Anglemyer v. Hamilton County Hosp.

• Decision Date: 20 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-3342,94-3342
• Citation: 58 F.3d 533
• Parties: 130 Lab.Cas. P 57,939, 10 IER Cases 1398 Cynthia A. ANGLEMYER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HAMILTON COUNTY HOSPITAL; E.D. Reed, aka Skip Reed, Steve Schell; Larry Fallwell; Zeno Gould; Jimmy Grilliot; Magdalene Haslett; and Thelma Warner, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 533

58 F.3d 533

130 Lab.Cas. P 57,939, 10 IER Cases 1398

Cynthia A. ANGLEMYER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HAMILTON COUNTY HOSPITAL; E.D. Reed, aka Skip Reed, Steve

Schell; Larry Fallwell; Zeno Gould; Jimmy

Grilliot; Magdalene Haslett; and

Thelma Warner, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-3342.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

June 20, 1995.

Larry G. Michel, Kennedy, Berkley, Yarnevich & Williamson, Chartered, Salina, KS, for plaintiff-appellant.

Jonathan B. Sprague, Post & Schell, P.C., Philadelphia, PA (A. James Johnston, Post & Schell, P.C., Philadelphia, PA, and Robert H. Gale, Jr., Syracuse, KS, with him on the brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before MOORE, LOGAN, Circuit Judges, and COOK, District Judge. ^*

JOHN P. MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Cynthia A. Anglemyer brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 alleging that she was improperly terminated from her employment at Hamilton County Hospital. Ms. Anglemyer raised both federal and pendent state law claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1367. Ms. Anglemyer's federal claims alleged her termination violated her Fourteenth Amendment procedural and substantive due process rights. Her state law claims alleged the hospital breached an implied employment contract between the parties, violated the Kansas Risk Management Act, Kan.Stat.Ann. Sec. 65-4928(a) (1994), and terminated her in retaliation for her compliance with the Act. The district court granted summary judgment for the hospital on Ms. Anglemyer's federal claims and dismissed her pendent Kansas state law claims. We affirm.

I.

Hamilton County Hospital is organized under state law, thereby making it subject to Sec. 1983. The hospital provides for the health care needs of the rural western Kansas community.

During the course of her employment at the hospital, Ms. Anglemyer held a variety of positions with different job titles, duties, and responsibilities which she worked at simultaneously. Initially, she was hired as a staff nurse, and later was appointed Director of Nursing. Finally, she was assigned to three different positions--Risk Manager, Quality Assurance Coordinator, and Infection Control Nurse. Ultimately, Ms. Anglemyer voluntarily resigned as Director of Nursing, but remained in her risk management, quality assurance, infection control nurse, and staff nurse positions.

Ms. Anglemyer's risk management activities included performing the initial investigation of risk management problems and reporting to the risk management committee. In the summer of 1992, Ms. Anglemyer became concerned whether one of Dr. Bruce Alter's employees was involved with some missing Demerol and contacted Mary Truhe, who assisted hospitals in investigating missing drugs. After investigation, Ms. Truhe informed Ms. Anglemyer there was no conclusive evidence that would substantiate Ms. Anglemyer's concerns. Ms. Anglemyer then terminated her investigation of the missing Demerol, although she remained concerned about the discrepancies in the employee's documentation of Demerol supplies. Ms. Anglemyer either showed Ms. Truhe's letter or conveyed its contents to other members of the Risk Management Committee, but did not inform the hospital's Board of Directors or Dr. Alter, who had previously been critical of Ms. Anglemyer and the risk management program, about the letter.

At an executive session of the hospital Board of Directors, Dr. Alter and Dennis Carter, a County Commissioner, voiced a variety of complaints about Ms. Anglemyer. Their principal criticisms were that Ms. Anglemyer failed to inform the Board about Ms. Truhe's letter, and that Ms. Anglemyer used her position as risk manager to retaliate against hospital employees. After considering Dr. Alter's and Commissioner Carter's allegations, the Board voted to terminate Ms. Anglemyer from her quality assurance and risk management positions. Ms. Anglemyer was not present at the Board meeting, and was never given the opportunity to respond to the allegations leveled against her on that or any other occasion. Instead, she received notice of the Board's action when a letter by Skip Reed, Chairman of the Board, was pinned to the public bulletin board on the Director of Nurses door at the hospital. Ms. Anglemyer was only terminated from two of her positions at the hospital and was not asked to leave the hospital's employment entirely. She remained a staff nurse. Nine days after receiving Chairman Reed's letter, Ms. Anglemyer resigned from her staff nursing position because she believed the circumstances surrounding her termination from her quality assurance and risk management positions made it impossible for her to continue working at the hospital. She also believed she would not be able to work as a full-time staff nurse because the hospital's two such positions were currently occupied.

