Adams v. Congress Auto Insurance Agency, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-177-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-452 Appeals Court MARK ADAMS vs. CONGRESS AUTO INSURANCE AGENCY, INC. No. 15-P-452. Middlesex. March 10, 2016. – December 21, 2016. Present: Kafker, C.J., Vuono, & Henry, JJ. Negligence, Insurance company, Employer, Foreseeability of harm, Causation, Retention of employee, Entrustment, Emotional distress. Damages, Emotional distress. Consumer Protection Act, Responsibility of employer. Practice, Civil, Summary judgment, Motion to amend. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on April 16, 2013. Motions for summary judgment and to amend the complaint were heard by Peter B. Krupp, J. Henry P. Sorett for the plaintiff. Jeffrey S. Robbins for the defendant. HENRY, J. This case arose from an employee’s improper use of confidential information accessed through her workplace computer. The employee gave that information to her boy friend, who used it to intimidate a witness, Mark Adams. Adams brought this action against the employer, Congress Auto Insurance Agency, Inc. (Congress Agency or agency). A Superior Court judge dismissed four of his five claims. The case proceeded to discovery on the remaining claim against the agency that alleged negligent failure to safeguard Adams’s personal information. The same judge subsequently granted the agency’s motion for summary judgment on the remaining count and in the same memorandum and order denied Adams’s motion to amend his complaint to reinstate the dismissed claims and to add a claim for violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2721-2725. Adams appealed. We affirm in part and reverse in part. Summary judgment. “The standard of review of a grant of summary judgment is whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, all material facts have been established and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Lev v. Beverly Enterprises-Massachusetts, Inc., 457 Mass. 234, 237 (2010) (Lev), quoting from Cargill, Inc. v. Beaver Coal & Oil Co., 424 Mass. 356, 358 (1997). The burden rests on the defendant, as the moving party, to affirmatively demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact on every relevant issue. Ibid. Facts. Viewed in the light most favorable to Adams, as required at this stage of the proceedings, the summary judgment record discloses the following facts. The Congress Agency hired Elizabeth Burgos in August, 2003, as a customer service representative, promoting her to […]