Patterson v. City of Utica
| Decision Date | 02 June 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-7285.,No. 03-7435.,03-7285.,03-7435. |
| Citation | 370 F.3d 322 |
| Parties | Stephen PATTERSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CITY OF UTICA, Defendant-Appellant, Timothy Julian, Individually and as Mayor of the City of Utica, John Doe, a fictitious name intended to indicate individuals unknown at this time, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Charles N. Brown, First Assistant Corporation Counsel, Utica, NY (John W. Dillon, Corporation Counsel, Utica, NY, of
counsel), for Defendant-Appellant City of Utica.
Leon R. Koziol, Law Offices of Leon R. Koziol, Utica, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellee Stephen Patterson.
Before: CARDAMONE, SOTOMAYOR, and KATZMANN, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff Stephen Patterson brought suit against defendants City of Utica, and its Mayor, Timothy Julian, in his individual and official capacities (collectively defendants), in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Hurd, J.) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. (2000). Plaintiff alleged that defendants discriminated against him based on his race, retaliated against him for exercising his First Amendment rights, and deprived him of a liberty interest without due process by making stigmatizing statements about him when dismissing him from city employment. Patterson sought damages of $1 million for each cause of action, punitive damages, attorney's fees and costs, and also reinstatement. A five-day jury trial on these allegations was held in December 2002.
The jury found the City, acting through its former Mayor, Edward A. Hanna, was liable for violating plaintiff's procedural due process rights, and awarded plaintiff $333,820.32 in damages and attorney's fees and costs. The jury also found that although Mayor Julian had terminated plaintiff from city employment and had made stigmatizing statements depriving plaintiff of a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause, neither he nor the City was liable for any damages for these acts because plaintiff had been given a name-clearing hearing after the stigmatizing statements were made. The jury returned a verdict for the defendants on plaintiff's race discrimination and First Amendment retaliation claims.
After the verdict was rendered, the parties each moved under Rule 50 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for judgment as a matter of law. The district court on March 14, 2003 denied both motions in a bench decision and issued a judgment that reflected the jury's verdict. The City appeals, contending the district court erred when it entered judgment for the plaintiff on his due process claims arising from Mayor Hanna's actions, because there was not enough evidence to support the verdict. Plaintiff cross-appeals, arguing that the jury's verdict for the City on his due process claims arising from Mayor Hanna's actions cannot be sustained because the post-termination process he was provided was deficient as a matter of law. Plaintiff further appeals the jury's verdicts in favor of the City on his racial discrimination and First Amendment retaliation claims.
The circumstances leading to this litigation began when defendant City's former Mayor Edward A. Hanna hired plaintiff Patterson in 1997 as Commissioner of the City's Department of Public Works, and not long afterwards allegedly fired him. Mayor Hanna repeated this pattern of hiring and dismissing Patterson twice more, with the third and final dismissal occurring in the spring of 2000. In July 2000 — and for reasons unrelated to this litigation — Hanna resigned as Mayor of the City.
Mayor Hanna was succeeded by Utica's current Mayor, defendant Timothy Julian, who within a matter of days dismissed Patterson and accompanied that action by making stigmatizing comments about him. These hirings and firings so traumatized plaintiff that he had to seek medical help. Plaintiff eventually sued the City and Mayor Julian claiming that these events violated his constitutional rights and that his good name and reputation had been damaged.
The suit was brought under the still-evolving legal theory of stigma-plus. This theory is limited by the well-established doctrine that a state defamation action for slander by a government official, alone, cannot be converted into a federal action for loss of liberty under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, to state a stigma-plus claim under the Constitution, additional circumstances must be shown. Thus, for example, the theory does not come into play unless a government employee is slandered in the course of having his employment terminated and, even then, additional requirements must be met to succeed on the claim. In this case, the proof necessary to establish the stigma-plus requirements, with respect to the actions taken by former Mayor Hanna, was insufficient. Accordingly, the jury's verdict for the plaintiff based on those actions must be reversed.
This does not end our inquiry, however, because it is clear that Mayor Julian's actions did satisfy the stigma-plus requirements. The remedy for a stigma-plus violation of a government employee's constitutional due process rights is a name-clearing hearing where the employee is given the opportunity to clear his name. Although the jury found that plaintiff had been given such hearing following his termination by Mayor Julian, the hearing was inadequate as a matter of law. It is, of course, a basic tenet of due process that a person be given notice of and an opportunity to be heard at his name-clearing hearing. Those due process guarantees were not extended to plaintiff. In consequence, plaintiff is entitled to a new trial limited solely to the issue of damages incurred by plaintiff due to the City's failure to provide him with an adequate name-clearing hearing.
Plaintiff Patterson, an African-American, was appointed as Codes Commissioner of the City of Utica in 1996 by then-Mayor Hanna and promoted a year later to the position of Commissioner of the Department of Public Works (DPW). Prior to the appointment as Commissioner, plaintiff had held various private sector jobs in the City but none of real authority, or that suggested that he had skills particularly suited to the posts of Codes Commissioner or Commissioner of Public Works. According to the City Charter, department heads, including the Commissioner of the DPW, are appointed solely by the mayor. Such appointees generally serve a two-year term, but may be discharged by the mayor for any reason or no reason at all during their tenure.
Beginning in 1997 plaintiff was hired, fired, and rehired three times by Mayor Hanna, whose treatment of Patterson was, to say the least, erratic. The three Hanna dismissals, which will be detailed in our Discussion, occurred in April 1998, August 1999, and March 2000. Plaintiff's final termination was undertaken by Mayor Julian in July 2000, and it too will be detailed later.
Following his final dismissal by Mayor Julian plaintiff did not try to find a new job because he thought he would be rehired. Two months later he confirmed with Julian's office that this would not happen. Plaintiff became depressed and unsuccessfully applied for a variety of jobs for which he felt qualified. In October 2001 he finally found work in Glens Falls New York, 115 miles from Utica, working in a Finch-Pruyn paper mill where he was employed until September 17, 2002.
In August 2002, Patterson began to visit Dr. Julia Grant, a psychiatric counselor whom he had first consulted after his August 1999 firing. She determined that the stress of his commute, the long working hours, and his depression (which was caused by his negative experiences with the City) were causing memory loss and a dangerous physical strain on plaintiff. These problems exacerbated a back injury plaintiff had suffered in 1994 and a head injury with resulting memory problems he had suffered in 1997. Dr. Grant submitted an affidavit to his employer Finch-Pruyn in conjunction with plaintiff's application for a disability accommodation. Plaintiff testified that during a meeting to discuss this application the subject of his employment with the City of Utica and the resulting distress was raised. Finch-Pruyn also reviewed the medical report submitted by Dr. Grant mentioning his problems with the City. Plaintiff was fired three days after this meeting, and testified he is now forced to work in jobs requiring manual labor, which is very difficult due to his physical disabilities.
Stephen Patterson commenced the instant action against the City and Mayor Julian in November 2001. Plaintiff testified at the trial, as did Mayor Julian and numerous other witnesses, although former Mayor Hanna did not. The jury found for defendants with respect to the First Amendment and racial discrimination claims. The jury also found that defendant City of Utica "made false, stigmatizing statements causing a loss to plaintiff Stephen Patterson's reputation and foreclosing employment opportunities, and that such statements were made close in time to his termination(s) in April 1998, August 1999, March 2000, or July 2000." This verdict reflected actions taken by both Mayor Hanna and Mayor Julian.
With respect to the actions of Mayor Hanna, the jury found that the City failed to provide plaintiff with an opportunity for a name-clearing hearing, and thereby violated his right to due process, causing him damages. With respect to the actions of Mayor Julian, however, the jury found that the City provided plaintiff with an opportunity for a name-clearing hearing and that, therefore, neither Mayor Julian nor the City was liable in damages for violating plaintiff's due process rights.
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