Brown v. Sessoms
| Decision Date | 19 December 2014 |
| Docket Number | No. 13–7027.,13–7027. |
| Citation | 774 F.3d 1016 |
| Parties | Stephanie Y. BROWN, Appellant v. Allen L. SESSOMS, President, University District of Columbia, et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Donald M. Temple argued the cause and was on brief for the appellant.
Yoora Pak argued the cause and was on brief for the appellees.
Before: HENDERSON and SRINIVASAN, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge.
Stephanie Brown was a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (DCSL). In 2009, she applied for tenure and a promotion. Her application for tenure was eventually rejected by then-Interim Provost Graeme Baxter (Baxter) and President Allen Sessoms (Sessoms), both of whom worked for the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Dissatisfied, Brown sued the Board of Trustees of UDC (Board) and Sessoms (collectively, UDC defendants). She alleged one federal claim and six local-law claims. The UDC defendants removed the action to federal court and moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The district court granted the motion to dismiss in its entirety and Brown appealed. We reverse and remand in part and affirm in part.
Brown, a black female, worked for DCSL in various capacities for more than two decades.1 At one time, DCSL and UDC were separate institutions governed by different boards. In 1995, DCSL entered into a Merger Agreement with UDC to become UDC's law school and the UDC Board became statutorily bound by the terms of the Merger Agreement. See D.C. CODE § 38–1202.11(c). Several provisions of the Merger Agreement regarding faculty appointments and service have been codified in D.C. municipal regulations. See generallyD.C. Mun. Regs., tit. VIII, §§ 1400–1424. The DCSL Faculty Handbook also incorporates the merger and makes reference to the Merger Agreement.
Brown submitted her application for tenure and a promotion to full professor on January 5, 2009. At that time, Brown was an associate professor of law. The initial reviewing entity was DCSL's Faculty Evaluation and Retention Committee (Committee). It voted to recommend Brown for tenure and transmitted her application to DCSL Dean Katherine Broderick (Broderick). Broderick initially recommended that the Committee withdraw its approval of Brown's tenure application. Broderick's concerns focused on both the sparseness and the quality of Brown's legal scholarship, as Brown had only “one ... published law review article” when she applied for tenure and a promotion. Am. Compl. ¶ 20. Once Broderick learned that a law journal agreed to publish another one of Brown's articles, however, she endorsed the Committee's recommendation and forwarded her approval of Brown's application to Baxter.2
Notwithstanding Broderick's endorsement, in June 2011, Baxter rejected Brown's tenure application. Baxter then forwarded her rejection decision to Sessoms, who agreed that Brown should not be awarded tenure. Accordingly, Sessoms did not submit Brown's tenure application to the Board.
Around the same time that Brown applied for tenure, the UDC administration considered the tenure application of William McLain (McLain), a white male. Brown alleges that McLain had “no legal publications” but that Broderick did not insist that he satisfy the three-publication requirement, as Broderick had with Brown's application. Am. Compl. ¶ 44. Despite McLain's lack of publications, the Board awarded him tenure and a promotion to full professor in 2010. Brown alleges that McLain won tenure because he was “credited for his various and sundry legal contributions” even though, according to Brown, she was “equally, if not more qualified than McLain” based on their respective tenure applications. Am. Compl. ¶¶ 49, 51.
With her application denied, Brown filed suit in D.C. Superior Court against the UDC defendants. They removed the action to federal court and Brown filed an amended complaint on May 22, 2012. Brown raised seven claims in her amended complaint: (1) breach of contract; (2) breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing; (3) wrongful termination; (4) race and gender discrimination in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act (DCHRA), D.C.Code §§ 2–1401, et seq.; (5) race discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ; (6) negligent supervision; and (7) negligent infliction of emotional distress.3 The UDC defendants moved to dismiss all seven counts for failure to state a claim. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b) (6).