In the fall of 1992, all hospital employees, including Ms. Anglemyer, received a personnel handbook. The handbook contained a disclaimer which noted the at-will nature of the employer-employee relationship at the hospital. The disclaimer explained the handbook was not intended to be a contract, and the hospital could unilaterally change any of its employment policies, procedures, and benefits at any time. Under the heading, "The Employment Relationship," the handbook explicitly provided, "Although we hope that your employment relationship with us will be long-term, either you or Hamilton County Hospital and Extended Care Facility may terminate this agreement at any time, for any reason, with or without cause." Ms. Anglemyer also signed an acknowledgment of receipt of the handbook which contained a similarly worded disclaimer.

Prior to the effective date of the personnel handbook, however, Ms. Anglemyer was involved in a number of meetings with hospital department heads, administrators, and other employees regarding the wording of the handbook. During at least one of these meetings, hospital administrators Stephen Kralik and Terri Deuel, in response to the concerns of numerous hospital employees, informed Ms. Anglemyer the hospital would follow a policy of terminating employees only for cause despite the disclaimers in the handbook. Ms. Anglemyer repeated this representation to other employees at a meeting that included members of the Board of Directors and was not corrected when she did so. In addition, no employee was terminated without cause during Mr. Kralik's tenure as chief hospital administrator.

The district court granted summary judgment for the hospital on Ms. Anglemyer's due process claims and dismissed her pendent state claims. First, the court granted summary judgment on Ms. Anglemyer's procedural due process claim on the ground she had no property interest in her continued employment. Initially, the court concluded no implied contract was created by the policies and procedures contained in the hospital's personnel handbook. In addition, the court held the Kansas Risk Management Act also did not create a property interest. Second, after disposing of all Ms. Anglemyer's federal claims, the district court exercised its discretion and dismissed her pendent state law claims without prejudice. ¹

On appeal, Ms. Anglemyer raises three issues. First, she argues the court erred in concluding she did not have a property interest in continued employment at the hospital based on an implied contract theory. She also argues the court improperly resolved this issue on summary judgment because of the existence of a genuine issue of material fact in dispute. Second, she contends the Kansas Risk Management Act created a property interest entitled to procedural due process protection. Third, Ms. Anglemyer argues the court abused its discretion by dismissing her pendent state law claims.

II.

We review summary judgments de novo, applying Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 in identical fashion as the district court. Hooks v. Diamond Crystal Specialty Foods, Inc., 997 F.2d 793, 796 (10th Cir.1993). On appeal, the evidence is considered in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Applied Genetics Int'l v. First Affiliated Sec., Inc., 912 F.2d 1238, 1241 (10th Cir.1990). Summary judgment is appropriate only if there is no genuine issue of material fact for trial. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 585-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355-56, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).

The Fourteenth Amendment's procedural due process protections apply only to an individual deprived of a recognized property or liberty interest. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). Property interests are created not by the Constitution itself, but may be defined by independent sources such as state statutes, regulations, municipal ordinances, university rules, and even express or implied contracts. Id. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709; Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 601-02, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 2699-2700, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972); Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 344-45, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2077-78, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976); Carnes v. Parker, 922 F.2d 1506, 1509 (10th Cir.1991). In this case, Kansas contract law determines whether a public employee like Ms. Anglemyer has a legitimate entitlement to continued employment based on an implied contract theory. Id. at 1510.

Like most states, Kansas historically has followed the common law doctrine of employment at-will. Johnson v. National Beef Packing Co., 220 Kan. 52, 551 P.2d 779 (1976); Swart v. Huston, 154 Kan. 182, 117 P.2d 576 (1941). Employees are considered to be at-will in the absence of an express or implied contract. Johnson, 551 P.2d at 781. The existence of an implied contract depends on the intent of the parties, divined from the totality of the circumstances.

Where it is alleged that an employment contract is one to be based upon the theory of "implied in fact," the understanding and intent of the parties is to be ascertained from several factors which include written and oral negotiations, the conduct of the parties...