Valot v. Southeast Local School Dist. Bd. of Educ.
| Decision Date | 18 April 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-3390,95-3390 |
| Citation | 107 F.3d 1220 |
| Parties | Unempl.Ins.Rep. (CCH) P 22,174 Sally Ann VALOT, Jean Hansen, Anna D. Roosa, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHEAST LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Ira J. Mirkin, argued and briefed, Barry R. Laine, Bonnie D. Burdman, Green, Haines, Sgambati, Murphy & Macala, Youngstown, OH, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
G. Frederick Compton, Jr., Whalen & Compton, Akron, OH, Michael J. Loughman, Daniel D. Mason, argued and briefed, Warhola, O'Toole, Loughman, Alderman & Stumphauzer, Lorain, OH, for Defendants-Appellees.
Daniel S. Smith, briefed, Ohio Education Association, Grandview Heights, OH, for Amicus Curiae Ohio Education Association.
John S. Marshall, briefed, Spater, Gittes, Schulte & Kolman, Columbus, OH, for Amicui Curiae Ohio NOW Education and Legal Fund and Ohio Employment Lawyers Association.
Before: ENGEL, MERRITT, and RYAN, Circuit Judges.
ENGEL, J., delivered the opinion of the court. RYAN, J. (pp. 1230-34), delivered a separate concurring opinion. MERRITT, J. (p. 1234), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
As untenured, substitute bus drivers, Sally Ann Valot, Jean Hansen, and Anna D. Roosa applied for and obtained unemployment compensation for the summer months of 1993 during which they were unemployed, and for that reason, the Southeast Local School District Board of Education declined to rehire them for the next school year. At issue on this appeal is whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment against the bus drivers on their claims that the School Board's decision violated their rights under the federal constitution and in declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over their claim that that decision violated Ohio public policy. We affirm.
The facts of this case are, in the main, undisputed. Plaintiffs Sally Ann Valot, Jean Hansen, and Anna D. Roosa were substitute school bus drivers in the Southeast Local School District in northern Ohio. Prior to the summer of 1993, they had served in their respective positions for three or more years pursuant to consecutive nine-month contracts, tendered to them by the School Board at the beginning of each school year. Plaintiffs were not employed during the summer months.
As a matter of practice, the School Board voted at the end of each school year not to automatically renew the contracts of its substitute bus drivers. Instead, the School Board informed them that if they wished to work as bus drivers during the next school year, they should notify their supervisor who would relay this information to the Superintendent of the School Board. The Superintendent would, in turn, make recommendations to the School Board, which would then vote on whether to tender contracts to the recommended substitute bus drivers. As a general matter, the School Board almost always accepted the Superintendent's recommendations.
In the years preceding the 1993-94 school year, Plaintiffs notified their supervisor that they wished to be rehired, received a recommendation from the Superintendent that they be rehired, and were in fact rehired as substitute bus drivers. As they had before, Plaintiffs gave notification to their supervisor at the end of the 1992-93 school year that they wished to be rehired for 1993-94 school year.
Before the summer of 1993, Plaintiffs had never applied for unemployment benefits during the summer months while they were unemployed. Near the end of the 1992-93 school year, however, they became interested in collecting unemployment benefits during the summer months and--because concerned about jeopardizing their being rehired--asked their supervisor for advice. Their supervisor suggested that Plaintiffs speak with the Superintendent, which they did in June of 1993. The Superintendent indicated that he expected to recommend Plaintiffs for rehire, and while the Board normally followed his recommendations, he could not say for certain what the School Board would do. After their discussion with the Superintendent, Plaintiffs applied for, and received, unemployment benefits.
On August 16, 1993, the Board met to consider, among other things, which substitute bus drivers to rehire for the upcoming school year. Before the meeting, the Superintendent gave the Board a list of the substitute bus drivers whom he recommended for rehire, which included Plaintiffs. However, when it became known at the meeting that they had applied for and collected unemployment benefits during the summer of 1993, the Board became unhappy. Because it does not pay money into the State of Ohio's unemployment fund, the Board pays for any ex-employee's unemployment benefits dollar for dollar. As a result, the Board voted to rehire all of the individuals the Superintendent had recommended except for Plaintiffs. The reason for that decision, Defendants candidly admit, was that Plaintiffs had filed for and obtained unemployment benefits.
When Plaintiffs learned that they had not been rehired, they contacted the School Board for an explanation. The Board told them that they had not been hired because they had sought and obtained unemployment benefits, the receipt of which translated into loss of the Board's own revenue. Plaintiffs Following their refusal to rehire Plaintiffs, Defendants changed their policies to ensure that all substitute employees had a reasonable assurance of employment for the following school year, which made those employees ineligible for unemployment compensation under Ohio law. Under Ohio law,
offered to repay to the School Board the benefits that they had received in exchange for being allowed to return to their jobs, but the Board declined.
