Alston v. King

• Decision Date: 14 October 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-3760,97-3760
• Citation: 157 F.3d 1113
• Parties: 14 IER Cases 784 Washington C. ALSTON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Scott L. KING, individually and in his professional capacity, Gary Sanitary District, an executive department of the City of Gary, City of Gary, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1113

157 F.3d 1113

14 IER Cases 784

Washington C. ALSTON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Scott L. KING, individually and in his professional capacity, Gary Sanitary District, an executive department of the City of Gary, City of Gary, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 97-3760.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 14, 1998.

Decided Oct. 14, 1998.

Cora M. Vaughn (argued), Vaughn & Associates, Eric O. Clark, Gary, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

W. Anthony Walker (argued), Meyer, Lyles & Godshalk, Gary, IN, for Defendants-Appellants.

Before EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Washington Alston filed this action against Scott King, who is the Mayor of Gary, Indiana, the City of Gary, Indiana, and the Gary Sanitary District (collectively, "the defendants") on February 13, 1996. He alleged claims based upon retaliatory discharge, violation of procedural due process, conspiracy to violate constitutional rights and breach of contract. The district court ultimately entered a judgment for Mr. Alston on the breach of contract claim and on the procedural due process claim. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the district court.

I BACKGROUND

A. Facts

In July of 1992, the Gary Sanitary District's Board of Commissioners ("the Board") hired Mr. Alston as Director of the District. Mr. Alston and the Board negotiated an employment contract, which required the District to notify Mr. Alston if it intended to terminate his employment for cause. Under that contract Mr. Alston could request a termination hearing within ten days of that notice. Although this contract was never signed by the mayor, it was extended several times through 1996.

In January 1996, Scott King, the new mayor of the City, was informed by the Indiana Board of Accounts that an audit by that board had revealed that Mr. Alston had made $18,372.33 in unauthorized expenditures. Mr. Alston also had threatened to cut off the water supply to City Hall and the Gary Public Transportation Center for failure to pay fees.

Mayor King summoned Mr. Alston to his office to answer for these actions. Although Mr. Alston denied any wrongdoing, Mayor King terminated his employment. Mayor King effected this termination without providing Mr. Alston with the notice and the termination hearing required by Mr. Alston's contract. Mr. Alston did not request a hearing, and he refused a name-clearing hearing when he was offered one after he had filed suit.

B. Proceedings in the District Court

In response to the parties' summary judgment motions, the district court ruled in Mr. Alston's favor on the breach of contract claim; it ruled in the defendants' favor on the defendants' "set-off" affirmative defense to the contract claim, the First Amendment claim and the conspiracy to violate constitutional rights claim.

The parties then tried before a jury the issues of the procedural due process claim and of damages for breach of contract. The jury awarded the plaintiff $40,600 on the breach of contract claim and $92,500 on the procedural due process claim; it also allowed the defendants a $16,857.99 set-off. The defendants now appeal from the judgment entered by the district court with respect to the contract and the due process claims.

II DISCUSSION

A. The Contract Claim

1.

The defendants submit that, under Indiana Code §§ 36-9-25-10(14) and 36-4-5-3(9), contracts entered into by the City are void unless they are signed by the mayor. Because the mayor never signed Mr. Alston's employment contract, the defendants contend that the contract is void. The district court held, however, that the Board had independent authority to hire employees. See Ind.Code § 36-9-25-10(15). ¹ The district court also noted that the statutes do not require the mayor's signature for the contracts to be valid. The defendants do not contend that Thomas Barnes, the City's mayor at the time the parties entered into the contract, disapproved of Mr. Alston's contract. Indeed, he fully approved. The defendants' argument therefore is purely formalistic: If a contract entered into by the City is to be valid, the mayor must actually affix his signature to it.

