Goldstein v. Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire

• Citation: 218 F.3d 337
• Decision Date: 03 December 1999
• Docket Number: DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,V,99-1180,No. 99-1089,DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS,PLAINTIFF-APPELLAN,PLAINTIFF-APPELLE,99-1089
• Parties: (4th Cir. 2000) SCOTT GOLDSTEIN,THE CHESTNUT RIDGE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY; RICHARD YAFFEE; ROSS MCCAUSLAND; HARRY KAKEL; WILLIAM NEWBERREY, III; MICHAEL FOX; EUGENE REYNOLDS; NICK CORONEOS, SCOTT GOLDSTEIN,THE CHESTNUT RIDGE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY; RICHARD YAFFEE; ROSS MCCAUSLAND; HARRY KAKEL; WILLIAM NEWBERREY, III; MICHAEL FOX; EUGENE REYNOLDS; NICK CORONEOS, . Argued:
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Page 337

218 F.3d 337 (4th Cir. 2000)

SCOTT GOLDSTEIN, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,

V.

THE CHESTNUT RIDGE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY; RICHARD YAFFEE; ROSS MCCAUSLAND; HARRY KAKEL; WILLIAM NEWBERREY, III; MICHAEL FOX; EUGENE REYNOLDS; NICK CORONEOS, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

SCOTT GOLDSTEIN, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE,

V.

THE CHESTNUT RIDGE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY; RICHARD YAFFEE; ROSS MCCAUSLAND; HARRY KAKEL; WILLIAM NEWBERREY, III; MICHAEL FOX; EUGENE REYNOLDS; NICK CORONEOS, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS.

No. 99-1089, 99-1180.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT.

Argued: December 3, 1999.

July 12, 2000.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore.

J. Frederick Motz, Chief District Judge. (CA-96-1483-JFM) [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Argued: Charles Grant Byrd, Jr., Alston & Byrd, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Jo Anna Schmidt, Law Office of Harold A. Maclaughlin, Baltimore, Maryland; Roger Norman Powell, Powell And Sorrell, Pikesville, Maryland, for Appellees.

Before Wilkinson, Chief Judge, King, Circuit Judge, and Butzner, Senior Circuit Judge.

Judgment affirmed by published opinion. Judge King wrote the opinion for the Court, in which Senior Judge Butzner joined. Chief Judge Wilkinson wrote a separate opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.

OPINION

King, Circuit Judge

Plaintiff Scott H. Goldstein appeals the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire Company ("Chestnut Ridge" or "the company") and the individual members of its Executive Committee, the defendants below. Mr. Goldstein alleges that he was suspended and later terminated from Chestnut Ridge based on the substance of his speech, in violation of the First Amendment. Inasmuch as Goldstein premises his cause of action against this entity and these individuals upon the First Amendment, we must first determine whether Chestnut Ridge's decisions to suspend and to terminate him were under color of law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. If so, we then must ascertain whether the district court properly concluded that Goldstein cannot establish a violation of the First Amendment.

With respect to the first question, we hold that Chestnut Ridge, a volunteer fire department in Maryland, is a state actor. We do so because Chestnut Ridge is: (1) carrying out functions, exercising powers, and benefitting from protections traditionally and exclusively reserved to the state; (2) receiving substantial state assistance (3) subject to extensive state regulation; and (4) considered to be a state actor by the state itself. In the totality of the circumstances, Chestnut Ridge is a state actor whose actions must comport with the First Amendment.¹

However, in considering the second issue, we conclude that Goldstein cannot establish a prima facie violation of the First Amendment. Although his speech incorporated matters of public concern, which is protected speech, and although Chestnut Ridge's interests do not outweigh the public interest in the substance of Goldstein's protected speech, Goldstein cannot establish that his protected speech was a substantial factor in Chestnut Ridge's decisions to take adverse employment actions against him. For that reason, we must affirm the district court's award of summary judgment to the defendants.

I.

