Holland v. Rimmer, 93-1447
| Citation | 25 F.3d 1251 |
| Decision Date | 13 June 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-1447,93-1447 |
| Parties | Thomas J. HOLLAND, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Edith RIMMER; Alpha Scott; Edith Elswick; Raymond Cole; Arvil Ratliff; William P. Harris; Earl Scott; Carol Brunty; Commonwealth of Virginia; and County of Buchanan, Virginia, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) |
ARGUED: John Lumley Bagwell, John L. Bagwell, P.C., Grundy, VA, for appellant. Kurt Joseph Pomrenke, White, Elliott & Bundy, Bristol, VA, for appellees. ON BRIEF: Steven R. Minor, White, Elliott & Bundy, Bristol, VA, for appellees.
Before RUSSELL and WILKINS, Circuit Judges, and SMITH, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
Affirmed and remanded in part by published opinion. Judge REBECCA BEACH SMITH wrote the opinion, in which Judge DONALD RUSSELL and Judge WILKINS joined.
Thomas J. Holland, Jr. ("Holland") brought this action, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, against his former employer, the Buchanan County Department of Social Services; members of the Buchanan County Board of Social Services and the Board of Supervisors, in both their individual and official capacities ("the Board"); the Commonwealth of Virginia; 1 and the County of Buchanan. Holland's suit arises out of the termination of his employment by the Board. He appeals an order of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of the Board and the County of Buchanan. The district court relied on Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), overruled in part on other grounds, Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 330, 106 S.Ct. 662, 664, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986), in ruling that Holland received due process when the Board terminated his employment. Further, the district court held that Holland failed to present a factual basis for any First Amendment claim. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the decision of the district court, but remand for a determination of whether the district court will exercise pendent jurisdiction over Holland's remaining state law claims. 2
On August 28, 1990, the Board of the Department of Social Services of Buchanan County voted to fire Thomas J. Holland, Jr. from his position as Director of Social Services of Buchanan County, Virginia. No reasons were given for his discharge. Holland filed a grievance, and on September 14, 1990, the Board sent him a letter, stating its reasons for his discharge and enclosing an unsatisfactory employee evaluation. In the same letter, the Board gave Holland five days to respond to its reasons for the discharge. Holland chose not to respond. By letter dated September 24, 1990, the Board reinstated Holland and fully compensated him for the period from August 28, 1990 to September 24, 1990, due to its initial failure to provide him with an explanation for his first termination. On the same date, however, the Board again fired Holland, providing him with four reasons for his dismissal, 3 and gave him a reasonable time to respond to its action. Holland again filed a grievance, requesting a hearing.
A grievance panel hearing was conducted on June 25, 26, and 27, 1991, and a final panel decision was duly entered on August 28, 1991. The grievance panel found that the Board of Social Services did not comply with procedural requirements of the personnel manual when it fired Holland on August 28, 1990, 4 and that Holland was not guilty of committing a Group I or Group II offense. 5 However, the grievance panel apparently did find Holland guilty of a Group III offense, namely falsifying a record, which was one of the four reasons given for Holland's discharge on September 24, 1990. 6 Because it found that the Board later ratified the acts for which it discharged Holland, the panel reinstated him effective July 15, 1991. 7 Finally, the panel specifically denied Holland back pay "due to the mitigating circumstances." J.A. at 47.
Holland filed this action, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, seeking lost wages, attorney's fees, fringe benefits, damages for mental anguish and pain and suffering, and punitive damages. Holland alleged that the Board's decision to terminate his employment deprived him of a property right without due process of law, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. 8 Holland asserted that the Board's failure to provide him with a hearing prior to his termination violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. Additionally, he claimed that the Board fired him in retaliation for disciplining family members and political "cronies" of Board members, in violation of his First Amendment rights.
The district court granted appellees' motion for summary judgment, holding that under Parratt, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, Holland "received the due process to which he was entitled" and that a federal court must give preclusive effect to findings of state administrative agencies. Layne v. Campbell County Dep't of Social Servs., 939 F.2d 217 (4th Cir.1991). Thus, the district court held that it was precluded from making any further factual findings, reviewing the panel's decision, or awarding any further damages. Further, the district court held that Holland's First Amendment claim lacked factual support.
This court reviews the entry of summary judgment de novo, applying the same standard applicable to the district court. Temkin v. Frederick County Comm'rs, 945 F.2d 716, 718 (4th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1172, 117 L.Ed.2d 417 (1992).
The district court granted summary judgment on Count 2 of Holland's complaint (the First Amendment claim), stating:
[N]owhere in Count 2 or anywhere else in the complaint, does Holland assert any factual basis for this claim. Holland's affidavit does not set forth a factual statement of any denial of free speech. There being no factual basis for this claim, summary judgment is granted to the defendants as to Count 2.
J.A. at 129. Holland contends that his complaint properly stated a claim for violation of the First Amendment. 9
The Supreme Court has established definitively that "a state or a division of a state may not discharge an employee on a basis that infringes that employee's constitutionally protected interest in freedom of speech." Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 383, 107 S.Ct. 2891, 2896, 97 L.Ed.2d 315 (1987); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 597, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 2697, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972). However, plaintiffs asserting retaliatory discharge claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 must meet a three-pronged test. Huang v. Board of Governors, 902 F.2d 1134, 1140 (4th Cir.1990). The employee must first show that he engaged in speech on a matter of public concern. Id.; see Dwyer v. Smith, 867 F.2d 184, 193 (4th Cir.1989) (). Second, the claimant must demonstrate that the alleged retaliatory action deprived him of some valuable benefit. Huang, 902 F.2d at 1140. Finally, the discharged employee must show a causal relationship between the protected speech and the retaliatory action, such that " 'but for' the protected expression the employer would not have taken the alleged retaliatory action." Id. Although Holland has alleged that his conduct in disciplining friends of the Board was the cause of the adverse employment action, his complaint fails on the first prong of the test. 10
In assessing whether particular speech is protected by the First Amendment, the court considers "(1) whether a public employee's speech qualifies as a matter of public concern, and (2) what effect the speech has on the efficiency, discipline and proper administration of the workplace." Dwyer, 867 F.2d at 193. However, if the speech cannot be characterized as "relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community," the court's inquiry ends there. Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 146, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 1690, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983) (). 11
The final determination whether the speech relates to a matter of public concern is a question of law for the court, Huang, 902 F.2d at 1140, and should be made by examining the "content, form and context of a given statement, as revealed by the record as a whole." Connick, 461 U.S. at 147-48, 103 S.Ct. at 1690. Because the inquiry is fact specific, it requires a case-by-case analysis. In the case sub judice, it is important to keep in mind that the speech for which the Board allegedly fired Holland involved internal discipline meted out by Holland to his subordinates. We turn, therefore, to a consideration of the content, form, and context of Holland's expressions in order to determine whether they involved matters of public concern.
As this court noted in Jurgensen v. Fairfax County, if the employee's expression deals primarily with matters of
"limited public interest" and does not "seek to bring to light actual or potential wrongdoing or breach of public trust," centering instead on matters primarily, if not exclusively "of personal interest" to the employer such as employee grievances over internal working conditions, etc., that fact must be weighed in determining whether a matter of true public concern is involved for the "First Amendment does not require a public office to be run as a roundtable for employee complaints over internal office affairs."
745 F.2d 868, 879 (4th Cir.1984) (quoting Connick, 461 U.S. at 148-49, 103 S.Ct. at 1691). In other words, the inquiry is designed to avoid turning every public employee expression of dissatisfaction into a constitutional case. Berger v. Battaglia, 779 F.2d 992, 999 (4th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1159,...
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