Garvie v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 27 April 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-5569,87-5569
• Parties: 46 Ed. Law Rep. 551 Peter M. GARVIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles O. JACKSON and George W. Wheeler, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 647

845 F.2d 647

46 Ed. Law Rep. 551

Peter M. GARVIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles O. JACKSON and George W. Wheeler, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 87-5569.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Feb. 23, 1988.

Decided April 27, 1988.

Cecil D. Meek, Jr. (argued), Haynes, Meek, Summers & Mabry, Knoxville, Tenn., for plaintiff-appellant.

Beauchamp E. Brogan, University of Tennessee, Catherine S. Mizell (argued), Knoxville, Tenn., for defendants-appellees.

Before KRUPANSKY and WELLFORD, Circuit Judges, and GILMORE ^*, District Judge.

WELLFORD, Circuit Judge.

In this case, plaintiff brought suit under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against the Provost and the former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Tennessee. Plaintiff asserts that his removal by defendants from his position as Head of the University's Speech and Theatre Department violated his rights under the first and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. The district court granted defendants summary judgment based on its findings that defendants were entitled to qualified immunity and that plaintiff had adequate state postdeprivation remedies. We find that defendants' actions did not violate any of plaintiff's clearly established rights and therefore affirm the district court's judgment on the grounds of qualified immunity. ¹

Plaintiff Peter Garvie served as Head of the University of Tennessee's Department of Speech and Theatre from September 1, 1983, until his appointment as Head was terminated on June 30, 1986. During and following that time, Garvie also has been employed as a tenured professor in the Department. Several pieces of correspondence among Garvie and University administrators provide the only written evidence of the terms of Garvie's employment. The correspondence makes clear that Garvie's appointment was offered with the understanding that the administration would recommend that Garvie be granted tenure as a professor, but that the administrative assignment as Department Head carried no tenure. Garvie claims, however, that he was led to believe that he would serve as Head for an initial term of five years, during which term he could be removed only for cause. Garvie rests his claim on "oral explanations" and on the following language in a letter from Robert Landen, a former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts:

all department heads in the University serve at the pleasure of the Chancellor and, officially, administrative appointments are renewed on an annual basis; however, in the College of Liberal Arts it is expected that department heads will serve for five years at which point a "Leadership Needs Assessment" will be conducted under the auspices of the Dean of the College; this assessment will give all concerned, including you, a chance to reflect on whether or not you should continue serving as head of the department for another term; ...

In March 1986, Garvie presented several concerns to Provost Wheeler regarding Dean Jackson's actions relating to the Department of Speech and Theatre. Specifically, Garvie complained that Jackson, without Garvie's knowledge, had provided funds directly to a Forensics professor for use by the debate team and had improperly conducted administrative grievance reviews of departmental evaluations. At the same meeting, Garvie defended the Department's timely but controversial nonretention vote regarding a theatre faculty member.

Shortly following his meeting with Wheeler, Garvie met with Dean Jackson. Apparently, both Garvie and Jackson expressed anger at the other's actions: Jackson was angry about Garvie's complaints to Wheeler, and Garvie was angry about what he regarded as Jackson's interference in the Speech area of the Department.

During the latter part of March 1986, Dean Jackson and Provost Wheeler exchanged memoranda regarding the Department and Garvie. Jackson cited Department dissatisfaction with Garvie's handling of evaluation procedures and Garvie's threat "to cease administration of the department's speech wing." In response, Wheeler stated: "Professor Garvie will administer all aspects of the Department under guidelines and in a manner satisfactory to you. Any failure to administer the Department according to the duly established procedures of the College and the University will result in his dismissal as Head."

In early April 1986, Garvie filed with Jackson a Complaint and Request for Review regarding Jackson's handling of the previous year's evaluation grievances. Jackson responded to Garvie's complaint in a letter in which he clarified his actions in regard to those grievances and informed Garvie that further appeal could be taken pursuant to the University's Faculty Handbook. In conclusion, Jackson stated: "I wish sincerely that our working relationship was better than is currently the case. While I may have some misgivings about you as an administrator, clearly no one would or could deny the excellence of your work with the theatre." In late April and early May, Dean Jackson began discussing an appointment as Department Head with another professor, and in early May Jackson requested Garvie to resign his Headship, a request that Garvie denied. Jackson then informed Garvie that he would consult with the Department's faculty regarding the renewal of Garvie's appointment as Head. On June 9, 1986, Dean Jackson recommended to Provost Wheeler that Garvie's appointment not be renewed. On June 30, 1986, Wheeler informed Garvie that his appointment as Head would expire as of that date and would not be renewed. Garvie, however, would retain full-time faculty status as a Professor of Speech and Theatre.

Garvie filed a Sec. 1983 action in district court alleging that his removal as Head was wrongful and maliciously made in violation of his first amendment rights and his fourteenth amendment property and liberty due process rights. Defendants answered and filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds that they were entitled to qualified immunity. The court granted defendants' motion.

The doctrine of qualified immunity recognizes that government officials need to be able to carry out their duties without fear of harassing litigation and that they can do so "only if they reasonably can anticipate when their conduct may give rise to liability for damages and only if unjustified lawsuits are quickly terminated." Davis v. Scherer, 468 U.S. 183, 195, 104 S.Ct. 3012, 3019, 82 L.Ed.2d 139 (1984). Therefore, when government officials perform discretionary functions, they "generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The question of whether qualified immunity attaches to an official's actions is a purely legal question for the trial judge to determine prior to trial. Donta v. Hooper, 774 F.2d 716, 719 (6th Cir.1985), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3261, 97 L.Ed.2d 760 (1987); see also Ramirez v. Webb, 835 F.2d 1153, (6th Cir.1987); Dominque v. Telb, 831 F.2d 673 (6th Cir.1987). The district court decided as a matter of law that defendants were entitled to claim the defense of qualified immunity.

The focus in determining whether an official is entitled to qualified immunity is on the objective legal reasonableness of the official's actions in light of clearly established law. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. An allegation of malice will not alone defeat an official's claim to immunity. Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). Instead, we must decide whether defendants reasonably could have thought that their actions were consistent with the rights that plaintiff claims have been violated. Anderson v. Creighton, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). We should focus on whether, at the time defendants acted, the rights asserted were clearly established by decisions of the Supreme Court or the courts of this federal circuit. Cf. Davis v. Scherer, 468 U.S. at 192, 104 S.Ct. at 3018; Davis v. Holly, 835 F.2d 1175, 1182 (6th Cir.1987). "[Defendants] have qualified immunity unless plaintiffs' 'rights were so clearly established when the acts were committed that any officer in the defendant's position, measured objectively, would have clearly understood that he was under an affirmative duty to have refrained from such conduct.' " Ramirez v. Webb, 835 F.2d at 1156 (quoting Dominque v. Telb, 831 F.2d 673, 676 (6th Cir.1987)). It is not determinative that the plaintiff has asserted the violation of a broadly stated general right:

[O]ur cases establish that the right the official is alleged to have violated must have been "clearly established" in a more particularized, and hence more relevant, sense: The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. This is not to say that an official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful; but it is to say that in the light of preexisting law the unlawfulness must be apparent.

Anderson, 107 S.Ct. at 3039 (citation omitted); see also Malley, 475 U.S. at 341, 106 S.Ct. at 1096 (if officers of reasonable competence could disagree on an issue, immunity should be recognized). These principles would indicate that despite plaintiff's general assertions of constitutional violation, he must set out a particular and clearly established violation in order to prevail against a claim of qualified immunity.

Garvie asserts that the matters he raised in meetings with Wheeler and Jackson touched on matters of public concern and, therefore, that his speech was protected by the first amendment. He further alleges that his removal as Department Head was in retaliation for his...