Mark & Galusha, LLC, Employment Law Attorneys, Somerset County, New Jersey.

The Appellate Division surprisingly affirmed the decision of the trial court wherein Plaintiff's claim for intentional emotional distress was dismissed after the death of her child. In the matter of Cecelia Mavica Ingraham v. Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Johnson & Johnson and Carl DeStefanis, Plaintiff filed a Complaint against her previous employer, alleging violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and constructive discharge.

Ms. Ingraham tragically went through the trauma of loosing of her daughter, Tatiana, in May 2005 due to illness. Plaintiff hung pictures of her daughter up in her cubicle along with a pair of Tatiana's ballet slippers. As any office worker knows, a cubicle decorated with pictures of smiling children and their art work and memorabilia is not foreign to an office environment. In fact, an office without these cheerful accessories is often a dull and lifeless place to work. Yet, for some reason, the cubicle of Cecelia Ingraham made her co-workers uncomfortable. What's worse is that her co-workers reported to the Human Resources Department that speaking with Ms. Ingraham regarding her daughter made them feel uneasy. Plaintiff's supervisor, Carl DeStefanis, called his grieving employee into his office. Despite the fact that she was still capable of performing her duties and the meeting was not based off of her performance, Mr. DeStefanis decided to be "frank" and make the meeting about Tatiana's death. According to Plaintiff's deposition testimony and discovery responses, it was at this moment that her supervisor advised her that she would need to take Titiana's pictures and ballet slippers down. Ms. Ingraham was further advised that she should stop talking about her dead daughter to her co-workers. For some reason, her employer had thought this conversation with appropriate since it seemed obvious to him that the death of her child was interfering with the workplace environment.

Not surprisingly, Plaintiff found herself in a state of shock. She could not believe that Mr. DeStefanis was making these comments and providing this advice. Ms. Ingraham even asked him during the meeting if this was a performance issue and he said that it was not. Mr. DeStefanis' deposition testimony differs with regard to intent of his statements and the timeline in which items were discussed during the meeting. According to Defendant, he felt that it was a good time to bring up how uncomfortable the death of Titiana made Plaintiff's co-workers. Unsurprisingly, the end result of this meeting was Plaintiff never returning to her position.

Ms. Ingraham filed her Complaint. Ultimately, she decided to drop two counts after Defendants filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. During the summary judgment hearing, however, the trial court dismissed Plaintiff's remaining count of intentional emotional distress. Plaintiff appealed the decision yet the Appellate Court affirmed the trial court's decision, finding that Mr. DeStefanis did not intend emotional pain and instead his angle was to address a workplace issue. The Appellate Division also went so far as to rule that "the workplace has too many personal conflicts... ...for the court to be used as the umpire." Oddly, being an umpire has always been one of the Court's most important duties in order to keep disagreements between parties civil.

While we generally find the Court's rulings to be fair and the rulings of the Court to be well understood from a legal perspective, we are unable to comprehend the decision of the Appellate Division. At Mark & Galusha, LLC, we sympathize with Ms. Ingraham and feel that her claims were very valid and very real.

We ask that if you are the victim of workplace harassment or have suffered intentional emotional distress at the hands of your employer, that you contact the experienced lawyers of Mark & Galusha, LLC. We specialize in matters such as these throughout Raritan and Lyons, New Jersey. We can be reached at (908) 626-1001 or 973-440-2311, or simply tell us your story by clicking the "contact us" page.