Commonwealth v. Martins Maintenances, Inc.
Massachusetts Appeals Court
190 N.E.3d 1099 (2022)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Fernando Roland worked for Martins Maintenances, Inc. (Martins) (defendant) as a janitor. According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (plaintiff), Roland arranged for S.D., a Senegalese immigrant, to work for him, doing many of his janitorial duties. Roland invited S.D. to live with his girlfriend and her son. Roland paid S.D. between $90 and $120 per week after he deducted his claimed rent and transportation costs. Although Roland did not directly tell Martins about his arrangement, company management knew that on 41 occasions Roland punched in to work from another location and on 14 occasions he clocked in to work at two different locations at the same time. Management also knew that he reported working an impossibly high number of hours. Finally, company management had seen S.D. at work sites, and S.D. was reporting to work under another name. Roland’s manager saw S.D. at a work site three times. S.D.’s presence at a work site was against company policy. Martins was indicted before a grand jury for labor trafficking. The superior court dismissed the indictment. The commonwealth appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Blake, J.)
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