Barthuli v. Board of Trustees of Jefferson Elementary School District

• Decision Date: 20 September 1977
• Docket Number: No. A-247,A-247
• Citation: 98 S.Ct. 21,434 U.S. 1337,54 L.Ed.2d 52
• Parties: Roger BARTHULI, Applicant, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

434 U.S. 1337

98 S.Ct. 21

54 L.Ed.2d 52

Roger BARTHULI, Applicant,

v BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT.

No. A-247.

Sept. 20, 1977.

Mr. Justice REHNQUIST, Circuit Justice.

Applicant Roger Barthuli seeks a stay of the judgment of the Supreme Court of California in the case of Barthuli v. Board of Trustees, 19 Cal.3d 717, 139 Cal.Rptr. 627, 566 P.2d 261 (1977), pending his filing of a petition for writ of certiorari to review that judgment. The Supreme Court of California held that the applicant, who had an employment contract with the respondent school district as an associate superintendent of business, was not entitled to notice and a hearing before being discharged from that position. Although I am not entirely confident that four Justices of this Court will not vote to grant applicant's petition for certiorari when filed, my doubt on that score combined with the failure of applicant to demonstrate any irreparable injury has led me to deny the requested stay. I also have serious reservations whether the requested stay is consistent with the Art. III limitations on my powers.

Applicant, after being discharged, filed suit in the California courts seeking a writ of mandate reinstating him to his administrative position. The Supreme Court of California, by a vote of five to one, decided that applicant had no statutory right to continue in his position as associate superintendent of business. It stated that he did have a statutory right to continue as a tenured classroom teacher and that the latter right could be enforced by writ of mandate; applicant, however, has never sought reinstatement as a classroom teacher. The Supreme Court of California further held that under California law an employee cannot obtain specific performance of an employment contract where he has an adequate remedy at law in an action for damages; the Supreme Court affirmed the finding of the lower court that applicant's damages action was adequate.

The relevant cases of this Court dealing with the due process rights of public employees discharged from their positions are Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2513, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972); Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U.S. 134, 94 S.Ct. 1633, 40 L.Ed.2d 15 (1974); and Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976). Examining the various views expressed in Arnett, supra, a majority of the Court might conclude that California's refusal to grant specific performance where there is an adequate remedy at law acts as a limitation upon the expectation of the employee in continued employment, which is a necessary condition to a constitutional claim under Roth ; alternatively, a majority might conclude that the expectancy embraces the performance of the promise contained in the contract. For myself, I would adhere to the former view, and would be inclined to think that this is not one of the "rare" cases in which the "federal judiciary has required a state agency to reinstate a discharged employee for failure to provide a pretermination hearing."...