Roberts v. College of the Desert

Decision Date15 March 1989
Docket Number85-6356 and 85-6366,Nos. 85-6335,s. 85-6335
Citation870 F.2d 1411
Parties53 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1493, 52 Ed. Law Rep. 916 Coleen R. ROBERTS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. COLLEGE OF THE DESERT, C.A. Patterson, and Fern Stout, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Stuart W. Rudnick, Dana D. Howells, Musik, Peeler & Garrett, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellant-cross-appellee C.A. Patterson.

Sergo Luis Lopez, San Diego, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant.

Spencer E. Covert, Parker and Covert, Santa Ana, Cal., for defendant-appellant-cross-appellee Fern Stout.

Christopher Lockwood, Mac Lachlan, Burford & Arias, San Bernardino, Cal., for defendant-appellant-cross-appellee College of the Desert.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before TANG, SCHROEDER and BEEZER, Circuit Judges.

TANG, Circuit Judge:

The College of the Desert and two of its officials, the president and the dean of instruction, appeal the judgment for Coleen Roberts following a jury trial on her sex discrimination and due process claims in her section 1983 action. They also appeal the district court's order reinstating the original judgment following their refusal to pay Roberts the reduced damages she had agreed to accept by way of remittitur. Roberts cross-appeals the judgment for the defendants following a bench trial of her Title VII claims. We affirm in part and remand for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

The College of the Desert is a California community college. Dr. Stout was its President and Dr. Patterson was its Dean of Instruction during the time relevant to Roberts' complaint. The College hired Roberts as an instructor and chairperson of the Home Economics Department on July 1, 1974. The College contends that Roberts created serious problems in her administrative capacity because of her failure to adhere to hiring, purchasing and accounting procedures. Officials discussed these problems with Roberts during the 1974-75 academic year and outlined the complaints in a written memo on March 18, 1975. Because the problems continued in the 1975-76 academic year, the Board of Trustees placed Roberts on probationary status for the 1976-77 year and froze her compensation for performing as chairperson at the prior year's level.

During the 1976-77 year, Roberts continued to create administrative difficulties, allegedly by not following hiring and purchasing procedures, by taking unauthorized vacations and by deviating from procedures for obtaining travel reimbursements. In February of 1977, the administration informed Roberts she would not be reappointed as chairperson. Roberts requested a hearing, which was scheduled in June of 1977. During the months prior to the hearing, Roberts further provoked the ire of the administration, allegedly by falsifying her supervisor's signature on a work At the Board meeting in June, Roberts was given only eight minutes to make her presentation, which was brought to an end by a heated exchange with John McFadden, President of the Board, over the propriety of Roberts' teaching at another college while employed by the College of the Desert. After the meeting, the Board decided to let stand the appointment of a new chairperson to the Home Economics Department.

requisition, using campus duplicating facilities for personal projects, and teaching at another community college without proper authorization. Roberts contends all the criticisms and standards used in evaluating her were the product of sex discrimination.

Roberts remained at the College as a tenured instructor but four restrictions were imposed upon her during the 1977-78 academic year. She was restricted from (1) teaching overload classes, (2) participating in committee work, (3) attending conferences, and (4) holding herself out as an agent of the College. The restrictions were lifted by the end of the year except that Roberts was still not permitted to hold herself out as an agent of the College.

Roberts continued to have conflicts with the College over office assignments, use of personal leave time, and teaching schedules. Roberts contends all of her problems were the product of sex discrimination or were in retaliation for her protest of the loss of the position as chairperson.

Roberts filed suit on July 5, 1983, alleging sex discrimination claims under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq., and under the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1871, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1983 and 1985(3). Roberts' section 1983 claim was grounded on two theories: denial of equal protection on the basis of sex discrimination and the denial of due process due to the lack of a meaningful hearing. Before trial, Roberts dropped her section 1981 claim, and the court dismissed the section 1985 claim toward the end of the trial. After the trial, the jury found for Roberts on her section 1983 claim and awarded her compensatory damages of $515,000 and punitive damages from Stout of $125,000 and from Patterson of $15,000. The College and individual defendants moved for judgment NOV or for a new trial. The court agreed there was no basis for punitive damages and that the compensatory damages were excessive. The court ordered Roberts to accept a remittitur or to face a new trial. Roberts agreed to accept the remittitur and the court ordered the defendants to pay $315,000 within 30 days or it would reinstate the judgment of May 29, 1985 totaling $655,000 damages. All parties timely appealed and cross-appealed.

ANALYSIS
I. Statute of Limitations

Roberts filed suit on July 5, 1983, alleging discrimination during all the years of her employment by the College from 1974 until the time of filing. Most of the specific acts alleged occurred in 1977 or earlier years. Defendants Patterson and Stout argue on appeal that the three-year statute of limitations, applicable to section 1983 claims filed in California in 1983, bars recovery for damages arising from any conduct prior to July 5, 1980. This argument is without merit because the statute of limitations is an affirmative defense which was not specially pleaded in the district court and cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(c); Harbeson v. Parke Davis, Inc., 746 F.2d 517, 520 (9th Cir.1984). Dr. Patterson further argues that he raised this issue in post trial motions, but he only raised the argument that Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985), should apply retroactively and that under its rule Roberts' claims should be barred by California's one-year statute of limitations for personal injury actions. This does not constitute pleading of the affirmative defense of the three-year statute of limitations, which was never raised in the district court.

II. Eleventh Amendment Immunity

If the College is an arm of the state for purposes of the eleventh amendment, the district court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the section 1983 suit against the In analyzing the factors that determine whether a governmental entity is an arm of the state, we consider state law treatment of the entity. Jackson v. Hayakawa, 682 F.2d 1344, 1350 (9th Cir.1982). The central factor in this inquiry is "whether the named defendant has such independent status that a judgment against the defendant would not impact the state treasury." Id. at 1350 (quoting Ronwin v. Shapiro, 657 F.2d 1071, 1073 (9th Cir.1981)). We decline to decide this question, believing that it is one for the district court to determine in the first instance, coincident with the development of an appropriate factual record. See Patsy v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 457 U.S. 496, 515 n. 19, 102 S.Ct. 2557, 256 n. 19, 73 L.Ed.2d 172 (1982) (avoiding, on prudential grounds, the decision whether Board of Regents is arm of state for eleventh amendment purposes); accord Keller v. Prince George's County, 827 F.2d 952, 963-64 (4th Cir.1987).

College. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 677-78, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1362-63, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). Even if the College is shielded from suit by the state's sovereign immunity, we have jurisdiction to consider the merits of Roberts' appeal because she could still recover from the individual defendants in their individual capacity. Stones v. Los Angeles Community College District, 796 F.2d 270, 272 (9th Cir.1986). Because we conclude that the jury's verdict should be upheld, we must confront the question of the College's immunity. Cf. id. (the fact that claims lacked merit meant panel did not have to try to answer the "quite difficult-question whether judgment against the [college] would violate the Eleventh Amendment").

III. Legal Questions

We review all legal questions de novo. United States v. McConney, 728 F.2d 1195, 1201 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 824, 105 S.Ct. 101, 83 L.Ed.2d 46 (1984).

A. Parallel Title VII and Sec. 1983 Claims

The appellants argue that Title VII is the exclusive remedy for sex discrimination in employment, and therefore, that the district court erred by submitting to the jury Roberts' section 1983 claim based on a denial of equal protection. The Supreme Court has stated generally that Title VII does not deprive aggrieved parties of other remedies. Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U.S. 454, 461, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 1720, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975). However, in Great Am. Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Novotny, 442 U.S. 366, 378, 99 S.Ct. 2345, 2352, 60 L.Ed.2d 957 (1979), the Court held that section 1985(3) may not be invoked to redress violations of Title VII because section 1985(3) confers no substantive rights. Thus it cannot be invoked when the only right violated is the Title VII right to be free of discrimination in employment. Since Novotny, courts have attempted to determine whether its rule applies to actions under section 1983 as well.

The Ninth Circuit has not expressly decided this question but has implicitly...

To continue reading

Request your trial
122 cases
  • Sanders v. Univ. of Idaho
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 9th Circuit. District of Idaho
    • August 3, 2021
    ...and that Title VII does not preempt an action under § 1983 for violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Roberts v. Coll. of the Desert , 870 F.2d 1411, 1415 (9th Cir. 1988). Although the Ninth Circuit has not explicitly addressed the exact question at issue here—whether a Title VII plaintiff ......
  • Ta v. Neimes, Civil Action No. SA-95-CA-699.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. Western District of Texas
    • May 22, 1996
    ...were present, citing Alabama v. Pugh, 438 U.S. 781, 782, 98 S.Ct. 3057, 3057-58, 57 L.Ed.2d 1114 (1978), and Roberts v. College of the Desert, 870 F.2d 1411, 1415 (9th Cir.1988). In addition, the court relied on an implicit recognition in Cowan v. University of Louisville School of Medicine......
  • Bradley v. Pittsburgh Bd. of Educ., 89-3615
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)
    • September 5, 1990
    ...of Dev., 637 F.2d 1073 (6th Cir.1980); Trigg v. Fort Wayne Community Schools, 766 F.2d 299 (7th Cir.1985); Roberts v. College of the Desert, 870 F.2d 1411 (9th Cir.1988); Brown v. Hartshorne Pub. School Dist. No. 1, 864 F.2d 680 (10th Despite the erroneous basis for the district court's dis......
  • Sharp v. City of Houston, Civil Action No. H-94-4168.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. United States District Courts. 5th Circuit. Southern District of Texas
    • March 11, 1997
    ...S.Ct. 788, 102 L.Ed.2d 780 (1989); Bohen v. City of East Chicago, 799 F.2d 1180, 1185 (7th Cir.1986); see also Roberts v. College of the Desert, 870 F.2d 1411, 1415 (9th Cir.1989); Headley v. Bacon, 828 F.2d 1272, 1275 (8th Cir.1987); cf. Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 234-35, 99 S.Ct. 226......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT