BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – The Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed a Superior Court ruling that the managers of a public housing apartment building cannot claim to be pubic employers to sidestep claims under the Torts Claim Act.
Chief Justice Ralph E. Gants wrote the opinion with justices Frank M. Gaziano, Kimberly S. Budd, Elspeth P. Cypher and Scott Kafker on the panel. The June 8 order affirming the Superior Court decision stated that the defendants “are private limited liability companies that have never been thought to be entitled to sovereign immunity…limiting the scope and amount of their liability would not protect public funds.”
In 2013, Julio Acevedo sued Framingham Housing Authority, Musterfield Place LLC and FHA Musterfield Manager LLC after he allegedly fell down some stairs in his apartment building in Framingham in Musterfield at Concord Place, sustaining serious injuries. Musterfield Place owns the property as a controlled affiliate and FHA Musterfield Manager LLC is the manager for the property.
Both Musterfield entities filed for summary judgment, claiming they should be considered “public employers under the Tort Claims Act,” which would mean they would not be liable for any claims over $100,000. The Superior Court denied the motion, stating that controlled affiliates are not considered public employers under the Act.
Musterfield sought an appeal, alleging that Framingham retains legal control of the property and is the sole manager. Musterfield claims that “the controlled affiliate and its managing member should be treated as a local housing authority under the Act.”
Gants stated the definition for public employer in the Act “specifically excludes 'a private contractor with any such public employer,'" and that it would not be “consistent with the purpose and history of the act to characterize a limited liability company that is a controlled affiliate or its managing member as a public employer.”
Gants noted that a private company cannot “transform…into a public employer” based on a contract that would have the private company performing duties “as if it were a local housing authority …It would be strange indeed if the sale of the public property by the housing authority to a private entity could enable that private entity to become a public employer.”
The case was remanded back to the Superior Court for further proceedings.
Acevedo is represented by Chester L. Tennyson Jr.
Musterfield is represented by John Egan and Laura M. Kelly.
Massachusetts Supreme Court case number SJC-12398