Justia Massachusetts Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Christine DeFelice, a part-time employee for the Stoneham school department, sought retroactive membership in the Stoneham retirement system based on a nine-week period during which she worked over thirty hours per week. The municipal retirement board granted DeFelice retroactive membership in the retirement system for the nine-week period but denied her membership for the subsequent time during which she remained a part-time employee. The Contributory Retirement Appeal Board reversed, concluding that the board was statutorily precluded from terminating the membership of individuals who had been granted membership in a retirement system and continued working for the same municipal employer. The superior court reversed. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed, holding (1) a municipal retirement board does not possess absolute discretion to terminate a part-time employee’s membership in a retirement system to which that board has granted the employee membership; and (2) a “separation from [an employee’s] service” under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 32, 3(1)(a)(i) does not occur when a part-time employee working two jobs for the same municipal employer ceases to work only one of those jobs. View "Retirement Board of Stoneham v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on a theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed and declined to grant extraordinary relief pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding (1) Defendant has not shown that the presence of police officers during the grand jury proceedings caused a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice; (2) the trial judge did not err in denying Defendant’s motion for the appointment of a special prosecutor; (3) the trial judge did not commit prejudicial error in its evidentiary rulings challenged by Defendant; (4) statements made by the prosecutor during his opening statement and closing argument did not warrant reversal; and (5) the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in denying Defendant’s motion for a new trial. View "Commonwealth v. Holley" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs contracted with Defendants through small corporations that Plaintiffs apparently formed for this purpose. Plaintiffs, who performed services in Massachusetts as furniture delivery drivers, brought a putative class action against Defendants under the independent contractor statute, claiming that they had been misclassified as independent contractors. The trial judge granted summary judgment for Defendants on the ground that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) preempted the independent contractor statute in its entirety. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the grant of summary judgment, holding (1) while a portion of the independent contractor statute is preempted by the FAAAA, the remainder is severable and remains applicable to Plaintiffs’ misclassification claim; and (2) summary judgment dismissing the misclassification claim is not warranted on the separately asserted basis that Plaintiffs lack standing as individuals to assert claims for misclassification under the statute. View "Chambers v. RDI Logistics, Inc." on Justia Law

The Department of Mental Health (DMH) submitted a proposal to the Auditor of the Commonwealth that would privatize certain of its state-run mental health services. The Auditor issued a written decision approving the proposed privatization contract, concluding that the privatization proposal met the requirements of the Pacheco Law. The Pacheco Law establishes procedures that agencies must follow when beginning the bidding process for an entering into a privatization contract. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the Auditor’s decision, holding that the Auditor did not abuse her discretion in determining that DMH’s privatization proposal met the requirements of the Pacheco Law. View "Service Employees International Union, Local 509 v. Auditor of the Commonwealth" on Justia Law

In a four-count complaint, Defendant was charged with several criminal offenses. Defendant pleaded guilty as to counts one and four. The municipal court judge dismissed counts two and three for lack of probable cause. The Commonwealth appealed. The Appeals Court reversed the dismissal of these counts. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding that, while Defendant conceded that probable cause existed to support counts two and three, the complaint was also adequate to charge Defendant with each offense and to establish jurisdiction in the municipal court. View "Commonwealth v. Hardin" on Justia Law

In 2011, Defendant pleaded guilty to possession of a class B substance. Defendant was sentenced to a one-year term of probation and the probation supervision fees and the victim-witness assessment. The Commonwealth entered a nolle prosequi on the underlying complaint after a judge granted Defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea on the ground that Annie Dookhan, the discredited analyst at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute at the center of misconduct allegations, performed the analysis of the substances seized during Defendant’s arrest. Thereafter, Defendant filed a motion for return of property, including probation supervision fees and the victim-witness assessment. The judge denied the motion. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding that there is no statutory basis for a refund of victim-witness assessments or probation fees where a defendant’s conviction is vacated after the withdrawal of a guilty plea. View "Commonwealth v. Martin" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of assault and battery on a family or household member in violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, 13M(a). On appellate review, Defendant argued that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction under the statute because he was not involved in a “substantive dating relationship” with the person he was charged with assaulting. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding that the evidence warranted a finding beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant was involved in a “substantive dating relationship” with the person he was charged with assaulting, in violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, 13M(c). View "Commonwealth v. Dustin" on Justia Law

Clifford George and Jacquelyn George divorced in 2002. In 2013, Clifford filed a complaint seeking to modify his alimony obligation based on Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 208, 49(b), part of the Alimony Reform Act, which became effective nearly ten years after the parties’ divorce. Section 49(b) provides that general term alimony for certain marriages shall not continue for longer than seventy percent of the number of months of the marriage. A judge can deviate from the durational limit where doing so is required in the interests of justice, and the Act provides a schedule for when complaints for modification based on the new durational limits can be brought for alimony obligations that predated the effective date of the Act. The probate and family court judge denied Clifford’s complaint for modification, finding that deviation beyond the durational limits of the Act was warranted. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed on other grounds, holding that Clifford’s complaint was filed prematurely. View "George v. George" on Justia Law

Service Employees International Union, Local 509 (Union) brought a declaratory judgment action against the Department of Mental Health (DMH) maintaining that certain contracts DMH made with private vendors were “privatization contracts” subject to the requirements of the Pacheco Law. The Union sought a declaration invalidating the contracts because DMH did not comply with the statutory prerequisites of the Pacheco Law. The case was dismissed. The Supreme Judicial Court remanded the case. On remand, DMH again successfully moved to dismiss the Union’s declaratory judgment action on the basis that it was moot because the initial contracts had expired and the remaining extant renewal contracts were immune from challenge by virtue of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 7, 53. The Union appealed, asserting that because the non-compliant initial contracts were invalid under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 7, 54, so too were any renewal contracts made pursuant to them. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the judgment of dismissal, holding that the protection afforded renewal contracts by section 53 is not extended to those renewal contracts made pursuant to timely challenged and subsequently invalidated privatization contracts under section 54. View "Service Employees International Union, Local 509 v. Department of Mental Health" on Justia Law

In 1971, the City of Quincy, as trustee of the Adams Temple and School Fund (Adams Fund), sought a decree authorizing it to execute a proposed fifty-year lease of a building and parking lot of the Adams Academy that it had negotiated with the Quincy Historical Society (Society). In 1972, a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court decreed that the City was authorized to execute the proposed lease. In 2014, the successor trustee of the Adams Fund (Plaintiff) filed a complaint seeking rescission of the lease and money damages, arguing that the City violated its fiduciary duty to the Woodward School for Girls, Inc., the sole income beneficiary of the Adams Fund, by executing the lease. Defendants, the City and the Society, moved for summary judgment, arguing that they were entitled to judgment under res judicata. The single justice allowed Defendants’ motion. Plaintiff appealed, contending that he should not be precluded by res judicata from obtaining relief because neither he nor the Woodward School was a party to the 1972 equity proceeding. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding that Plaintiff was precluded by res judicata from prevailing on his challenge to the execution of the lease. View "DeGiacomo v. City of Quincy" on Justia Law