Ferrer v. Zayas, 89-1853

• Decision Date: 01 August 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-1853,89-1853
• Parties: Venancia FERRER, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Carmen Sonia ZAYAS, etc., et al., Defendants, Appellants. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 309

914 F.2d 309

Venancia FERRER, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Carmen Sonia ZAYAS, etc., et al., Defendants, Appellants.

No. 89-1853.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Aug. 1, 1990.

Decided Sept. 17, 1990.

Vannessa Ramirez, Asst. Sol. Gen., Dept. of Justice, with whom Jorge E. Perez Diaz, Sol. Gen., was on brief, for defendants, appellants.

Frank Rodriguez Garcia with whom Francisco J. Rodriguez Juarbe was on brief, for plaintiffs, appellees.

Before CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-appellants Secretary Carmen Sonia Zayas ("Zayas") and Regional Director Carmen Rodriguez ("Rodriguez") appeal from the order of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico denying their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Plaintiff-appellees are nineteen employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Social Services ("D.S.S.") who brought suit against D.S.S. Secretary Zayas and various Regional Directors pursuant to, inter alia, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982), alleging that they were dismissed on the basis of their political affiliation in violation of their First Amendment freedoms of association and expression.

The only issues raised on appeal are, as to Zayas, whether the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's findings in favor of the plaintiffs, and as to Rodriguez, whether the verdict against her in the case of one plaintiff was sustainable. ¹ Defendants Zayas and Rodriguez make two arguments: First, the evidence in the record did not make out a case that Secretary Zayas, as distinguished from the Regional Directors, personally infringed any of the nineteen plaintiffs' constitutional rights; and second, in the particular case of plaintiff Nydia Valles-Amaro ("Valles-Amaro"), ² the evidence in the record was insufficient to support the jury's verdict that Regional Director Rodriguez (and Secretary Zayas) infringed her constitutional rights. We reject both of these arguments and affirm.

The standard applicable to reviewing the district court's denial of a defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict is deferential: "[W]e must examine the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and determine whether there are facts and inferences reasonably drawn from those facts which lead to but one conclusion--that there is a total failure of evidence to prove plaintiff's case." Mayo v. Schooner Capital Corp., 825 F.2d 566, 568 (1st Cir.1987) (quoting Fact Concerts, Inc. v. City of Newport, 626 F.2d 1060, 1064 (1st Cir.1980)), vacated on other grounds, 453 U.S. 247, 101 S.Ct. 2748, 69 L.Ed.2d 616 (1981). After drawing all rational inferences in favor of the plaintiff, if any reasonable disagreement is possible, judgment n.o.v. is inappropriate. Borras v. Sea-land Service, Inc., 586 F.2d 881, 885 (1st Cir.1978) (quoting Dumas v. MacLean, 404 F.2d 1062, 1064 (1st Cir.1968)). Nevertheless, the plaintiff is not entitled to inferences based on speculation and conjecture. Jorgensen v. Massachusetts Port Authority, 905 F.2d 515, 522 (1st Cir.1990).

In order to establish a case of patronage dismissal, plaintiffs must demonstrate that their conduct was constitutionally protected and that this conduct was a substantial or motivating factor underlying the decision to dismiss them. Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 270, 97 S.Ct. 555, 566, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977); Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980); Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976). Notwithstanding plaintiffs' showing that protected conduct motivated the decision to dismiss, the defendants may prevail upon establishing by a preponderance of the evidence sufficient alternate grounds such that plaintiffs would have been dismissed even absent the protected conduct. Mt. Healthy City School Dist. Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 287, 97 S.Ct. 568, 576, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977); Givhan v. Western Line Consol. School Dist., 439 U.S. 410, 416, 99 S.Ct. 693, 697, 58 L.Ed.2d 619 (1978); Kauffman v. Puerto Rico Telephone Co., 841 F.2d 1169 (1st Cir.1988); Correa-Martinez v. Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 49 (1st Cir.1990). ³

Discussion

Plaintiffs held various non-tenured D.S.S. positions for periods of six to twelve years--all had served since prior to the victory of the Popular Democratic Party ("P.D.P.") over the New Progressive Party ("N.P.P.") in the November, 1984 Puerto Rican gubernatorial elections. Plaintiffs were all affiliated with the N.P.P. They were scattered through the D.S.S. Food Stamps and Home Orientation programs as well as D.S.S. Child Care Centers in eleven communities in the Mayaguez, Aguadilla, Arecibo, Ponce and Guayama regions. The parties stipulated that all plaintiffs had been evaluated and the evaluations showed that all plaintiffs performed their duties well. The defendant Regional Directors argued at trial that the decision to dismiss the plaintiffs was based on a finding that their programs and offices were overstaffed. However, there was evidence that P.D.P. employees hired and paid through the Right to Work Administration were later placed at the D.S.S. to perform the duties of some of the dismissed plaintiffs. One plaintiff was terminated on February 28, 1986, thirteen on June 30, 1986, and five on July 18, 1986. All received virtually identical notice that their appointments would not be renewed. The letters were signed by Luis Pastrana, the then-D.S.S. Deputy Secretary for Personnel and Human Resources, and transmitted over the signature of the appropriate Regional Director. Secretary Zayas was the nominating authority responsible for appointments and dismissals at the D.S.S. P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 3, Sec. 211c (1982). She may delegate that power to her subordinates, however and authorize subdelegation. P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 3, Sec. 211h (1982).

The district court emphasized the following evidence in support of its order denying Zayas' motion for a directed verdict: ⁴

There was uncontradicted testimony that there was a channel of communications between the Regional Offices and the Secretary's headquarters; that plaintiffs' political affiliation was well known, in some cases notoriously known; that it was the Secretary's assistant who issued the termination letters; that at the central offices of the Department of Social Services the nominating authority was aware of the dismissals throughout the Regions; that on one occasion the Secretary of Social Services visited the Patillas office of the Guayama Region and was informed of the political affiliation of plaintiff Valles Amaro.

Zayas does not say that these findings are unsupported but rather maintains that the evidence they relate is insufficient, as a matter of law, to enable a jury to infer that she herself had direct personal knowledge of the plaintiffs' political affiliations, other than Valles-Amaro's. We disagree. Zayas concedes in her brief that the Secretary relies on "communications originating at the regional level for essential information and feedback." The record provides evidence from which the jury could infer that plaintiffs' political affiliation was generally...