 2023. This was subsequently canceled and the parties instead had a settlement conference on March 31, 2023. The parties proposed a settlement that awarded the plaintiffs $40,000,000 to resolve all claims brought in this case, with $50,000 to be allocated for incentive awards for named plaintiffs, $300,000 to pay for any disputes involving class members who were left off from the class list, and potential attorneys’ fees and costs to be determined at a final approval hearing. In addition, the settlement stated that defendants would create and administer a new exam for police sergeants that is “developed consistent with generally accepted validation principles,” with the court to determine the level of oversight the plaintiffs would have in the final approval hearing. Any settlement funds left over after distribution would become cy pres funds that the parties would give to selected charitable organizations.
On May 1, 2023, the plaintiffs moved for final approval of the class settlement. In that motion, they also asked the court to let the plaintiffs’ experts oversee the defendants’ implementation of the new exam. The defendants filed a memorandum in opposition to the plaintiffs’ request for oversight on the same day. Later that month, on May 11, the court approved the class action settlement, finding that the agreement was “fair, adequate and reasonable for the class.” The court denied the plaintiffs’ request for oversight over the exam, holding that it did not have the authority to specify how the defendants should meet their statutory or constitutional obligations. Instead, the court ordered the defendants to provide plaintiffs’ counsel the following documents: job analysis, proposed weights for components of the exam, instruction to question writers, and instructions to subject matter experts. The court also pointed approvingly to portions of the settlement agreement in which the defendants agreed to or proposed various changes to the exam and procedures for creating the new exam. The court also granted attorneys’ fees to plaintiffs’ counsel, resulting in a 20% fee of the fund ($8,000,000), plus $750,000 for litigation costs and fees, for a total award of $8,750,000.
However, on July 18, 2023, the plaintiffs filed an emergency motion to enforce the settlement agreement and/or for a temporary injunction. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants failed to provide the required documents and refused to allow class members to sit for the new 2023 exam unless they previously signed up for the canceled 2022 exam. The plaintiffs’ sought court enforcement of the May 11, 2023 settlement agreement and/or injunctive relief. Because Justice Wilkins had retired, the case was now heard by Justice Rosemary Connolly.
On August 10, 2023, Justice Connolly denied the plaintiffs’ emergency motion. As to the required documents, the court concluded that the defendants did not have to provide them until they had finished creating them, which they had not yet done. As to the exam itself, the court found that neither the Settlement Agreement nor the subsequent order mentioned allowing class members to sit for the 2023 test as part of the remedy. Therefore, the court concluded that the plaintiffs had not shown that they were likely to succeed on their claim that the defendants had breached the settlement agreement or the order.
