Bakalis v. Golembeski, 94-1093

• Decision Date: 08 November 1994
• Docket Number: No. 94-1093,94-1093
• Citation: 35 F.3d 318
• Parties: 94 Ed. Law Rep. 124 Michael J. BAKALIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jenni GOLEMBESKI; Mark R. Stephens; Merrill Becker; James Durkin, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 318

35 F.3d 318

94 Ed. Law Rep. 124

Michael J. BAKALIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jenni GOLEMBESKI; Mark R. Stephens; Merrill Becker; James Durkin, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 94-1093.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 22, 1994.

Decided Sept. 14, 1994.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing

En Banc Denied Nov. 8, 1994.

William P. Rector, Alexis J. Rogoski (argued), Peterson & Ross, Chicago, IL, Theodore A. Boundas, Peterson & Ross, Springfield, IL, for plaintiff-appellee.

Gregory E. Rogus, Lori D. Isaacs, Martin A. Dolan, Segal, McCambridge, Singer & Mahoney, John B. Murphey (argued), Simone M. Boutet, Rosenthal, Murphey, Coblentz & Janega, Chicago, IL, for defendants-appellant.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, COFFEY and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Michael J. Bakalis, Ph.D., brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 seeking damages from four individual members of the

Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 54 ("the Board") for terminating him without due process of law. The defendants moved for summary judgment on the merits and, alternatively, on the ground of qualified immunity. The district court denied the defendants' motion and defendants brought this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291. We now affirm.

I BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Dr. Bakalis was employed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Triton College and was terminated two years prior to the completion of his contract. During his tenure, there were conflicts between Dr. Bakalis and members of the Board regarding the administration and management of Triton College. Specifically, Dr. Bakalis maintains that defendant Golembeski engaged in a public campaign to discredit him, which included writing letters to newspapers and making public statements that he was not qualified for the position he held. R. 25, Ex. 2 at 3. Furthermore, the Board members, according to Dr. Bakalis, interfered unreasonably in the day-to-day administration of the college. ¹ Dr. Bakalis warned the Board and specifically the individually-named defendants that their actions threatened his ability to carry out his duties and responsibilities as President of Triton College. Id. at 4. He stated:

I made known to the BOARD OF TRUSTEES and these individuals that their actions and conduct were improper under my employment contract, the BOARD OF TRUSTEE[S'] own rules of ethics, and the Illinois Community College Board's and North Central Association's guidelines. Further, I made known to the BOARD OF TRUSTEES and these individuals that in my view their actions and conduct had an improper purpose and were contrary to the best interests of TRITON COLLEGE.

Id. As a result of these conflicts, defendant James Durkin requested that Dr. Bakalis resign as Triton College President and advised Dr. Bakalis that, in the view of some of the Board members, he was not carrying out the duties of his office in an effective manner. At a closed session of the Board, another Board member, Mark Stephens, stated that the Board could offer Dr. Bakalis nine months' severance pay if he would resign.

At a special meeting, the Board voted to retain counsel who would investigate and recommend to the Board whether there was cause to terminate Dr. Bakalis' employment as President of Triton College. Counsel concluded that there was sufficient evidence to terminate Dr. Bakalis for cause. Therefore, on June 23, 1992, the Board enacted a resolution which provided for the Board "to seek to terminate Dr. Bakalis" pursuant to paragraph 10(B) of his employment contract. ² The reasons for his termination were listed in a document dated June 23, 1992, entitled "Notice of the Reasons for Seeking the Dismissal of Dr. Michael J. Bakalis from his Position as President of Triton College"; Dr. Bakalis received a copy the following day. On the day these resolutions were adopted, the Board also adopted a Resolution which provided for procedures to terminate Dr. Bakalis. According to these procedures Dr On July 7, 1992, prior to voting to terminate Dr. Bakalis, the Board held a hearing which Dr. Bakalis attended with his attorney. During the hearing, Dr. Bakalis was given the opportunity to respond to the Notice of Reasons. After this meeting, the Board voted to dismiss Dr. Bakalis by a vote of 4-3; the four members of the Board voting to dismiss Dr. Bakalis are the individually-named defendants.