[b]enefits based on service for an educational institution ... in other than an instructional, research, or principal administrative capacity, shall not be paid to any individual for any week of unemployment which begins during the period between two successive academic years or terms of the employing educational institution ..., provided the individual performed such services for the educational institution ... during the first such academic year or term and, there is a reasonable assurance that such individual will perform such services for any educational institution ... in the second such academic years or terms.
Ohio Rev.Ann. § 4141.29(I)(1)(b) (Baldwin 1995); see Knight v. Administrator, Ohio Bureau of Employment Servs., 28 Ohio St.3d 8, 501 N.E.2d 1198, 1201 (1986). To bring their hiring practices within the parameters of the "reasonable assurance" language, the School Board subsequently informed substitute employees at the end of an academic term that they would be rehired for the following year.
On February 24, 1994, Plaintiffs filed this five-count suit in federal court against the School Board, individual members of the School Board, and its Superintendent. In counts one to four, they claim violations of their federal constitutional rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983: (1) the right to petition for redress of grievances; (2) the right of access to administrative agencies; (3) the right to equal protection of the laws; and (4) the right to due process. In count five, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants violated the public policy of Ohio.
Defendants moved for summary judgment on all counts of the complaint. Plaintiffs cross-moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability. The district court granted Defendants' motion and denied Plaintiffs' motion. The court held that Plaintiffs failed "to articulate a clear constitutional right of which they have been deprived." (J.A. at 24.) It rejected their claims for violation of their rights to petition for redress of grievances and of access to administrative agencies on grounds that they
never sought access to any court or administrative agency to redress a wrong or an injustice, or to otherwise pursue a grievance. Rather, they only sought access to a state agency in order to obtain benefits due persons who meet certain objective criteria. Any retaliatory action taken by the School Board against the plaintiffs for having sought unemployment compensation benefits did not chill plaintiffs' ability to petition the government for redress of grievances.
(Id. at 24-25.)
The court rejected Plaintiffs' equal protection claim on grounds that to the extent the School Board treated substitute bus drivers who applied for and collected unemployment compensation differently from those persons outside that class, the different treatment was not unconstitutional. According to the court, the Board acted in a rational manner to protect the funds used to operate the school system. The court noted that "[i]t is not insignificant that the discrete class plaintiffs single out as having been unfairly treated is a class of persons who obtained unemployment compensation benefits to which they apparently were not entitled." (Id. at 25.)
Because it dismissed the federal claims over which it had original jurisdiction, the court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiffs' state law claim for violation of Ohio public policy. Plaintiffs' due process claim was rejected without discussion.
Valot, Hansen, and Roosa timely appealed.
Plaintiffs' claims on appeal fall into essentially two categories. The first category includes
various challenges to the district court's grant of summary judgment against Plaintiffs on their claims under § 1983. The second category includes a challenge to the court's decision not to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over, or grant summary judgment for Plaintiffs on, their state law claim sounding in public policy. In opposition, Defendants contend not only that the district court's decisions were proper on...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Richards v. Snyder, Case No. 1:14-cv-84
...limited to matters of public concern. Martin v. O'Brien, 207 F.App'x. 587, 590 (6th Cir. 2006) (citing Valot v. Se. Local Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 107 F.3d 1220, 1226 (6th Cir. 1997)). In Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 146 (1983), the Supreme Court explained that speech addresses a matter ......
-
Deming v. Jackson-Madison County Gen. Hosp. Dist.
...as those rights which are `implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.'" Id; see also Valot v. Southeast Local School District Board of Education, 107 F.3d 1220, 1232 (6th Cir.1997) (Ryan, J. concurring) (quoting Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 272, 114 S.Ct. 807, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994)) ......
-
Cahoo v. Sas Inst. Inc.
...is no fundamental right to state-created benefits, including unemployment compensation. Valot v. Southeast Local School Dist. Bd. of Educ. , 107 F.3d 1220, 1233 (6th Cir. 1997) (Ryan, J., concurring) ("[S]tate-created employment benefits, such as unemployment compensation or the right to a ......
-
Singleton v. Cecil
...("There is no general liberty interest in being free from capricious government action."); Valot v. Southeast Local Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 107 F.3d 1220, 1233 (6th Cir.1997) (Ryan, J., concurring) ("merely to state that the Due Process Clause was 'intended to secure the individual from th......