Sheriff of Suffolk County v. Jail Officers and Employees of Suffolk County (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-109-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC‑11229 SHERIFF OF SUFFOLK COUNTY vs. JAIL OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES OF SUFFOLK COUNTY.[1] Suffolk. February 4, 2013. ‑ June 14, 2013. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Sheriff. Public Employment, Collective bargaining, Termination. Labor, Public employment, Collective bargaining. Arbitration, Collective bargaining, Award. Damages, Back pay, Mitigation, Interest. Interest. Governmental Immunity. Waiver. Judgment, Enforcement, Interest. Practice, Civil, Interest, Waiver. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on April 24, 2001. Following review by this court, 451 Mass. 698 (2008), a complaint for contempt, filed on August 24, 2009, was heard by John C. Cratsley, J. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. Timothy J. Casey, Assistant Attorney General, for the plaintiff. John M. Becker for the defendant. CORDY, J. This appeal arises from an action in the Superior Court to enforce an arbitrator’s award of back pay to a jail officer employed and wrongfully discharged by the sheriff of Suffolk County (sheriff). The sheriff appeals from the judge’s ruling that the jail officer, Joseph Upton, had no duty to mitigate his damages by seeking comparable employment. The Jail Officers and Employees of Suffolk County (union), on behalf of Upton, cross appeals from the judge’s decision not to assess statutory postjudgment interest on the arbitrator’s award. Although we conclude that Upton did have a duty to mitigate his damages, we affirm the judgment on the grounds that the sheriff waived this issue by failing to raise it earlier in the proceedings, and that, regardless, she failed to meet her burden of proof on the issue.[2] We also affirm the judge’s decision not to assess postjudgment interest on sovereign immunity grounds. 1. Background. This appeal represents the putative final chapter in a case that, at the time of an earlier decision in 2008, already had a “long and tortuous procedural history.” Sheriff of Suffolk County v. Jail Officers & Employees of Suffolk County, 451 Mass. 698, 699 (2008) (Sheriff of Suffolk County I). On December 29, 1999, Upton was discharged from his position as a jail officer at the Nashua Street jail in Boston (jail) following an incident in which Upton allegedly “filed untimely and then false reports” concerning an assault of an inmate that he […]
Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Jail for South End Drunk Driving Crash
A Dorchester man will serve 20 years in prison for a drunk driving crash in the South End in 2010 that left one of his friends dead. Warren Tyler, 47, received the maximum penalty for manslaughter this week, after a Suffolk County jury found him guilty of being drunk and causing the crash that killed his friend, according to District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office. Warren was found guilty of both motor vehicle homicide and manslaughter by operating under the influence in the 2010 crash that killed his friend and passenger, 46-year-old Johnny Williams, Jr. Jurors acquitted Tyler of an additional charge of receiving a stolen motor vehicle. Prior to sentencing, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke dismissed the charge of motor vehicle homicide on the grounds that it was duplicative of the manslaughter charge, which carries a longer maximum sentence of 20 years. Prosecutors recommended a term of 19 to 20 years in state prison; Locke imposed a sentence of 18 to 20 years. At around 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2010, Boston Police spotted a blue Mazda minivan that had been reported stolen less than an hour earlier. Officers followed the vehicle on Blue Hill Avenue, but before they could pull the car over, they found the minivan had crasehd into a delivery truck at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and East Berkeley Street. On seeing the smoke, officers activated their lights and sirens and called for medical assistance. Tyler was found in the driver’s seat with broken bones. Williams sustained fatal injuries to his head and chest in the crash, which crushed the passenger’s side of the vehicle where Williams was seated. Tyler was transported to Boston Medical Center after the crash, where he told an EMT who was treating him, “Dude, I’m drunk.” Blood tests determined that Tyler’s blood alcohol level was a minimum of .14 – almost twice the legal limit of .08. Police executing a search warrant on the vehicle and found vodka bottles inside a bag along with personal papers belonging to Tyler. “Nothing in this world right now could make me feel any better than him being here,” Williams’ younger brother told the court. “He was a strong guy. We always ran to him for help. He was always there for us.” SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch