Originally published on the Employer's Law Blog
On January 19, 2012, the District of Connecticut held that Title VII does not provide for individual liability and dismissed a pregnancy discrimination claim against plaintiff's former supervisor.
Plaintiff Stacey Lafferty worked as an law firm associate from May 2003 until January 2008. From April 2007 until September 2007, Lafferty took a maternity leave. When she returned to work in September 2007, she was encouraged by her supervisor to seek out other employment opportunities. In January 2008, the firm changed Lafferty's status from a salaried employee to an independent contractor. Lafferty sued both the law firm and its president who was her supervisor under Title VII and the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act alleging pregnancy discrimination.
Lafferty argued that the firm's president should be held liable under the "alter ego" doctrine because he was attempting to avoid liability by hiding behind the firm's corporate form. The Court, however, disagreed, holding that Title VII does not authorize the imposition of individual liability. Judge Kravitz reasoned that "[c]ourts will generally respect the corporate form; the usual purpose of the alter ego doctrine is to prevent an individual from employing the corporate form as a shield against liability for unlawful actions." Laffety failed to provide any evidence that the firm's president was abusing the corporate form, and therefore, the Court dismissed Lafferty's case against the firm's president.
The question of whether "alter ego" liability can be imposed against an individual is an open question in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Though some federal districts courts have recognized "alter ego" liability, the only federal courts of appeal to have addressed the issue have rejected it.
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