Four days later, on August 14, the plaintiffs appealed the denial of their motion to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Later that month, on August 29, the Massachusetts Appeals Court denied the plaintiffs’ petition because they did not meet their burden of showing that Justice Connolly “committed an error of law or abused her discretion when she denied their motion.”
As of November 1, 2023, the case is ongoing.
Summary Authors
Chris Miller (12/21/2022)
Venesa Haska (11/1/2023)
Adkins, John F. (Massachusetts)
Ackil, Ann (Massachusetts)
Adkins, J. Mark (Massachusetts)
Alexander, William Clifton (Massachusetts)
Alland, Alexandra B. (Massachusetts)
Botsford, Margot (Massachusetts)
Buckley, Elaine M (Massachusetts)
Campo, Anthony M (Massachusetts)
Cordy, Robert J. (Massachusetts)
Duffly, Fernande R. V. (Massachusetts)
Gants, Ralph D (Massachusetts)
Howard, Jeffrey R. (New Hampshire)
Ireland, Roderick L. (Massachusetts)
Kane, Robert J (Massachusetts)
Kinder, C Jeffrey (Massachusetts)
Leibensperger, Edward P. (Massachusetts)
Lenk, Barbara A. (Massachusetts)
Lynch, Sandra Lea (Massachusetts)
Singh, Sabita (Massachusetts)
Spina, Francis X (Massachusetts)
Sullivan, William F (Massachusetts)
Tochka, Robert N (Massachusetts)
Torruella, Juan R. (Puerto Rico)
Wilkins, Douglas H. (Massachusetts)
Adkins, John F. (Massachusetts)
Alperstein, Robin L. (Massachusetts)
Ashkin, Roberta Ellen (Massachusetts)
Baker, Robert B. (Massachusetts)
Barrault, Leah M (Massachusetts)
Benson, William F. (Massachusetts)
Blackman, Duane Gordon (Massachusetts)
Bograd, Louis M (Massachusetts)
Bohenek, Matthew T. (Massachusetts)
Bor-Zale, James (Massachusetts)
Bresnahan, Elizabeth M. (Massachusetts)
Carrieri, Matthew P (Massachusetts)
Carter, Vincent J. (Massachusetts)
Cazort, Brad A. (Massachusetts)
Churchill, Stephen S (Massachusetts)
Cohen, Nadine M. (Massachusetts)
Cooper, Jenny K. (Massachusetts)
Cretcher, Grace Cathryn (Massachusetts)
Daniels, Harry T. (Massachusetts)
Earles, Derrick Glenn (Massachusetts)
Edwards, Flora (Massachusetts)
El-Mallawany, Deana K. (Massachusetts)
Fisher, Nikki J. (Massachusetts)
Gibbons, Thomas James (Massachusetts)
Girardi, Thomas V. (Massachusetts)
Gleason, Jeffrey S. (Massachusetts)
Gunn, W. Howard (Massachusetts)
Hall, Rahsaan D. (Massachusetts)
Harris, John A. (Massachusetts)
Hartzog, Dan M. (Massachusetts)
Heining, Eric A. (Massachusetts)
Jaikumar, Arjun K. (Massachusetts)
Jensen, Keith M. (Massachusetts)
John, Jennifer (Massachusetts)
Johnson, Kari R. (Massachusetts)
Kim, Phillip C (Massachusetts)
Lichten, Harold L. (Massachusetts)
Liss-Riordan, Shannon E. (Massachusetts)
Lue, Yin-Shuan (Massachusetts)
Maslow-Armand, Laura (Massachusetts)
McGee, Amanda V. (Massachusetts)
Menken, Bruce Eric (Massachusetts)
Moulton, David I. (Massachusetts)
Nimick, Virginia Jackson (Massachusetts)
Noyes, Christopher R. (Massachusetts)
O'Bryan, Dennis Michael (Massachusetts)
O'Callahan, James G (Massachusetts)
Olshan, Jeffrey (Massachusetts)
Pinnock, Theodore A (Massachusetts)
Pirozzolo, Lisa J. (Massachusetts)
Prussia, Kevin S. (Massachusetts)
Rachal, Doreen M. (Massachusetts)
Reynolds, Alexandra Rueckle (Massachusetts)
Robertson, Paul M. (Massachusetts)
Rodriques, Louis A. (Massachusetts)
Rollins, Rachael S. (Massachusetts)
Rosen, Laurence Matthew (Massachusetts)
Rubin, Zachary L (Massachusetts)
Rutkowski, J. Rheba (Massachusetts)
Schwartz, Joshua B. (Massachusetts)
Sellstrom, Oren M. (Massachusetts)
