No. 20-1617

SCOTT KNOUS,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS, INC.,

Defendant, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Leo T. Sorokin, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Lynch and Kayatta, Circuit Judges, and McElroy,* District Judge.

Alan H. Crede, with whom David Conforto and Conforto Law Group were on brief, for appellant. Shira M. Blank, with whom Elizabeth S. Torkelsen, Jeremy M. Brown, and Epstein Becker & Green PC were on brief, for appellee.

March 25, 2021

* Of the District of Rhode Island, sitting by designation. KAYATTA, Circuit Judge. In 2018, Scott Knous began working as an at-will employee for a fintech company called Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. Roughly one year later, on May 17, 2019, a vice president of human resources and a managing director at Broadridge called Knous into a meeting at Broadridge's Boston office to inform Knous that Broadridge was eliminating his position. They told Knous his pay and benefits would continue until the following Friday, May 24, 2019. May 17 not being a payday, Knous received no payment from Broadridge that day. Rather, on May 24, Knous received his final paycheck via direct deposit including all accrued vacation pay and full payment of his salary through May 24.

Not tarrying, Knous had already filed this lawsuit in Massachusetts Superior Court on May 22, claiming a violation of the Massachusetts Wage Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, §§ 148, 150. The Act provides that "any employee discharged from [his] employment shall be paid in full on the day of his discharge." Id. § 148. Knous claimed that "the day of his discharge" was May 17, not May 24, and hence Broadridge had failed to make timely payment under the Act. The Act imposes strict liability on employers who fail to comply with its requirements, and it allows aggrieved employees to sue for lost wages, treble damages, attorneys' fees, and costs. See Lawless v. Steward Health Care Sys., LLC, 894 F.3d 9, 21 (1st Cir. 2018).

- 2 - After Broadridge removed the case to federal district court, the court eventually granted summary judgment in favor of Broadridge. See Knous v. Broadridge Fin. Sols., Inc., Civil No. 19-11973-LTS, 2020 WL 2747821 (D. Mass. May 27, 2020). After carefully considering on de novo review the record and briefs on appeal, as well as oral argument by counsel, we affirm for substantially the reasons given by the district court. We add only our explanation for rejecting several criticisms of the district court's opinion offered by Knous on appeal.

Knous argues that, as a matter of statutory interpretation, the day an employee is "discharged from . . . employment" under the Wage Act is the day the employee is told to stop performing work for his employer. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, § 148 (providing that "any employee discharged from [his] employment shall be paid in full on the day of his discharge"). At the May 17 meeting, the vice president and the managing director told Knous to immediately return his company-issued cell phone and laptop, to immediately return his keycard badge used for building access, to clean out his desk or have its contents shipped to him, to leave the premises thereafter, to immediately cease performing his employment duties, and to stop reporting to work. T