In a decision officially released on May 6, 2025, the Connecticut Appellate Court shut down an appeal brought by a former Travelers Indemnity Company employee, effectively preserving the company’s earlier win in arbitration. The twist? The court didn’t weigh in on whether the arbitrator got it right—it dismissed the appeal because there was no final judgment to appeal from.
Yvonne Michaud, a veteran employee who had been with Travelers for roughly 45 years, resigned in May 2019 at the age of 69. In 2021, she filed a lawsuit claiming that the company had discriminated against her based on her age. Michaud said she’d been passed over for promotions, denied raises, and not compensated for extra work - treatment she believed was rooted in bias against her age, especially when compared to how younger employees were treated.
Rather than heading to trial, both sides agreed to handle the case through arbitration. Travelers had a longstanding policy requiring current and former employees to resolve employment-related legal claims through arbitration, and Michaud had certified her agreement to it annually from 2011 through 2018. Because the arbitration agreement had been signed in 2018, it fell under an older set of Connecticut arbitration laws, giving arbitrators considerable procedural discretion.
The arbitrator issued a scheduling order in December 2021, making it clear that deadlines would be strictly enforced. Travelers submitted its motion for summary judgment on time in October 2022, arguing that Michaud hadn’t shown she was the victim of discrimination. The company said she had resigned voluntarily - not been demoted or fired - and that the decisions she complained about were based on performance, not age. It backed this up with affidavits, performance reviews, and internal emails.
Michaud’s opposition to that motion was due on November 7, 2022. But it never arrived. Her lawyer later admitted he thought he had emailed the response but had left the message in his drafts folder by mistake. He submitted it two weeks late, on November 22, along with an affidavit explaining the error. Travelers objected, and the arbitrator sided with the company - refusing to consider Michaud’s late-filed opposition.
The arbitrator issued her decision on December 6, 2022, granting summary judgment to Travelers and dismissing the complaint with prejudice. She concluded Michaud hadn’t shown she suffered an “adverse employment action” - a necessary element of a discrimination claim - and that the evidence supported the company's explanation for its decisions.
Michaud then returned to Superior Court and filed a motion to vacate the arbitration award, arguing that the arbitrator had acted improperly by not considering her objection and had disregarded employment discrimination law. The trial judge rejected that argument in a decision issued on September 8, 2023, finding the arbitrator had acted within her authority and that the decision didn’t reflect a disregard of legal standards.
Michaud appealed - but the Appellate Court never got to her arguments. Instead, it dismissed the appeal entirely, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction. Under Connecticut law, an appeal can only be filed from a final judgment. Here, the trial court had denied Michaud’s request to overturn the arbitration award but had not entered any final judgment confirming the award or disposing of the underlying lawsuit. And neither party had asked the court to take that final step. Without it, the appeal was premature.
The decision leaves Michaud’s claims unresolved at the trial court level but effectively ends her attempt to overturn the arbitration outcome - at least for now.