In its decision, the district court first addressed Sessoms's status. It held that the claims against him in his official capacity were duplicative of the claims against the Board so it treated them all as against the Board. It also dismissed the claims against President Sessoms in his individual capacity because, as Brown conceded, he was shielded from liability by qualified immunity. See generally Bame v. Dillard, 637 F.3d 380, 384 (D.C.Cir.2011). Brown challenges neither of these rulings on appeal. The district court then proceeded to the merits of each claim and dismissed all seven counts, holding that Brown failed to plead sufficient facts to state a claim for relief. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Brown timely appealed. Our jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
“We review the grant of a motion to dismiss de novo. ” Ralls Corp. v. Comm. on Foreign Inv., 758 F.3d 296, 314 (D.C.Cir.2014) (internal citation omitted). We accept the factual allegations in Brown's complaint “as true” and we “draw all inferences in her favor.” Harris v. Ladner, 127 F.3d 1121, 1123 (D.C.Cir.1997). “[A] plaintiff's obligation to provide the grounds of his entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). Moreover, a plaintiff must identify “factual allegations” that “raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Id. In short, the plaintiff must provide “factual content [in her complaint] that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).
Although Brown pleaded a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, neither the parties nor the district court evaluated the claim in light of the United States Supreme Court's holding in Jett v. Dallas Independent School District, 491 U.S. 701, 109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598 (1989). In Jett, the Supreme Court considered whether section 1981 “provides an independent federal cause of action for damages against local governmental entities” and other state actors.4 Jett , 491 U.S. at 705, 109 S.Ct. 2702. The Court noted that the text of section 1981 is silent on this question, id. at 711–12, 109 S.Ct. 2702, so it engaged in an exhaustive review of the statute's legislative history as well as the history of related statutes and constitutional amendments. See id. at 713–31, 109 S.Ct. 2702.
It concluded “that Congress intended that the explicit remedial provisions of [42 U.S.C.] § 1983 be controlling in the context of damages actions brought against state actors alleging violation of the rights declared in § 1981,” id. at 731, 109 S.Ct. 2702, and therefore held that “the express ‘action at law’ provided by § 1983... provides the exclusive federal damages remedy for the violation of the rights guaranteed by § 1981 when the claim is pressed against a state actor.” iD. at 735, 109 s.CT. 2702.
There is a split among our sister circuits as to whether Jett was ified by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub.L. No. 102–166, § 2, 105 Stat. 1071, 1071–72(Act). Seven courts of appeals have held that the Act did not overrule Jett, with only the Ninth Circuit reaching the contrary conclusion. Compare Campbell v. Forest Pres. Dist. of Cook Cnty., Ill., 752 F.3d 665, 671 (7th Cir.2014) (); McGovern v. City of Philadelphia, 554 F.3d 114, 122 (3d Cir.2009) ; Arendale v. City of Memphis, 519 F.3d 587, 599 (6th Cir.2008) ; Bolden v. City of Topeka, 441 F.3d 1129, 1137 (10th Cir.2006) ; Oden v. Oktibbeha Cnty., 246 F.3d 458, 464 (5th Cir.2001) ; Butts v. Cnty. of Volusia, 222 F.3d 891, 894 (11th Cir.2000) ; Dennis v. Cnty. of Fairfax, 55 F.3d 151, 156 n. 1 (4th Cir.1995), with Fed'n of African Am. Contractors v. City of Oakland, 96 F.3d 1204, 1214 (9th Cir.1996).
A well-reasoned decision from a district court in our Circuit has addressed the issue. Sledge v. Dist. of Columbia, 869 F.Supp.2d 140 (D.D.C.2012). Sledge noted that the Act amended section 1981 to protect “against racial discrimination by private and state actors.” Id. at 144. But this language “still only addresses substantive rights ” and section 1983 remains “the only provision to expressly create a remedy against persons acting under color of state law.” Id. (emphasis added). The distinction is significant because rights and remedies are separate concepts. See id. at 144–45 ; see also Chelentis v. Luckenbach S.S. Co., Inc., 247 U.S. 372, 384, 38 S.Ct. 501, 62 L.Ed. 1171 (1918) ( ).
The text of the Act as well as its legislative history also forecloses any argument that the Congress sought to nullify Jett. “The Civil Rights Act and its legislative history name several Supreme Court decisions which the Act is intended to overrule, but Jett was not identified even though it was decided less than two years before Congress ...
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