We believe that the district court correctly held that Indiana Code § 36-9-25-10(15) provides the Board with independent authority to hire employees like Mr. Alston. Moreover, no Indiana statute states that contracts not signed by the mayor are void, or even voidable at the City's discretion. ² The Supreme Court of Indiana has indicated, furthermore, that such strict compliance with this requirement of a mayoral signature ought not be required. "The applicable statutes certainly do not preclude the mayor from delegating his duty to sign contracts, and it is impractical to require the mayor to sign every written agreement to which the City is a party." Speckman v. City of Indianapolis, 540 N.E.2d 1189, 1191 (Ind.1989). ³ Although Speckman involved a delegation question somewhat different from the one presented by the facts of this case, the defendants present no convincing argument, and no other authority, that might suggest that the Supreme Court of Indiana would reach a contrary result. We therefore hold that the mayor's failure to sign Mr. Alston's contract did not make that contract void or voidable.

2.

The defendants next contend that the district court incorrectly submitted the set-off affirmative defense to the jury because the district court had already granted summary judgment on that issue.

In the district court, the defendants set forth an affirmative defense that they had a right to a set-off against any compensation they might owe Mr. Alston. This set-off was for the amount Mr. Alston is alleged to have misappropriated from the City. The district court initially granted summary judgment to the defendants on this setoff defense; it held that they were entitled to a set-off of $18,372.33. Nevertheless, the district court later instructed the jury to determine the amount of the set-off. The jury found that the defendants were entitled only to a $16,857.99 set-off. The defendants now contend that it was error for the district court to submit the matter to the jury after it had been decided on summary judgment. ⁴

We do not believe that the district court committed reversible error by deciding that the set-off ought to be submitted to the jury. As a general principle of judicial decision-making, the doctrine of the law of the case establishes a presumption that a ruling made at one stage of the proceedings will be adhered to throughout the suit. See Messinger v. Anderson, 225 U.S. 436, 444, 32 S.Ct. 739, 56 L.Ed. 1152 (1912). "But it is no more than a presumption, one whose strength varies with the circumstances; it is not a straightjacket." Avitia v. Metropolitan Club of Chicago, Inc., 49 F.3d 1219, 1227 (7th Cir.1995). When a party is not prejudiced by the change, the district court should be allowed to change its ruling. See id.

Here, the defendants claim that the district court committed error by submitting the amount of the set-off to the jury. They make no argument as to why the court was wrong in its determination that such a course was appropriate, and, more importantly, no argument that even suggests that the determination of the jury is not supported by the evidence of record. In fact, the defendants did not even object to the district court's decision to give the set-off instruction. Under these circumstances, we shall not disturb the determination of the jury.

B. The Procedural Due Process Claim

1.

The plaintiff's complaint alleges that the defendants discharged him without affording him an opportunity for a hearing as required by the Supreme Court of the United States in Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 105 S.Ct. 1487, 84 L.Ed.2d 494 (1985). In Loudermill, the Supreme Court held that a proper balancing of the interests as set forth in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976), requires that, as a general rule, there be some form of pretermination hearing for an employee who has established that he has a property interest in the retention of his position. ⁵ In short, the Court reasoned that the general governmental interest in immediate termination of the employee does not outweigh the interests of the employee in retaining his employment and in having an opportunity to present his side of the case. "Even when the facts are clear, the appropriateness or necessity of the discharge may not be; in such cases, the only meaningful opportunity to invoke the discretion of the decisionmaker is likely to be before the termination takes effect." Loudermill, 470 U.S. at 543, 105 S.Ct. 1487. In the Court's view, affording the employee such a pretermination hearing imposes neither a significant administrative burden nor an intolerable delay. See id. at 544, 105 S.Ct. 1487. Furthermore, noted the Court, the governmental employer shares with the employee an interest in avoiding disruption and erroneous decisions. See id. In Loudermill, the Supreme Court also emphasized that the pretermination hearing need not be elaborate; the " 'formality and procedural requisites for the hearing can vary, depending upon the importance of the interests involved and the nature of the subsequent proceedings.' " Id. at 545, 105 S.Ct. 1487 (quoting Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 378, 91 S.Ct. 780, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971)). In general, said the Court, something less than a full evidentiary hearing is sufficient at the pretermination stage. See id.; see also Gilbert v. Homar, 520 U.S. 924, 117 S.Ct. 1807, 1812, 138 L.Ed.2d 120 (1997) (emphasizing that due process is a flexible concept that calls for such procedural protections as the particular situation demands).

Despite the general norms set forth above, the Supreme Court also recognized in Loudermill that there are instances when...