Selwyn, Mark D. (Massachusetts)
Simpson, Scott (Massachusetts)
Sulman, Joseph L. (Massachusetts)
Todaro, Gerald J. (Massachusetts)
Vititoe, James W. (Massachusetts)
Wakefield, David C (Massachusetts)
Weber, Benjamin (Massachusetts)
Webster, Raquel J. (Massachusetts)
Woodard, Jonathan W. (Massachusetts)
Adkins, J. Mark (Massachusetts)
Alexander, William Clifton (Massachusetts)
Alland, Alexandra B. (Massachusetts)
Alvarez, Iraida J. (Massachusetts)
Anderson, Austin W. (Massachusetts)
Arthur, Elizabeth G. (Massachusetts)
Atwood, Gina M. (Massachusetts)
Baker, D. Cameron (Massachusetts)
Balakrishna, Annapurna (Massachusetts)
Barnico, Thomas A. (Massachusetts)
Barry-Smith, Christopher K. (Massachusetts)
Batten, Mark W. (Massachusetts)
Baxley, Franklin L. (Massachusetts)
Beato, Andrew Michael (Massachusetts)
Beauchesne, Dawn M. (Massachusetts)
Bein, Philip Michael (Massachusetts)
Betts, Rebecca A. (Massachusetts)
Blume, Todd M. (Massachusetts)
Bok, Geoffrey R. (Massachusetts)
Bongiorno, Michael G. (Massachusetts)
Bonistalli, John J. (Massachusetts)
Boone, Floyd E. (Massachusetts)
Boscia, John J. (Massachusetts)
Bowers, James M. (Massachusetts)
Boyle, Colin R. (Massachusetts)
Braddy, Lauren Elizabeth (Massachusetts)
Brazier, Alexandra L. (Massachusetts)
Brock, Matthew T. (Massachusetts)
Brown, Daniel C. (Massachusetts)
Brown, Rachel M. (Massachusetts)
Burgess, Brian T. (Massachusetts)
Cahillane, Maurice M. (Massachusetts)
Carlson, C. Michael (Massachusetts)
Carroll, Harry P. (Massachusetts)
Carvalho, Ashley K. (Massachusetts)
Cederbaum, Adam N. (Massachusetts)
Chincheck, Julia A. (Massachusetts)
Chorover, Nora (Massachusetts)
Ciollo, Julie A. (Massachusetts)
Coakley, Martha (Massachusetts)
Coburn, Edward (Massachusetts)
Cohen, Jared B. (Massachusetts)
Cole, Victoria S. (Massachusetts)
Cook, Kathryn Rebecca (Massachusetts)
Costello, Thomas H. (Massachusetts)
Courchesne, Christophe G (Massachusetts)
Cournoyer, Madonna E (Massachusetts)
Cray, Pierce O. (Massachusetts)
Cueto, Christopher F. (Massachusetts)
Cullen, Paul T (Massachusetts)
Cullinan, William G. (Massachusetts)
D'Agostino, Richard J. (Massachusetts)
D'Amato, Laura E. (Massachusetts)
Deck, Laura E. (Massachusetts)
deSousa, Lisa C. (Massachusetts)
Dewar, Elizabeth N. (Massachusetts)
DiGangi, Thomas Vincent (Massachusetts)
Dirks, Katherine B. (Massachusetts)
Dollar, Robyn P. (Massachusetts)
Donoghue, Laurence J. (Massachusetts)
Donohue, Thomas R (Massachusetts)
Donovan, Brian M. (Massachusetts)
Doyle, Katharine Isabel (Massachusetts)
Duffy, Conor P. (Massachusetts)
Dundin, Louis M. (Massachusetts)
Early, Shane P. (Massachusetts)
Edwards, Joseph L. (Massachusetts)
Engdahl, Laurie W. (Massachusetts)
Englander, John C. (Massachusetts)
Faillace, Michael Antonio (Massachusetts)
Farmer, Gary Michael (Massachusetts)
Farringer, Craig S. (Massachusetts)
Feiner, Gillian R. (Massachusetts)
Feltner, Jonathan P. (Massachusetts)
Ferrer, Nicole Murati (Massachusetts)
Flowers, Jodi Westbrook (Massachusetts)
Flynn, Jennifer H (Massachusetts)
Foskett, John C. (Massachusetts)
Freeley, Mary B (Massachusetts)
Friedman, David S. (Massachusetts)
Galle, Katherine N. (Massachusetts)
George, William David (Massachusetts)
Geraghty, Peter M. (Massachusetts)
Germano, Michael F. (Massachusetts)
Glasgow, Karen A. (Massachusetts)
Goldsmith, Aaron M. (Massachusetts)
Gordon, Gary D. (Massachusetts)
Gould, Kevin M. (Massachusetts)
Grant, Sheryl F. (Massachusetts)
Greene, Thomas M. (Massachusetts)
Gropman, Elizabeth R. (Massachusetts)
Gurland, Harvey W. (Massachusetts)
Haefele, Robert Turner (Massachusetts)
Hanson, Kirk G. (Massachusetts)
Harrington, Edward P. (Massachusetts)
Harrington, William T. (Massachusetts)
Harris, Mary Jo (Massachusetts)
Head, Carol E. (Massachusetts)
Healey, Maura T. (Massachusetts)
Hernandez, Robert LeRoux (Massachusetts)
Hinkley, Michelle K. (Massachusetts)
Hoblitzell, John D. (Massachusetts)
Hodges, David Wayne (Massachusetts)
Holland, Robert E. (Massachusetts)
Holland, Lee M. (Massachusetts)
Holstrom, Stephen L. (Massachusetts)
Holtz, Herbert L. (Massachusetts)
Horgan, James J. (Massachusetts)
Hucksam, John Richard (Massachusetts)
Hurld, Christopher S. (Massachusetts)
Iancu, Carol A. (Massachusetts)
Jay, William M. (Massachusetts)
Jenness, Kerry Regan (Massachusetts)
Johnson, Jenifer Lynn (Massachusetts)
Jolly, Joseph H. (Massachusetts)
Joss, Sarah M. (Massachusetts)
Joyce, Austin M. (Massachusetts)
Jr, David Clarke (Massachusetts)
Katz, Scott A. (Massachusetts)
Kaufmann, Aaron D. (Massachusetts)
Kelley, Jean M. (Massachusetts)
Kelly, Sheila Creaton (Massachusetts)
Kennedy, Mary J. (Massachusetts)
Kobick, Julia E. (Massachusetts)
Koster, Andrew W. (Massachusetts)
Lagorio, Peter A. (Massachusetts)
LaGrassa, Adam R. (Massachusetts)
Langlais, Alison M. (Massachusetts)
Laurent, Jeremy Saint (Massachusetts)
Leahey, Brian W. (Massachusetts)
Lee, Jennifer M. (Massachusetts)
Lent, Sarah E. (Massachusetts)
Liebel, John T. (Massachusetts)
Lindemann, Jessica M. (Massachusetts)
LoPalo, Christopher R. (Massachusetts)
Lowell, Appointing Authority (Massachusetts)
Lucia, Joseph P. (Massachusetts)
Lyons, Matthew M. (Massachusetts)
MacDonald, Mary Ellen (Massachusetts)
MacKenzie, Michael B. (Massachusetts)
Magnanini, Robert A. (Massachusetts)
Maki, Lisa Skehill (Massachusetts)
Manganaro, Kevin W. (Massachusetts)
Manousos, Gregory A. (Massachusetts)
Markey, Patrick J. (Massachusetts)
Marks, David R. (Massachusetts)
Martignetti, Eric (Massachusetts)
Martin, Kevin P. (Massachusetts)
Martinez, Frank (Massachusetts)
Martland, Douglas S. (Massachusetts)
Massachusetts, Commonwealth of (Massachusetts)
Mathias, James D (Massachusetts)
Matlack, William T. (Massachusetts)
McAuliffe, Eileen Ryan (Massachusetts)
McDermott, Kevin S. (Massachusetts)
McKenna-DOJ, Sean Robert (Massachusetts)
McKey, Jamie Jean (Massachusetts)
McMahon, Kimberley A. (Massachusetts)
McQuillan, Peter J. (Massachusetts)
Meally, Edmund J (Massachusetts)
Miles, Sabrina (Massachusetts)
Miller, Kara Sue (Massachusetts)
Miller, Jonathan B. (Massachusetts)
Mitchell, Matthew L. (Massachusetts)
Moore, David M. (Massachusetts)
Moran, Timothy E. (Massachusetts)
Morris, Robert P. (Massachusetts)
Morrison, Eileen L. (Massachusetts)
Mosley, Gwendolyn T. (Massachusetts)
Mulcahy, Michael E. (Massachusetts)
Mullin, Peter A. (Massachusetts)
Murray, Jill M. (Massachusetts)
Mustokoff, Michael M. (Massachusetts)
Nabulsi, Sammy S. (Massachusetts)
Nadeau, Genevieve C. (Massachusetts)
Nannis, Veronica Byam (Massachusetts)
Neal, Angela J. (Massachusetts)
Nelson, Ronald G. (Massachusetts)
Norris, Tim D. (Massachusetts)
O'Connor, Nicole M. (Massachusetts)
O'Connor, Christine P. (Massachusetts)
Olivere, Mark D. (Massachusetts)
Olmedo, Giselle (Massachusetts)
Orent, Jonathan D. (Massachusetts)
Ouellette, Evan C. (Massachusetts)
Paine, William H. (Massachusetts)