Mr. Goldstein was suspended from the company on March 15, 1996, by Richard Yaffee, President of Chestnut Ridge, and on March 21, 1996, his suspension was upheld by a vote of the Executive Committee. Goldstein's suspension followed his admitted failure to abide by an agreement to bring complaints to Yaffee before submitting them directly to the Executive Committee. On August 29, 1996, while on suspension, Goldstein was terminated from the company, based on his submission of allegedly false safety certifications on behalf of other company members. On May 10, 1996, after his suspension but before his termination, Goldstein filed this action in the District of Maryland. The case proceeded through discovery and, following the filing of motions and briefs, the district court granted Goldstein partial summary judgment, holding that Chestnut Ridge is a state actor for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.² See Goldstein v. Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire Co., 984 F. Supp. 367, 372 (D. Md. 1997).

The district court, on November 13, 1997, certified the state action issue under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), but we declined Chestnut Ridge's petition for an interlocutory appeal. The district court then considered cross-motions for summary judgment on the merits and, on January 7, 1999, held that Goldstein's suspension and dismissal did not offend the First Amendment. Accordingly, the court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants.

We possess jurisdiction over Goldstein's appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Before we may address the merits of Goldstein's First Amendment claim, we first must ascertain whether Chestnut Ridge acted under color of law within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

II.

We review the grant of summary judgment de novo. Myers v. Finkle, 950 F.2d 165, 167 (4th Cir. 1991). Summary judgment is appropriate only "if the pleadings depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322 (1986). In determining whether a party is entitled to summary judgment, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Myers, 950 F.2d at 167.

III.

A.

With few exceptions, constitutional guarantees, including those of individual liberty and equal protection, "do not apply to the actions of private entities." Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., Inc., 500 U.S. 614, 619 (1991). While this limitation on the reach of the Constitution is fundamental to our federal system, it is not without boundaries. Indeed, were this limitation boundless, states, government agencies, and government officials could avoid constitutional limits and obligations by simply delegating core governmental functions to private actors. This victory of form over substance is not permitted under the guise of federalism; thus, where "governmental authority... dominate[s] an activity to such an extent that its participants must be deemed to act with the authority of the government[, the ostensibly private participants are] subject to constitutional constraints." Id. at 620.

Mirroring this pragmatic scheme, section 1983 of Title 42 provides, in pertinent part, that

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State..., subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the depriva tion of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

42 U.S.C. § 1983. This statute, promulgated as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871,³ provides"the party injured" with a cause of action for violations of constitutional rights by"every person," that is, both private persons and private entities, but liability is imposed only for deprivations carried out under color of law. Flagg Bros., Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 156 (1978). "In cases construing section 1983, `under color' of law has been treated consistently as equivalent to the `state action' requirement under the Fourteenth Amendment." Haavistola v. Community Fire Co. of Rising Sun, Inc., 6 F.3d 211, 215 (4th Cir. 1993) (citing Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, 457 U.S. 830, 838 (1982)).

As the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed, two principles guide state action determinations:

[S]tate action requires both an alleged constitutional depri vation "caused by the exercise of some right or privilege created by the State or by a rule of conduct imposed by the State or by a person for whom the State is responsible" and that "the party charged with the deprivation must be a per son who may fairly be said to be a state actor." American Manufacturers Mut. Ins. Co. v. Sullivan, 526 U.S. 40, 50 (1999) (quoting Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937 (1982)).⁴ In this case, our analysis of state action turns on whether Chestnut Ridge and the members of its Executive Committee "may fairly be said to be... state actor[s]." American Manufacturers, 526 U.S. at 50.

A handful of contexts have been identified in which we can be confident that the conduct of an ostensibly private actor is under color of law for purposes of section 1983. The first exists where, "`in light of all the circumstances,'... the Government did more than adopt a passive position toward the underlying private conduct." Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Assoc., 489 U.S. 602, 614-15 (1989) (quoting Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 487 (1971)); see also Andrews v. Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, 998 F.2d 214, 217 (4th Cir. 1993). In that situation, a "private party should be deemed an agent or instrumentality of the Government." Skinner, 489 U.S. at 614; see also Peterson v. City of Greenville, 373 U.S. 244, 248 (1963) (finding state action where restaurant excluded patrons based on their race, in compliance with local ordinance); Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 171 (1970) (holding that private entity acts under color of law if private action was "because of a state-enforced custom"). Second, if the state delegates its obligations to a private actor, the acts conducted in pursuit of those delegated obligations are under color of law. See West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 54 (1988) (holding that physician, who treated inmates pursuant to part-time contract, was fulfilling state's Eighth Amendment obligations and therefore acted under color of state law); see also Andrews, 998 F.2d at 217. Third, "[o]ne of the...