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CONNECTICUT OPINIONS AUGUST 10, 2020 ¦ 35

LABOR LAW Connecticut’s newly enacted Juvenile Transfer
Act includes a provision which requires that
juvenile cases which are transferred to adult
Court Dismissed Plaintiff’s ADA criminal court be held in private and that ju-
Lawsuit, Holding Diagnosis of Carpal dicial records remain sealed until a verdict is
Tunnel Insufficient To Prove Disability rendered or the defendant pleads guilty. The
act also retroactively sealed pending matters
CASE: Everitt v. Jarvis Airfoil, Inc. which had previously been public if the offend-
COURT: U.S. District Court for Connecticut er had transferred from juvenile court to adult
DOC. NO.: 3:19-cv-1853 court. Plaintiff is the publisher of the Hartford
COURT OPINION BY: Bryant Courant newspaper, and brought a claim argu-
DATE: July 23, 2020 • PAGES: 15 ing the provision violates the right of access to
court proceedings and sought a preliminary in-
Plaintiff worked for defendant as a polisher/hand junction against enforcement. The court found
finisher to repair airplane engine parts. He was di- plaintiff was likely to succeed on the merits
agnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in 2015 and because they sought the right to report on the
told defendant about his diagnosis. A few years nature of criminal proceedings, rather than
later, following an incident where a co-worker the individuals involved, and granted the pre-
stole one of his personal tools, plaintiff was ter- liminary injunction. The court also found the
minated. Plaintiff sued defendant for disability injunction to be sufficiently narrowly tailored,
discrimination following his termination. Defen- and that there would be irreparable harm to the
dant moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim public interest.
and the court granted the motion. Defendant ar-
gued that plaintiff failed to allege any facts that
he was fired on account of an actual or perceived
disability, and also that he had not alleged that he SECURITIES LITIGATION •

was disabled under the Americans with Disabili- DISPUTE RESOLUTION
ties Act. The court first agreed with defendant that
plaintiff’s claims that his former coworkers called Court Denies Motion To Lift Stay Of
him disparaging names related to mental acuity Arbitration
and that he complained about this conduct was
insufficient to show that his employer regarded CASE: United States Sec. & Exch. Comm’n v. Ahmed
him as disabled. Even if the employer knew of COURT: U.S. District Court for Connecticut
these remarks, plaintiff offered no evidence that DOC. NO.: 3:15cv675
the employer believed those statements to be true. COURT OPINION BY: Arterton
The court then held that the diagnosis of carpal DATE: July 28, 2020 • PAGES: 16
tunnel syndrome alone is insufficient for the court
to infer that the medical condition “substantially In a previous action, the court ordered a stay
limits one or more major life activities” as defined on litigation against defendants and appointed
by the ADA. Therefore, the court determined that a receiver for assets subject to the court’s asset
because plaintiff did not allege that he was dis- freeze order. Third party Oak moved to lift the
abled within the meaning of the ADA, the plain- stay on litigation for the limited purpose of ar-
tiff could not prove that the defendant acted with bitration in connection with a fraud scheme.
discriminatory intent when he fired him. The court granted the motion to lift the stay
as to arbitration, and defendant moved for a
release of some funds from the receivership es-
tate to retain legal counsel to arbitrate against
PUBLIC RECORDS • CRIMINAL LAW Oak. Plaintiff SEC opposed the motion, argu-

Court Grants Preliminary Injunction To ing that the litigation stay only applied to ac-
tions against defendants, not arbitration ac-
Allow Access To Court Documents In tions defendants sought to pursue. The court
Light Of Juvenile Transfer Act agreed, denying the motion to lift the stay for
failure to demonstrate good cause. The court
also denied defendant’s motion to stay arbitra-
CASE: The Hartford Courant Co., LLC v. Carroll tion and denied defendant’s motion for fees to
COURT: U.S. District Court for Connecticut arbitrate against Oak for lack of information
DOC. NO.: 3:19-cv-1951
COURT OPINION BY: Shea regarding the intended recipient of the funds,
DATE: July 24, 2020 • PAGES: 38 without prejudice to renew.

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