Wrongful Termination: Smith v. CVS RX Services Inc.

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U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York

Wrongful Termination

False Charges

Smith v. CVS RX Services Inc.
10-CV-1462
Judge McAvoy

Background: The plaintiff commenced this action in New York State Supreme Court, Broome County, alleging that he was defamed by the defendants’ agents in the course of his employment, and that defendants’ agents’ conduct deprived him of due process and the equal protection of the law in violation of the rights secured by the constitutions of the United States and New York state. The defendants removed the action to this court and now seek to dismiss the action.
The plaintiff worked as a pharmacist for the defendants. On Dec. 1, 2009, Shawn Jackson and Jennifer Gray, the plaintiff’s district manager and supervisor, informed the plaintiff that he was guilty of theft and guilty of distributing drugs without a prescription. The plaintiff asserts that he suffered damages and loss of income as a result of defendants’ employees’ “tortious conduct” taken within the scope of their employment. 
The plaintiff also asserts that the defendants terminated his employment “based on the false allegations when the real intent was to reduce financial overhead for the defendants.” This conduct, the plaintiff asserts, was “in derogation of the plaintiff’s rights to due process of law and the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and by the Constitution of the State of New York.” The plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

Ruling: It is settled that conduct by a private entity constitutes state action for purposes of Section 1983 only when there is a sufficiently close nexus between the state and the challenged action of the private entity so that the action of the latter may be fairly treated as that of the state itself. The plaintiff has not asserted that the defendants are state actors or offered any factual assertions from which it could be inferred that there was a sufficiently close nexus between the defendants and the state. Having dismissed all federal question claims presented in this case, the court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims. Accordingly, the remaining state law claims are remanded to the New York State Supreme Court, Broome County.

Michael S. Fauci for the plaintiff; Colin M. Leonard for the defendants