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Board Members and Investors Found Not Personally Liable Under Massachusetts Wage Act
A unanimous Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled in favor of two former board member-investors of a biotechnology startup, finding the board member-investors not personally liable under the Massachusetts Wage Act for “wages” claimed by the company’s former CEO.
As employment attorney Scott Connolly discusses in his new article, Board Members and Investors Found Not Personally Liable Under Massachusetts Wage Act, at issue in Segal v. Genitrix, LLC, 478 Mass. 551 (2017) was whether the individual defendants, former board members of and investors in Genitrix, a Delaware LLC based in Boston, exercised sufficient management authority to impose personal liability on them under the Wage Act (M.G.L. c. 149 §148) for compensation due to the plaintiff.
Read the full article on our website. For more information, please contact Scott Connolly.
SJC Rules Employees Can Pursue Wage Claims under Both MA Wage Act and Common Law
On August 12, 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) ruled that employees claiming they are owed wage or salary compensation are not limited to bringing their claims under the Massachusetts Wage Act, M.G.L. c. 149, § 148, and can also bring claims under common law, including breach of contract claims. The ruling is significant because, although the Wage Act provides very powerful remedies to claimants, including mandatory treble damages and attorney’s fees, the Wage Act has a three year statute of limitations. In contrast, a six year statute of limitations period applies to breach of contract claims in Massachusetts. This means that claimants can seek damages going back six years, though only the last three years of damages would be subject to trebling.
The SJC’s decision in Lipsitt v. Plaud can be accessed here.
You may contact a member of MBBP’s Employment Law Group for more information.
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