Bakalis was allowed a pre-termination and a post-termination hearing. The latter would be conducted by a committee of three Board members appointed by the Chair and would be convened at Dr. Bakalis' request in the event of his termination. Ms. Golembeski was the Chair of the Board during this time.

Dr. Bakalis then requested a post-termination hearing. Three members of the Board, two of whom voted for Dr. Bakalis' dismissal, were appointed to conduct the hearing. The hearing was to be a full evidentiary hearing. During one of the post-termination hearing sessions, Dr. Bakalis, through his counsel, announced that he was withdrawing from the hearing. After this incident, the hearing committee met twice; Dr. Bakalis did not appear on either occasion. The Committee then notified Dr. Bakalis that his request for a post-termination hearing would be considered withdrawn unless it was notified within fourteen days. The Committee received no notice and thus recommended to the full Board that his termination be considered final.

B. District Court Proceedings

In this action, brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, Dr. Bakalis alleged that the Board had violated his right to due process by terminating him without a fair hearing. ³ The members of the Board moved for summary judgment on the federal cause of action on the grounds that, as a matter of law, they had met the requirements of due process, and alternatively that they were entitled to qualified immunity. The district court denied this motion. It stated that "[p]laintiff cannot be deprived of his property right in continued employment without due process of law, which includes notice of the charges against him and an opportunity to respond to them before an impartial tribunal." R. 28 at 6-7. Additionally, it found that there were questions of material fact regarding the Board members' impartiality. Id. at 7. Consequently, it concluded, summary judgment on the merits was inappropriate.

Addressing the Board members' qualified immunity argument, the district court followed the traditional qualified immunity standard set forth in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The court determined that, at the time the acts in question took place, "it was clearly established by the decisions of both the Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit that due process required that plaintiff's termination hearing be heard by an impartial tribunal." R. 28 at 9. The court then determined that "a genuine issue of fact [existed] regarding whether the individual defendants knew or should have known that due process required a fair and impartial tribunal, especially in light of plaintiff's and plaintiff's counsel's repeated attempts to inform the individual defendants of this requirement at plaintiff's termination hearing." Id. at 10. For this reason, concluded the district court, the defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity. The members of the Board now appeal.

II ANALYSIS

In this appeal, the only issue properly before the court is whether the district court erred in its determination that the defendants were not entitled to the defense of qualified immunity. The district court addressed this issue only briefly. ⁴ However when its opinion, including that portion that deals with the denial of summary judgment on the merits, is read as a whole, there are sufficient conclusions of law to permit us to proceed without remanding to the district court. In any case, the issue before us--whether the defendants are entitled to the defense of qualified immunity--is a matter of law and we may affirm the judgment of the district court on any ground that is fairly supported by the record.

The members of the Board allege several errors in the district court's decision. First, they maintain that the district court applied the wrong standard in determining the qualified immunity question. The district court, argue the defendants, conducted the qualified immunity inquiry at too general a level; it should have asked "whether, under the specific facts involved in this case, it should have been apparent to the individual defendants that the action they took" deprived Dr. Bakalis of his right to an impartial decisionmaker. Appellants' Br. at 17. Second, they contend that the procedures used to terminate Dr. Bakalis did not clearly violate any right of Dr. Bakalis to an impartial decisionmaker. ⁵ Finally, the individual defendants contend that, under the existing law at the time, it was not clear that their prior disputes with Dr. Bakalis rendered them impartial. We review the denial of qualified immunity de novo. Rakovich v. Wade, 850 F.2d 1180, 1204 (7th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 968, 109 S.Ct. 497, 102 L.Ed.2d 534 (1988).

The standard for a grant of qualified immunity is well established: "[G]overnmental officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald 57 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. However, a plaintiff may not escape the doctrine of qualified immunity by alleging violation of a clearly established, but very broad, constitutional right.

[O]ur cases establish that the right the official is alleged to have violated must have been "clearly established" in a more particularized, hence more relevant, sense: The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable...