Wright v. MetroHealth Medical Center

• Citation: 58 F.3d 1130
• Decision Date: 01 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-3548,94-3548
• Parties: 66 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,636, 64 USLW 2066, 10 IER Cases 1418 Martha Sabol WRIGHT; John C. Wright, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. METROHEALTH MEDICAL CENTER, Defendant-Appellee, Petroleum Helicopters, Inc., Defendant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 1130

58 F.3d 1130

66 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,636, 64 USLW

2066, 10 IER Cases 1418

Martha Sabol WRIGHT; John C. Wright, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. METROHEALTH MEDICAL CENTER, Defendant-Appellee, Petroleum Helicopters, Inc., Defendant.

No. 94-3548.

United States Court of Appeals,

Sixth Circuit.

Argued May 22, 1995.

Decided July 13, 1995.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied Sept. 1, 1995.

Barbara Kaye Besser, Elfvin & Besser, Cleveland, OH (argued and briefed), for plaintiffs-appellants.

Robert M. Wolff, Duvin, Kahn, Barnard & Messerman, Cleveland, OH (argued and briefed), for defendant-appellee.

Before: MILBURN and BATCHELDER, Circuit Judges; TODD, District Judge. ^*

MILBURN, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs Martha Sabol Wright and John C. Wright, Jr. appeal the district court's order granting summary judgment to defendant MetroHealth Medical Center ("MetroHealth") in this 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action in which plaintiffs allege that the application of defendant MetroHealth's nepotism policy to plaintiffs violated the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Plaintiffs also appeal the district court's order granting defendant MetroHealth's and Petroleum Helicopters, Inc.'s ("PHI") motions to dismiss plaintiffs' state law claims pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure ("Fed.R.Civ.P.") 12(b)(6). On appeal, the issues are (1) whether the district court erred in finding that MetroHealth's nepotism policy did not violate plaintiffs' fundamental right to marry, and (2) whether the district court erred in dismissing plaintiffs' state law claims. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

A.

Plaintiff Martha Sabol Wright has been employed as a registered nurse by defendant MetroHealth, a public hospital that is located in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, since October 1984. ¹ Pursuant to a contract with MetroHealth, defendant PHI ² provides helicopters and pilots to MetroHealth for its emergency airlift medical service, LifeFlight. Plaintiff John C. Wright, Jr. has been employed by PHI as a helicopter pilot since 1985.

Each LifeFlight helicopter is staffed with two PHI pilots, a MetroHealth doctor, and a MetroHealth registered nurse. In March 1990, Martha was assigned to the LifeFlight unit in which John is a pilot. In October 1991, Martha and John became engaged, and in December 1991, they began cohabitating. Soon thereafter, Martha and John informed their respective employers of their living situation and their intentions to be married. On November 17, 1992, MetroHealth informed plaintiffs that as a married couple in the same unit, they would be in violation of MetroHealth's nepotism policy and that one of them would have to transfer to another unit.

MetroHealth's nepotism policy states in relevant part as follows:

IX. NEPOTISM

A. In order to prevent conflicts which may arise in situations where members of the same immediate family are employed by the Hospital, the Hospital will not allow an individual to be employed, transferred or promoted, where as a result, any of the following situations would exist: ...

3. Members of the same immediate family being in positions which are of such close proximity that they would necessarily interact with each other in the performance of their duties C. If, as a result of a marriage between two employees, a violation of the Nepotism guidelines arises, the affected employees will be given the option of electing which spouse will be moved to another position in the Hospital System so as to eliminate the nepotism violation. If no election is made by either spouse in thirty (30) calendar days after notice to the employees, the least senior in terms of Hospital seniority will be moved. All reasonable attempts will be made to insure that the displaced employee is given a position of comparable responsibility and pay.

J.A. 25-26. MetroHealth offered to transfer Martha to any available position of the same grade and pay in another unit, but she refused. Plaintiffs were married on December 19, 1992. On December 20, 1992, MetroHealth requested that PHI transfer John from the LifeFlight crews, and the next day, PHI informed John that he was being transferred, effective January 19, 1993, to Louisiana.

B.

On January 13, 1993, plaintiffs filed this action in the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, naming MetroHealth and PHI as defendants. In their complaint, plaintiffs alleged that MetroHealth's application of its nepotism policy to plaintiffs violated the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Plaintiffs also alleged that (1) MetroHealth tortiously interfered with John's business relationship with PHI, (2) that MetroHealth's and PHI's conduct constituted intentional infliction of emotional distress, (3) that MetroHealth's and PHI's conduct violated Ohio public policy, and (4) that MetroHealth's and PHI's conduct constituted sex discrimination in violation of Ohio Revised Code ("O.R.C.") Sec. 4112.99. Defendants removed the action to federal court on January 15, 1993.

After this action was filed, defendants agreed not to transfer John, but instead, to transfer Martha to another unit of the hospital. The parties also agreed that during the pendency of the trial, MetroHealth would not transfer Martha from the LifeFlight unit. In that regard, MetroHealth scheduled Martha's assignments so that Martha and John did not fly together in the same helicopter.

On January 25, 1993, MetroHealth moved to dismiss the case pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), and on February 8, 1993, PHI filed a similar motion. Thereafter, the parties engaged in extensive settlement discussions that resulted in a stipulated settlement on April 20, 1993. However, the parties were unable to finalize the settlement, and on May 12, 1993, plaintiffs sought to vacate the settlement and reopen the proceedings.

On May 27, 1993, MetroHealth filed a supplemental brief in support of its motion to dismiss and its alternative motion for summary judgment with regard to plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 claim. On January 11, 1994, plaintiffs filed a cross-motion for partial summary judgment against MetroHealth on their Sec. 1983 claim. The district court officially vacated the settlement and reopened the case on January 12, 1994. On April 25, 1994, the district court granted MetroHealth's motion for summary judgment with regard to plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 claim. The district court also granted MetroHealth's and PHI's motions to dismiss plaintiffs' state law claims. This timely appeal followed.

II.

Plaintiffs argue that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to MetroHealth as to plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 claim. "We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo." Brooks v. American Broadcasting Cos., 932 F.2d 495, 500 (6th Cir.1991). We will affirm a district court's order granting summary judgment "only if we determine that the pleadings, affidavits, and other submissions show 'that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.' " Michigan Protection & Advocacy Serv., Inc. v. Babin, 18 F.3d 337, 341 (6th Cir.1994) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)). All evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). However, "[t]he moving party need not support its motion with evidence disproving the non-moving party's claim, but need only show that 'there is an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party's case.' " Babin, 18 F.3d at 341 (quoting Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)).

A.

First, plaintiffs argue that MetroHealth's nepotism policy violates their fundamental right to marry and that the district court erred in failing to subject the nepotism policy to strict scrutiny review. ³ Plaintiffs assert that the district court improperly focused exclusively on whether MetroHealth's nepotism policy violated plaintiffs' employment rights and failed to consider whether the policy violated plaintiffs' fundamental right to marry. Plaintiffs rely on Littlejohn v. Rose, 768 F.2d 765 (6th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1045, 106 S.Ct. 1260, 89 L.Ed.2d 570 (1986), wherein we held that the district court erred in holding that the plaintiff had failed to state a viable constitutional claim where the plaintiff's employment contract had not been renewed after it expired because of the plaintiff's involvement in a divorce. Littlejohn, 768 F.2d at 768. The district court reasoned that although the plaintiff could not be fired for this reason, she had failed to state a constitutional claim because she did not have a property right in her job. Id. at 769. We held that a person may not be denied public employment because of a constitutionally protected activity regardless of whether a person has a property right in his or her job. Id. However, plaintiffs' reliance on Littlejohn is misplaced. In this case, the district court first evaluated whether MetroHealth's nepotism policy directly and substantially interfered with plaintiffs' right to marry. Upon concluding that it did not, the district court then determined that plaintiffs did not have a protected property or liberty interest in their jobs. Therefore, unlike the district court in Littlejohn, the district court in this case did not hold that plaintiffs were foreclosed from arguing that their fundamental right to marry had been violated because it found that plaintiffs did not have a property or liberty interest in their particular positions. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court properly considered whether MetroHealth's nepotism policy infringed upon plaint...