Branum v. Clark

Decision Date11 March 1991
Docket NumberD,No. 994,994
Citation927 F.2d 698
Parties, 66 Ed. Law Rep. 82 Gregory BRANUM, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clifford CLARK, David Hanson, Paul Szarmach, George Stein, and Ross Geoghegan, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 90-7883.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Catherine E. Stuckart, Binghamton, N.Y., for plaintiff-appellant.

Gregory Branum, Binghamton, N.Y., pro se.

Daniel Smirlock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Albany, N.Y. (Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of the State of N.Y., Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Sol. Gen., Nancy A. Spiegel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Albany, N.Y., on the brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before KEARSE, PRATT, and McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judges.

KEARSE, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Gregory Branum, a dematriculated graduate student at the State University of New York at Binghamton ("SUNY-Binghamton"), appeals from an August 24, 1990 order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, Thomas J. McAvoy, Judge, denying his motion for relief from a judgment entered on April 20, 1990, dismissing his complaint against university officials for damages and equitable relief in connection with his dematriculation. Branum also seeks to appeal from the April 20 judgment itself. On appeal, he contends principally that the court (1) should have viewed his complaint more liberally and declined to dismiss it in light of his then-pro se status, (2) should have granted him relief from the judgment because he did not receive adequate notice of the hearing on the motion to dismiss, and (3) should have given him leave to amend the complaint. For the reasons below, we vacate the order and remand to the district court for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

Branum commenced the present action pro se in September 1989. His complaint indicated that from 1976 to 1986, he was a graduate student in the mathematics department at SUNY-Binghamton, receiving an M.A. degree in 1978 and thereafter pursuing a doctorate. The named defendants were the university's president, vice president for academic affairs, vice provost for graduate studies, and the chairmen of the mathematics department and the mathematics graduate program. The focus of the controversy is the difficulty experienced

by Branum, a minority student, in being "admitted to candidacy" for the Ph.D. degree, i.e., achieving the status of having passed all requirements for that degree except the most important one, the writing of a dissertation.

A. The Events According to the Pro Se Complaint

From the complaint, which annexed as exhibits copies of, inter alia, memoranda to or from various of the defendants, the following picture can be gleaned. After receiving his M.A. degree in 1978, Branum was encouraged to pursue his doctorate. For the next five years, he experienced difficulty in finding a dissertation advisor (an essential step, according to department officials), in getting lecturing assignments, and in gaining access to university facilities. In 1983, he was assigned an acting advisor, Professor Peter Hilton; according to Hilton, the unduly prolonged process of admitting Branum formally to candidacy for the Ph.D. was not the fault of Branum but was attributable to the fact that there was no one on the SUNY-Binghamton faculty with sufficient expertise on Branum's topic. Nonetheless, by 1985 Branum had made sufficient progress that Hilton recommended his admission to candidacy for the Ph.D.

After receiving this recommendation, the graduate committee of the mathematics department decided to require Branum to take preliminary closed-book examinations, a practice it had abandoned in 1977 as unsound. Though no other student after 1977 had been required to take such examinations, Branum was to be required to take them in order to be admitted to candidacy. Branum protested the requirement, especially in light of certain practical difficulties, and sought to institute a student grievance proceeding. He had inquired as to the availability and effect of such a proceeding, and the university's provost for graduate studies had replied (a) that Branum "would be accorded the same due process given to all students at SUNY-Binghamton, if [he] were to be involved in a grievance situation," and (b) that "students involved in a grievance would not be dismissed from their program by the Graduate School until the on-campus conclusion of due process with respect to their case."

Branum's pleas for a prompt grievance proceeding with respect to the examination requirement apparently fell on deaf ears, and an examination committee was appointed. Nonetheless, no examination was conducted during the 1985-1986 school year; nor was there any grievance hearing during that period. On October 1, 1986, Branum received a notice from the university's vice provost for graduate studies that he was being dismissed from the doctoral program, effective at the end of the spring 1986 semester. Branum had received no prior notice or opportunity to be heard with respect to his dematriculation.

Seeking to reverse this decision, Branum filed a grievance against several faculty members, including the chairman of the mathematics department, defendant David Hanson. In January 1987, a six-person grievance committee was appointed. All of the members of the committee were appointed by Hanson. Further, one of the members was a faculty member then under consideration for tenure, and the key recommendation with respect to his tenure was to be made by Hanson. Two other members of the committee were doctoral candidates whose thesis advisors were two faculty members against whom Branum's grievance was filed. Branum protested the conflicts of interest on the part of these grievance committee members. The complaint attached as exhibits 8 and 9 memoranda from two mathematics department professors also protesting this lack of fairness in the committee membership.

The complaint also annexed a protest from the Graduate Student Organization ("GSO"), both questioning the fairness of the grievance committee and stating that GSO had received reports that the treatment of Branum was the product of racial discrimination. The complaint itself alleged that "[r]acism, both institutional and personal, was marshalled around the admission to candidacy status as an excuse to keep [Branum] from being employed as a lecturer in either the Fall 1986 or Spring Apparently all of the protests on Branum's behalf were unsuccessful. The complaint sought a judgment vacating Branum's dematriculation, ordering that he be given a hearing and be reinstated in the doctoral program, and awarding him money damages.

                1987 semester."    The complaint also alleged that, in contrast to the treatment of Branum, a grievance filed by one of the department's Caucasian graduate students, together with that student's protests of conflict of interest, had been handled promptly
                
B. The Proceedings Leading to the Dismissal of the Complaint

In December 1989, defendants moved alternatively (1) for dismissal of the complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted, (2) for a more definite statement pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a), or (3) for summary judgment. In support of their Rule 8(a) and 12(b)(6) motions, defendants argued that Branum had failed to specify the alleged acts of wrongdoing on the part of each defendant. In support of their motion for summary judgment, they argued (1) that exhibits 8 and 9 to the complaint "overwhelmingly suggest that plaintiff was offered an opportunity for a hearing before his dismissal," and "indicate that it was he who refused to pursue these remedies because he did not like the arrangements"; (2) that Branum was "let ... go for academic reasons," and his allegations of racial discrimination were not factually supported; (3) that Branum had failed to identify any acts of defendants indicating bad faith, and (4) that Branum "has made no factual showing even as to the racial minority of which he is supposedly a member."

Branum requested and received an extension of time to oppose the motions or to prepare an amended complaint. In March 1990, he received another extension due to the death of his father. Pursuant to the latter request, the hearing on defendants' motion to dismiss was adjourned to April 27, 1990.

On April 17, however, the district court changed the date for the hearing, advancing it to April 20. Not having a telephone number for Branum, the court sent him notice of the changed date by certified mail. It is undisputed that Branum did not receive the notice until April 21. He had been away earlier in the month and had returned home on April 17; but he had failed to check his mailbox until April 21. Accordingly, he did not receive notice of the changed date of the hearing until after the hearing had been held. He had not submitted any opposition to defendants' motions.

At the April 20 hearing, the district court stated that notice of the changed hearing date had been mailed to Branum by certified mail with a return receipt requested, and that "nothing has come back, indicating that the letter was properly delivered to the plaintiff." (April 20, 1990 Transcript at 3.) The court proceeded to describe the complaint briefly as one that appeared "to assert some sort of a property or liberty interest in continuing on in the doctoral program and states that [Branum] believes that he wasn't afforded due process in connection with the interest he is attempting to assert he had in the continuation of his education." (Id. at 4.) The court stated that it would shortly issue a decision dismissing the complaint, possibly disposing of the matter pursuant to Rule 56.

In a Memorandum-Decision and Order dated April 20, 1990, 1990 WL 49294 the court again construed Branum's complaint solely as one for lack of procedural due process:

sifting through plaintiff's papers, the court discerns what appears to be...

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