Bartholomew v. Fischl
Decision Date | 07 February 1986 |
Docket Number | No. 85-1355,85-1355 |
Citation | 782 F.2d 1148 |
Parties | James R. BARTHOLOMEW, Appellant, v. Frank FISCHL and City of Allentown, Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Richard J. Orloski, (argued), Calnan & Orloski, P.C., Allentown, Pa., for appellant.
Joan R. Sheak, (argued), Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzburg Ellers & Weir, Allentown, Pa., for appellees.
Before ADAMS, SLOVITER and MANSMANN, Circuit Judges.
Appellant, an officer of a bureau of health sponsored by two cities, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) against one of the cities and its mayor, claiming that his rights under the due process clause and the first amendment were violated when the health bureau was abolished and he thereby lost his position. The district court, 602 F.Supp 946, after permitting appellant to amend the complaint, dismissed his claim against the city for failure to allege sufficiently specific facts to support a finding of municipal liability under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). It also permitted the defendants to amend their answer to assert an affirmative defense under the one-year state statute of limitations governing defamation actions, 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 5523(1) (Purdon Supp.1985), more than two years after the suit was filed, and granted summary judgment for the individual defendants on the grounds that the action was time-barred. Subsequently, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Wilson v. Garcia, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985), holding that state personal injury statutes of limitations are applicable in Sec. 1983 suits. Pennsylvania's personal injury statute of limitations allows plaintiffs two years to bring their actions. 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 5524(2) (Purdon Supp.1985).
We hold that appellant's complaint was improperly dismissed against the city for failure to plead a cause of action with sufficient particularity. We further conclude that Wilson v. Garcia should be applied retroactively to appellant's case, and that the lawsuit is therefore controlled by the two-year statute of limitations applicable in personal injury suits, rather than by the one-year defamation statute. Because appellant's action was timely filed under the personal injury statute of limitations, the order of the district court dismissing his suit will be vacated and the matter remanded.
Appellant James R. Bartholomew was appointed Acting Executive Director of the BiCity Health Bureau (BCHB) created by the cities of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1974. The BCHB was established in 1964 by joint action of Allentown and Bethlehem, pursuant to Pennsylvania's Local Health Administration Law, 16 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 12001 et seq. (Purdon 1956 & Supp.1985). The Bureau was independent of the two cities and of their mayors, receiving its funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and was governed by the BiCity Board of Health, which consisted of members appointed by the cities of Allentown and Bethlehem. In his capacity as Acting Executive Director, Bartholomew reported to the Community Development Directors of both cities and to the BiCity Board of Health on the BCHB's daily operations.
According to the complaint, the issue whether Allentown's drinking water should be fluoridated was a subject of considerable controversy in Allentown during the late 1970's. Appellant claims that the BCHB adopted a position favoring fluoridation, while defendant Frank Fischl, who became Mayor of Allentown in 1978, and the city itself were adamantly opposed to fluoridation. Bartholomew further alleges that this difference of opinion gave rise to a protracted dispute between the Bureau on the one hand, and the Mayor and his administration on the other.
In late 1978, the Chairman of the Board of Health, Harold Roth, and Bartholomew began to seek Bartholomew's appointment as permanent Executive Director of the BCHB. Appellant asserts that Mayor Fischl opposed his appointment as permanent Executive Director because of Bartholomew's pro-fluoridation stance, and that Fischl attempted to block Bartholomew's appointment by various means. However, any such efforts were unsuccessful, and on September 14, 1979, Bartholomew was appointed permanent Executive Director of the BCHB by the Board of Health.
Mayor Fischl's opposition to Bartholomew's appointment was so strong, appellant claims, that the mayor refused to recognize Bartholomew as Director of the BCHB, ordered his pay withheld, and had a police officer stationed outside appellant's office to bar his entry. When Bartholomew received some of his salary from the Board of Health, Fischl is alleged to have publicly accused Bartholomew of theft and sought to have him indicted and arrested. Fischl ultimately persuaded the Allentown and Bethlehem city councils to dissolve the BCHB, appellant asserts, thereby eliminating Bartholomew's position altogether, as of December 31, 1979.
