Clark v. Yosemite Community College Dist.
| Decision Date | 25 March 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85-1801,85-1801 |
| Citation | 785 F.2d 781 |
| Parties | 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 35,970, 31 Ed. Law Rep. 24 Donald Gilbert CLARK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. YOSEMITE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT, Kenneth N. Griffin, Louis Zellers, Jack McArthur, Larry Roskens, Richard Peralta, Thomas VanGroningen, Robert Cardoza, Dr. Grant E. Bare, Glenda S. Alpers, Ian W. Hardie, Carmen Jackson, Nancy Rosasco, Allister A. Allen, and Does 1 through 30, inclusive, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Martin T. Snyder, Sellar, Hazard, Snyder & Kelly, Walnut Creek, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.
C. Carol Stevens, Whitmore & Kay, Palo Alto, Cal., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal From the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.
Before WRIGHT, KENNEDY and BEEZER, Circuit Judges.
A college instructor brings this section 1983 suit against the college and various college officials seeking an injunction and damages for interference with his teaching responsibilities. He alleges that such interference is in reprisal for his criticism of the college's instructional program. The district court found that the instructor had raised a cause of action involving interference with his teaching duties in a previous state court proceeding for a writ of mandate against the college and its officials. The district court granted the college's motion for judgment on the pleadings, ruling that the section 1983 claim was precluded by res judicata. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
Donald Gilbert Clark is employed as an instructor in the criminal justice training center located at Modesto Junior College, a campus in the Yosemite Valley Community College District ("College"). In January of 1981, the College received numerous complaints that Clark was engaging in sexual harassment of and discrimination against female trainees at the center. Information concerning the charges was entered into Clark's personnel file. In addition, Clark alleges he was reassigned to teach different classes; his class schedule was changed every semester, with little or no notice, allowing him little time to prepare; and his teaching load was reduced. Clark also alleges College officials discouraged third parties from contracting his services as a private instructor, and caused the publication in community newspapers of defamatory accusations against him.
Clark contends that the interference with his teaching duties, the inclusion of the derogatory information in his personnel file, and the other alleged incidents constituted retaliation against him for his criticism of the College's administration of the criminal justice training center, including his cooperation with a grand jury investigation of the program.
In April, 1982, Clark filed a petition for a writ of mandate in a California trial court. In his petition, motion, and supporting memoranda, Clark alleged defamation, denial of a hearing on the charges of misconduct, interference with rights of union representation, punitive interference with his teaching duties, and violation of a purported Clark subsequently brought this action in federal district court under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983, 1985, and 1986, alleging a violation of his rights under the First, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. His amended complaint alleges defamation, due process violations, retaliatory interference with his teaching duties, and violation of a purported right to teach particular courses. The district court granted defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings, ruling that the doctrine of res judicata precluded a claim alleging deprivation of the same primary rights previously litigated in the state mandamus proceeding. Clark's motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) to alter or amend the judgment was denied, and he timely appeals.
right to be assigned to teach particular courses. He moved for a writ of mandate ordering the College to remove the derogatory material from his files and to desist from interfering with his teaching responsibilities. At the mandamus hearing, Clark called several witnesses and submitted numerous exhibits regarding his claims. The trial judge granted a writ of mandate in February, 1983, ordering the removal of documents related to the sexual harassment charges from his personnel files, on the ground he had not been notified of his right to respond to the material as required by state statute.
When a state court judgment is the source of the supposed res judicata (claim preclusion), 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738 provides that a federal court must give the state court judgment the same full faith and credit as it would be entitled to in the courts of the state in which it was entered. Marrese v. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 1327, 1331-32, 84 L.Ed.2d 274 (1985) ( 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738); Migra v. Warren City School Dist. Bd. of Education, 465 U.S. 75, 81, 104 S.Ct. 892, 896, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984) (same). The district court's construction of the California law of res judicata is reviewable de novo. See In re McLinn, 739 F.2d 1395, 1403 (9th Cir.1984) (en banc).
In Eichman v. Fotomat Corp., 147 Cal.App.3d 1170, 1174-75, 197 Cal.Rptr. 612, 614 (1983), the court explained the concept of res judicata as applied in California: 1
California law approaches the issue by focusing on the "primary right" at stake: if two actions involve the same injury to the plaintiff and the same wrong by the defendant then the same primary right is at stake even if in the second suit the plaintiff pleads different theories of recovery, seeks different forms of relief and/or adds new facts supporting recovery.
See also Slater v. Blackwood, 15 Cal.3d 791, 795, 543 P.2d 593, 594, 126 Cal.Rptr. 225, 226 (1975).
The question is whether this federal litigation involves the same "cause of action," conceived of as the remedial right for the violation of one "primary right." Sawyer v. First City Financial Corp., Ltd., 124 Cal.App.3d 390, 399, 177 Cal.Rptr. 398, 402-03 (1981). A "primary right" is best defined as the "right to be free from the particular unlawful conduct." 124 Cal.App.3d at 399-400, 177 Cal.Rptr. at 403.
Clark contends that he sought a writ of mandate for the limited purpose of having derogatory material removed from his personnel files, which had been placed there in contravention of state statutory procedures requiring prior notice to the public education employee. If this is true, res judicata will not apply in this case. His claims involving interference with his teaching career and business activities, and interference with his right to be free from defamation, implicate a separate primary right from that addressed in seeking a writ of mandate for the limited ministerial purpose of removing improperly entered materials from his files. Although the inclusion of this information in his files may be evidence relating to the alleged interference with his teaching duties, the right to proper administrative procedures regarding entry of information into his personnel file is not so inextricably intertwined with his teaching career concerns as to be merged into a single primary right.
However, while Clark's initial petition for a writ of mandate focused narrowly upon the derogatory material entered in his file, his actual "motion for a peremptory writ of mandate" asked not only for the removal of the material from his file but also for an order to the College "to desist from all respondent's activities which are depriving the petitioner of his normal teaching duties and responsibilities." In addition, in various memoranda submitted in support of his motion, Clark argued that the making of the allegedly defamatory sexual harassment charges, the entering of the material into his file, the denial of a hearing, and the interference with his teaching duties were punitive actions taken against him. He alleged violations of state statutes and of his "fundamental constitutional rights."
At the hearing on the motion for a writ of mandate, Clark's counsel subpoened 35 witnesses to testify as to Clark's excellence as an instructor, that he did not discriminate against female students, and was not sexually aggressive. Even though the court questioned its relevance, Clark's counsel continually presented testimony and evidence concerning Clark's competence and abilities, the falsity of the accusations of sexual discrimination, violation of his due process right to a hearing on the charges, reassignment of his teaching responsibilities, and the College's allegedly punitive conduct toward him.
When the state court judge asked whether the only subject properly before the court concerned the entry of material into Clark's personnel file without proper notice, Clark's counsel vigorously disagreed, referring to the changes in Clark's teaching duties and the serious charges made against him. In fact, at one point, responding to the defendants' statement that Clark could bring another action raising these claims, Clark's counsel stated the violation involved Clark's federal civil rights and went on to say: "We are here now, it seems to me, we can dispose of this and we ought to get going." While open to other interpretations, this can be read as indicating counsel's intention to deal with the civil rights issues in that action.
Although the judge appeared to lean toward limiting the mandamus proceeding to the issue of the material entered into the personnel file, Clark's counsel continually attempted to litigate other issues and claims. The lack of a clear direction in his counsel's conduct of the mandamus hearing does leave the nature of the claims actually litigated open to some dispute. However, the cause of action involving interference with teaching duties was clearly raised in the pleadings...
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