Palmer, R. Scott (Massachusetts)
Pappenheim, Hannah B. (Massachusetts)
Pardee, William L. (Massachusetts)
Paris, Lynda Carey (Massachusetts)
Patten, Robert P (Massachusetts)
Phelps, Melinda M. (Massachusetts)
Pierce, Rudolph F. (Massachusetts)
Pikula, Edward M. (Massachusetts)
Plotkin, Wendy S. (Massachusetts)
Pogrel, David Philip (Massachusetts)
Prince, Walter B. (Massachusetts)
Pyle, Jeffrey Jackson (Massachusetts)
Quinan, Robert L. (Massachusetts)
Quinn, Wendy L. (Massachusetts)
Rahn, Steven C (Massachusetts)
Randazzo, Michele E. (Massachusetts)
Randazzo, Anne L. (Massachusetts)
Ravitz, Randall E. (Massachusetts)
Regan, Kerry Maddox (Massachusetts)
Reidy, Catherine S. (Massachusetts)
Reis, Erika P. (Massachusetts)
Rice, Juliana deHaan (Massachusetts)
Rios, Ricardo Brandon (Massachusetts)
Rogers, Robert M (Massachusetts)
Rossetti, Kenneth J. (Massachusetts)
Ruano, Raquel D. (Massachusetts)
Salinger, Kenneth W. (Massachusetts)
Santos, Jaime A. (Massachusetts)
Schenk-Hargrove, Christina M. (Massachusetts)
Schmit, John P (Massachusetts)
Schofield, Seth (Massachusetts)
Schreiber, Philip M. (Massachusetts)
Schuh, James A. (Massachusetts)
Sclarsic, Jonathan (Massachusetts)
Scott, Andrew G (Massachusetts)
Shalov, Lee Scott (Massachusetts)
Shapiro, Jeffrey S. (Massachusetts)
Sharobem, Steven T. (Massachusetts)
Shin, Sookyoung (Massachusetts)
Simon, John M. (Massachusetts)
Sivitz, Rebecca J. (Massachusetts)
Slagle, R. Eric (Massachusetts)
Smith, Charles John (Massachusetts)
Smith, Jordan Michael (Massachusetts)
Soisson, Amy M. (Massachusetts)
Spaeth, Peter A. (Massachusetts)
Steinfield, Joseph D. (Massachusetts)
Stengle, Linda Jeffries (Massachusetts)
Sterman, Anne L. (Massachusetts)
Stone, David S. (Massachusetts)
Sullivan, Eugene J (Massachusetts)
Sweeney, Thomas E. (Massachusetts)
Tang, Yeatyng Evelyn (Massachusetts)
Taub, Nicole I. (Massachusetts)
Thomas, Elizabeth Abimbola (Massachusetts)
Valicenti, Todd M. (Massachusetts)
Walle, Erin McCarthy (Massachusetts)
Warner, Jonathon David (Massachusetts)
Weise, Susan M. (Massachusetts)
Wellock, James F. (Massachusetts)
Whitesell, Edward F. (Massachusetts)
Wilson, Anthony I. (Massachusetts)
Witherby, H. Reed (Massachusetts)
Wolkoff, Eric D. (Massachusetts)
Wotring, Earnest William (Massachusetts)
Yanchunis, John Allen (Massachusetts)
Last updated Aug. 30, 2023, 1:27 p.m.
Docket sheet not available via the Clearinghouse.State / Territory: Massachusetts
Case Type(s):
Key Dates
Filing Date: Feb. 11, 2009
Case Ongoing: Yes
Plaintiffs
Plaintiff Description:
Black and Hispanic police officers in Massachusetts who took promotional exams for the position of police sergeant administered statewide and in Boston in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
Plaintiff Type(s):
Public Interest Lawyer: No
Filed Pro Se: No
Class Action Sought: Yes
Class Action Outcome: Granted
Defendants
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, State
Defendant Type(s):
Case Details
Causes of Action:
Title VII (including PDA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e
Available Documents:
Injunctive (or Injunctive-like) Relief
Outcome
Prevailing Party: Plaintiff
Nature of Relief:
Source of Relief:
Form of Settlement:
Court Approved Settlement or Consent Decree
Amount Defendant Pays: $40,000,000
Order Duration: 2023 - None
Issues
Discrimination-area:
Discrimination-basis:
National origin discrimination
Race:
National Origin/Ethnicity: