Alden v. Georgetown University

• Decision Date: 12 August 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-CV-554.,97-CV-554.
• Citation: 734 A.2d 1103
• Parties: William W. ALDEN, Appellant, v. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

734 A.2d 1103

William W. ALDEN, Appellant, v. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, Appellee.

No. 97-CV-554.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued April 15, 1999.

Decided August 12, 1999.

Woodley B. Osborne for appellant.

Mark J. Larson, Washington, for appellee.

Before SCHWELB, RUIZ, and REID, Associate Judges.

RUIZ, Associate Judge:

William W. Alden appeals from a decision of the trial court granting summary judgment in favor of Georgetown University in his suit asserting breach of contract and seeking reinstatement following his dismissal from the University's Medical School. Alden¹ contends that the trial court erred in declining to review the University's decision to dismiss him, arguing that the issuance of a failing grade in his medicine clerkship and his resulting dismissal from the Medical School was not entitled to judicial deference as an academic decision by University officials where the failing grade was motivated by ill-will, unrelated to Alden's performance, on the part of one of the student evaluators, rather than the result of a legitimate academic judgment. Alden also challenges the trial court's decision to strike his expert witnesses on the issue of monetary damages as an abuse of discretion where the impact of the court's decision was to irreparably prejudice his ability to prove his case for damages. We affirm, concluding that there was a discernible, rational academic basis for both the failing grade and the subsequent dismissal, thereby entitling the University's decision to judicial deference, and noting, moreover, that Alden received a fair and impartial hearing on his dismissal during which time he had the opportunity to establish that his clerkship grade had been motivated solely by ill-will and to present evidence supporting his claim. In affirming the grant of summary judgment on this basis, we do not reach the issue of whether the trial court abused its discretion in striking Alden's expert witnesses.

I.

William Alden entered Georgetown Medical School as a third-year transfer student from Ross University in the summer of 1990. During his first year at Georgetown (but third year of medical studies), Alden missed a considerable amount of time from school due to his father's illness and the destruction of his parents' Kansas home in a tornado. Despite these absences, Alden received honors and high passes in his neurology, obgyn, pediatrics and radiology clerkships during his third year; however, he also received a "marginal" pass in his surgery clerkship.

Near the end of his third-year medicine clerkship, Alden requested permission to take some time off from the clerkship following his father's death to attend to his father's funeral arrangements. In light of his prior absences, Alden was advised against missing additional time by Dr. Jon O'Brien, Georgetown's Associate Dean of Students. Alden nevertheless flew home on June 13, and was back at Georgetown on June 16. Alden received a passing grade for the medicine clerkship, but was given another "marginal" mark, by Dr. William P. Argy, the Medicine Clerkship Director at Georgetown University.

Georgetown's Committee on Students reviewed Alden's academic progress in September 1991, as per University policy, and decided that Alden would "perform a twelve-week remedial third year medical clerkship beginning in the second quarter [fall 1991], to be followed (if successful) by the fourth year Ambulatory Care Block."² The Committee also decided to review Alden's academic progress at its January 1992 meeting, and postponed a decision as to whether Alden would be eligible for graduation in 1992.

Alden successfully passed the remedial clerkship, which ran from September 1991 until mid-December 1991. He then was scheduled for his fourth-year medicine clerkship at Fairfax Hospital which would run from December 16, 1991 through January 26, 1992. However, during this time, Alden also needed to schedule interviews for his residency following graduation. Although Georgetown policy officially allows its students to take ten days off to interview for residency opportunities, no more than five days may be taken during any single clerkship unless the student first receives permission from the school. Because of his remedial clerkship, however, Alden could not begin interviewing for residencies until mid-December. To further complicate matters, Alden chose to pursue a neurology residency, which required completion of the interview process by January 24, 1992.

Alden requested nine days off for residency interviews during his fourth-year medicine clerkship. Two of the days requested came in December; however, Alden returned a day late. In January, Alden requested an additional seven days, which Dr. Ann Pariser, the hospital's Chief Medical Resident, granted for all but the last three days (January 21, 22, and 23). Dr. Pariser told Alden that he would have to obtain written permission for the final three days from Dr. O'Brien, the Associate Dean of Students. After meeting with Alden on January 15, 1992, Dr. O'Brien prepared a memorandum to Dr. James Cooper, Medicine Clerkship Director at Fairfax Hospital and Dr. Argy, the medicine clerkship director at Georgetown, which read in pertinent part:

Mr. Alden's reason for the extra days in one clerkship is that he is entering the Neurology match, an early match which closes entries on February 3. This is a plausible reason for scheduling the interviews (although, as Mr. Alden knows, the Committee on Students has not made a final decision as to whether he will graduate in June 1992). No extra time is allowed for travel in this schedule: full performance the day before and the day following is expected.

On January 20, 1992, Alden met with Dr. Pariser to inform her that he was leaving that evening for residency interviews. Dr. Pariser had not yet received a copy of Dr. O'Brien's memorandum and warned Alden that she did not think he would be able to successfully complete his clerkship if he took the additional time off, and that until she heard otherwise from Dr. O'Brien, Alden's absences would be considered unexcused. That same day, Alden spoke with Dr. Cooper, who also had yet to receive Dr. O'Brien's approval of Alden's proposed absences. Dr. Cooper informed Alden that the missed days would have a negative impact on his clerkship evaluation.

On or about January 20, 1992, Dr. Jeffrey M. Drood, who, among others, was responsible for supervising Alden, wrote a strongly-worded critical evaluation of Alden's performance. Dr. Drood's negative impression of Alden was motivated in part by his belief that Alden's absences for the three days were all unexcused. In addition, Dr. Drood was friends with Dr. Argy, who had supervised Alden during his third-year medicine clerkship, and had mentioned to Dr. Drood that Alden had performed poorly in prior rotations. However, Dr. Drood also had observed independently that, on at least two occasions, Alden had failed to describe the content of a patient's laboratory reports accurately. In his evaluation, Dr. Drood wrote:

I'm not sure what's real and what's not real with this student. He has had many undocumented absences and "tardiness." Also, he tries to get by with doing the absolute BARE minimum of work — his admission notes are skeletal at best, requiring him to refer to my admission notes when he is to present a patient. He has demonstrated a record of unreliability (and lack of trustworthiness) which is, frankly, unacceptable in the medicine field. It is my opinion that just allowing him to repeat the clerkship is not sufficient, as these traits, deep rooted (personality) and unlikely to change, make for a dangerous physician (especially given his long history of similar behavior).³

On January 23, 1992, Dr. Mary Therese O'Donnell, the Assistant Clerkship Director

at Fairfax Hospital, prepared an evaluation form which was reviewed and approved by Dr. Cooper. The report gave Alden a failing grade and incorporated many of Dr. Drood's comments from his own evaluation of Alden's performance. Although Alden had also been supervised, and been given favorable reviews, by Dr. Shashi Madan, Dr. Ali Safa, and Dr. Robin Goldberg,⁴ Dr. O'Donnell nevertheless gave greater weight to Dr. Drood's evaluation of Alden's performance.⁵ The evaluation was forwarded to Georgetown University three days before the conclusion of Alden's clerkship for consideration by the Committee on Students. Alden returned to Fairfax Hospital and worked on January 24-26, and presented his medical topic and presentation and paper on January 24, a day after his evaluation had already been completed and forwarded to the Committee.

The Committee on Students held its scheduled meeting on January 23, 1992, and, the following day, notified Alden that it had decided that he would not be able to graduate by June 1992, and that it would defer consideration of the consequences of his failing grade until he had had a chance to review the evaluation and appear before the committee.⁶ Prior to the meeting, Alden approached Dr. Cooper, Dr. Argy, and Dr. Robert Jacobson, Chairman of the Georgetown Department of Medicine, to ask them to re-evaluate his grade. None of them agreed to do so. At the February 20, 1992 meeting, Alden appeared before the Committee and argued his case. After reviewing Alden's entire academic record, including material which Alden had submitted or requested to be added to the file, the Committee voted to drop Alden from the school rolls.

Alden then appealed the decision to the Committee on Student Appeals as permitted by Georgetown policy. That committee met on March 26, 1992 to consider Alden's case, and Alden was again interviewed and given an opportunity to supplement his file. The appeals committee affirmed the earlier decision to dismiss Alden from the school, thereby ending Alden's career at Georgetown.⁷ As a result of his dismissal, the neurology residency he had obtained at Baylor...