Bartholomew filed a lawsuit in state court, seeking the salary that had been withheld from him. The court held that the Mayor was without authority to discharge the BCHB's director, who was an employee of the BiCity Board of Health and not of the Mayor's administration. It therefore ordered that Bartholomew be paid his salary through December 31, 1979, the date on which his position ceased to exist. Bartholomew v. Fischl, et al., No. 79-C-4015 (Lehigh Cty. Ct. of Common Pleas Jan. 5, 1981); app. at 22-27.
Appellant filed this lawsuit in federal court under Sec. 1983 on September 10, 1981, naming the City of Allentown and Mayor Fischl as defendants. In his original complaint, Bartholomew contended that his termination of his employment amid public charges of dishonesty and incompetency and without a hearing violated his due process rights. He further claimed that the efforts of Mayor Fischl to oust him from office and the ultimate elimination of his position were in retaliation for Bartholomew's public statements advocating fluoridation of Allentown's water, and thus infringed his first amendment right to free speech. Finally, he asserted a claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3) (1982), alleging that his termination was caused by a conspiracy among Fischl and his cabinet members to violate Bartholomew's constitutional rights. Defendant's answer to the complaint denied that Fischl was aware of Bartholomew's pro-fluoridation views and maintained that the Mayor's opposition to appellant's appointment as permanent Executive Director of the BCHB was based upon his belief that Bartholomew had performed poorly as Acting Executive Director. Defendants also denied having issued public statements charging Bartholomew with dishonesty or criminal conduct. They moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim, arguing that appellant had failed to plead facts sufficient to establish a constitutional violation, that there was no basis for liability under Sec. 1985(3), and that Bartholomew had not clearly stated a basis for the city's liability.
The district court denied defendant's motion to dismiss, determining that the appellant had alleged sufficient facts to state a claim that his termination of employment, coupled with public accusations of a defamatory nature and without a hearing, had deprived him of a liberty interest without due process under Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976), and Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). However, the district court agreed with defendants that appellant's complaint had inadequately identified the alleged factual basis for the city's liability under Monell v Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611, and for the defendants' liability under Sec. 1985(3). Bartholomew was therefore ordered to amend his complaint to remedy these defects in his pleading.
In response, appellant filed an amended complaint, deleting his Sec. 1985(3) claim, and adding six paragraphs containing allegations against the city. He declared that "[a]t all times relevant herein, the Defendant, City of Allentown, was implementing official government policy through the Mayor, Frank Fischl, and its cabinet officials, [James] Schultz and [William] Hansell." He further alleged that Fischl, Schultz and Hansell were "acting as high government officials of the City" when they "made false official public pronouncements which indicated that Plaintiff was dishonest" and terminated his employment. Finally, Bartholomew claimed that the "retaliatory campaign" pursuant to which he was defamed and lost his position was the "official policy" of the City of Allentown.
Defendants again moved for dismissal of the complaint or for summary judgment. In their motion, filed December 20, 1983, defendants for the first time argued that Bartholomew's action was barred by the statute of limitations. They contended that his Sec. 1983 suit was most aptly analogized to a state-law defamation cause of action and therefore, under the then-prevailing law of this Circuit, was governed by Pennsylvania's one-year statute of limitations for defamation actions, 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 5523(1). See Fitzgerald v. Larson, 741 F.2d 32, 36 (3d Cir.1984) ( ); Polite v. Diehl, 507 F.2d 119, 122 (3d Cir.1974) (in banc). Since defendants asserted that Bartholomew's claim accrued on December 31, 1979 when his employment ceased, they insisted that this lawsuit, filed over one year later, was time-barred. On June 19, 1984, at the oral argument on the motion to dismiss the complaint, the district court granted the defendants' oral request to amend their answer to the complaint to assert the statute of limitations defense. The amended answer was filed on June 25,...
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