Sames v. Gable

• Decision Date: 16 April 1984
• Docket Number: 84-1028,Nos. 84-1020,No. 84-1020,No. 84-1028,84-1020,s. 84-1020
• Citation: 732 F.2d 49
• Parties: SAMES, Roger; Troccola, Dennis, Appellants in, v. GABLE, Carson S.; Daddona, Joseph S.; City of Allentown, Appellants in
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

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732 F.2d 49 SAMES, Roger; Troccola, Dennis, Appellants in No. 84-1020,
v.
GABLE, Carson S.; Daddona, Joseph S.; City of Allentown,
Appellants in No. 84-1028. Nos. 84-1020, 84-1028. United States Court of Appeals,
Third Circuit. Argued March 6, 1984.
Decided April 16, 1984.

John Peter Karoly, Jr. (argued), Karoly & Karoly, P.C., Allentown, Pa., for appellants.

Charles W. Craven (argued), Jo Fineman White, Robert G. Hanna, Jr., Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellees.

Before HUNTER and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges, and GERRY, ^* District Judge.

OPINION OF THE COURT

JAMES HUNTER, III, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs Roger Sames and Dennis Troccola ("plaintiffs") are currently patrolmen on the Allentown, Pennsylvania police department. They commenced this civil rights action on March 18, 1982 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging that they were unlawfully demoted from their prior rank of sergeant. According to plaintiffs, their demotions were politically motivated, in violation of plaintiffs' First Amendment rights of political association, and were accomplished without affording plaintiffs the process that they were constitutionally due.

Within a short period following the commencement of the action, plaintiffs and defendants served extensive written discovery requests upon each other. On May 10, 1982, defendants moved the district

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court for an order limiting the scope of plaintiffs' discovery. ¹

Defendants filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on May 21, 1982. That motion was supported by the depositions of defendants Joseph Daddona, the Mayor of Allentown, and Carson Gable, the Chief of Police. Daddona and Gable denied in their depositions that the decisions to demote Sames and Troccola from sergeants to patrolmen had been politically motivated; defendants asserted instead that plaintiffs and others had been reduced in rank because they had formed a "clique" of officers whose activities had lowered morale on the force.

Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment also raised the argument that plaintiffs had no protected legal interest in the rank of sergeant, whether based on state or federal law, and further incorporated by reference the legal arguments contained in a Motion to Dismiss that plaintiffs had previously filed.

Plaintiffs filed a Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment ["Memorandum"] on June 3, 1982. Plaintiffs argued that the deposition testimony of Daddona and Gable consisted merely of self-serving denials of wrongdoing by the very individuals whose conduct and motivation were at issue. [Memorandum at 2, 3]. Moreover, plaintiffs informed the court that the parties were engaged in extensive discovery, including interrogatories and requests for document production. [Memorandum at 2]. Plaintiffs urged at the conclusion of their opposing memorandum that

Defendants cannot cut Plaintiffs['] discovery off at the early stage of the proceedings on the basis of their simple denials of any alleged political involvement.

[Memorandum at 11]. Plaintiffs did not, however, offer any competent evidence to counter defendants' denials, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), (e), nor did plaintiffs point to...