BERLIN – A settlement has been reached in the $8 million harassment lawsuit filed against the Berlin Fire Company by one of its former paramedics.
The case filed by Zackery Tyndall against the Berlin Fire Company and members Bryon Trimble and Derrick Simpson in U.S. District Court was dismissed last week.
“The resolution is confidential,” said Jim Otway, Tyndall’s attorney. “I can state that it was resolved to my client’s satisfaction.”
The closure of the case comes three months after a federal court judge denied a motion to dismiss filed by the attorneys representing the fire company. In her opinion then, Judge Ellen Hollander wrote that the defendants claimed that what Tyndall called harassment was just teasing.
“Defendants do not expressly dispute most of Tyndall’s allegations concerning his coworkers’ conduct,” the opinion reads. “Instead, they provide a bullet-point list of his allegations … and characterize them as ‘teasing and horseplay.’”
David Fitzgerald, president of the Berlin Fire Company (BFC), said this week he could not comment on the case.
“All I can tell you is that the issue has been resolved,” he said.
Tyndall, a longtime member of the fire company, first reported the alleged harassment to town officials in 2012. According to court documents, he was called “gay boy,” “homo” and other derogatory names by his fellow BFC members. He claimed he was criticized constantly and even touched inappropriately. Tyndall took his concerns to town officials because at that time, an agreement between the municipality and the BFC made EMS workers leased employees of the town so they’d be eligible for state retirement and health benefits.
Though town officials recommended certain disciplinary actions after Tyndall came forward, he said the harassment went on. Because of that, the town cut close to $600,000 in funding to the organization in August 2012. That came just days after the fire company terminated the leased employee agreement with the town.
According to court documents, the harassment reached a new level on Dec. 26, 2012, when Tyndall said fire company volunteers refused to help him with the victim of a car accident he was trying to get to the hospital.
“He recalls asking numerous other BFC members for help along the way but received only stares from most of them …,” Hollander’s July opinion states. “Eventually, a state trooper helped Tyndall connect an oxygen tank to a ventilation bag …, two BFC cadets helped him move the passenger into an ambulance … and a Berlin police officer drove the ambulance to the hospital while Tyndall worked with the passenger in the back.”
In spite of Tyndall’s testimony, an investigation by the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS) found there was no delay in services following the accident. The MIEMSS report, did, however, acknowledge the tension between the town and the fire company.
The accident increased the work-related anxiety Tyndall said he was under. He was fired early in 2013 and took his case to court after receiving a right-to-sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Though the town was not named in the lawsuit, Berlin Mayor Gee Williams says he’s pleased the “unfortunate legal dispute” has been resolved.
“The Town of Berlin has never been, nor will be, liable in the future for any monetary compensation that may be a part of the settlement in resolving this legal dispute,” Williams said. “The BFC made the decision in 2012 to reject the town’s advice and standards of conduct, then proceeded to terminate the leased employment agreement with the Town of Berlin for EMS personnel.”
During the dispute, the fire company went 18 months without funding from the town, Williams said. He said a permanent condition of that funding being reinstated in FY 2014 was an annual audit of BFC finances.
“This not only results in accountability to a public agency that makes significant grants to the fire company but also would disclose if any funds provided by the Town of Berlin were to be used in payment of any settlement resulting from the legal issues related to the employment and ultimate termination of Mr. Tyndall,” he said.
Williams stressed that town funding being used for anything relating to the lawsuit would be “contrary to the intent of municipal support for firefighting or EMS services” and would be a major impediment to continued funding for those programs.
