Baxter v. Fulton-DeKalb Hosp. Authority

• Decision Date: 29 March 1991
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 1:89-CV-0239-JOF.
• Citation: 764 F. Supp. 1510
• Parties: Thomas L. BAXTER, Plaintiff, v. FULTON-DeKALB HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

764 F. Supp. 1510

Thomas L. BAXTER, Plaintiff, v. FULTON-DeKALB HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 1:89-CV-0239-JOF.

United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

March 29, 1991.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Debra E. Schwartz, Marcia Weil Borowski, Stanford, Fagan & Giolito, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff.

W. Ray Persons, Arrington & Hollowell, Forrest W. Hunter, Bernard Taylor, Alston & Bird, Atlanta, Ga., for defendants.

ORDER

FORRESTER, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment, defendants Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority and J.W. Pinkston, Jr.'s motion for summary judgment, defendant Dr. Corey M. Slovis' motion for summary judgment, and defendant Slovis' motion for leave to file an amended answer. Plaintiff brings this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that defendants denied him procedural and substantive due process by terminating his employment as an emergency medical technician at Grady Memorial Hospital. The summary judgment motions only concern Count One of the Complaint, which asserts procedural due process claims, and Count Two, which asserts substantive due process claims. Plaintiff has also asserted pendent state claims against defendant Corey M. Slovis for "oral defamation" and tortious interference with contractual relations.

I. FACTS

Defendant Pinkston is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority and the Executive Director of Grady Memorial Hospital. At the time of the alleged acts which are the subject of this suit, defendant Slovis was Director of the Medical Emergency Clinic of Grady Hospital and Medical Director of Grady's Emergency Medical Services.¹ Defendant Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, d/b/a Grady Memorial Hospital (Grady), hired plaintiff as an emergency medical technician on September 12, 1984. Plaintiff became a permanent part-time paramedic in the ambulance department of Grady on September 8, 1987.

At the time of the incident the Authority had a very precise and detailed grievance procedure. Plaintiff has presented the hospital manual of personnel policies and practices as evidence of the existence of a mutually explicit agreement or reasonable expectation that he would continue in his appointment absent good cause for his dismissal.

The "standards of conduct" chapter of the manual states:

It is absolutely essential that we have a clearly defined set of standards of conduct which can be understood by both supervisors and employees. This gives everyone security against favoritism and discriminatory treatment. If each of us knows the standards of conduct required, there is more likelihood of uniformity of action.

p. 45. The manual provides three levels of disciplinary action — verbal warnings, written reprimands or disciplinary suspensions, and discharge. The different levels of discipline are provided "to give each employee a chance to improve." Under the discharge procedure, supervisors,

are expected to consult with their department head before discharging any employee. The employee may be suspended pending an investigation. When an employee is suspended pending investigation, he will be told the reason for the suspension, given an opportunity to state fully his position, and told that he will be contacted as soon as the investigation is completed.

On page 46 the manual expressly promises:

If the investigation reveals that you are not guilty of any dischargeable offense, you will be returned immediately to your job with pay for the time missed during the suspension. Emphasis in original.

The manual lists offenses which violate "acceptable standards of conduct for employees of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority." p. 47. These standards "are not intended to restrict the rights of individuals, but to protect and maintain the rights of all." The violations listed are "examples of undesirable or intolerable behavior but as such are not all inclusive since employees are expected to comply with the rules of common sense and decency."

An "Employee Grievance Procedure" begins on page 51 of the manual. p. 51. The procedure is available for employees who wish to process their complaints in a formal manner. It is not available to probationary, temporary, on-call or pool employees and is the exclusive means for processing formal employee grievances. Step I of the procedure consists of submitting a written complaint to the employee's supervisor. Step II is an appeal to the department representative of decisions made by the employee's supervisor. Step III involves submission of the grievance complaint to a representative of the executive director of the hospital. An employee dissatisfied with the executive director's decision may request a hearing before a "Step IV Committee" by filing the written grievance complaint with the director of employee relations. The Step IV Committee will hold a trial-type hearing at which the grievant and the hospital are both allowed to present three witnesses and to cross-examine the other party's witnesses. After the hearing the committee issues a decision on the complaint, which is forwarded to the hospital's executive director, "who shall either approve, reject or modify the decision." The executive director's decision "shall be final."

The events which gave rise to the adverse employment action against the plaintiff occurred on August 10, 1988. Plaintiff Baxter and his partner, Latricia Jones, responded to an emergency call. Baxter completed a report on the incident that he and his partner Jones both signed. Jones later informed her supervisors that the report was inaccurate and failed to state that Baxter had initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a patient at the scene and had then abandoned the effort without prior authorization from a physician.

After an investigation, plaintiff's supervisors concluded that Baxter had both initiated and discontinued life support procedures without authorization of a physician. Baxter contends that the investigation was conducted by the Medical Emergency Department (Clinic) under the direction of defendant Slovis. Slovis maintains that his involvement in the investigation was in his capacity as Medical Advisor to Grady's EMS and that the Medical Emergency Clinic had no involvement in the investigation. The record contains an intra-office communication from Theresa Little, Director of Training, to defendant Slovis as Medical Director of the Emergency Medical Services. Little requests that Slovis conduct an investigation of the incident from the "aspect of medical director as well as our legal liability standpoint." The communication is dated August 22, 1988.

Baxter was suspended from August 30, 1988 until September 2, 1988, when the investigation was completed. On September 2, plaintiff was notified that he was being discharged from his employment with the hospital authority for violating two standards of conduct set forth in the Personnel Policies and Practices Handbook of Grady Memorial Hospital. Plaintiff was charged with violating standard number one, which prohibits "falsifying any hospital record or giving false information for hospital records" and standard number five, which prohibits "sleeping on the job, neglecting your work, flagrantly loafing, or being either verbally or physically abusive towards patients or visitors."

Plaintiff appealed the decision to terminate him by filing a complaint under the employee grievance procedure set forth in the hospital personnel manual. He was given a hearing on October 6, 1988 before a "Step IV Committee." At the hearing both plaintiff and the hospital presented evidence, offered testimony and cross-examined witnesses. Defendant Slovis was not called as a witness. However, Mr. Rayford Hawkins, (non-medical) Director of Emergency Medical Services for the hospital, testified at the hearing that he had sought a medical opinion as to what had occurred from Dr. Slovis. Frank Bader, Operations Supervisor for the Ambulance Department, also testified for the hospital. He reported the results of his investigation which included interviews with all persons involved with the incident and a review of all documents, including the police report and trip report. Plaintiff's partner, Jones, was the hospital's third witness.

The committee found Jones's testimony lacking in credibility and decided that plaintiff's version of the event was more plausible. The committee determined that the hospital had failed to sustain its burden of proof that plaintiff had violated the hospital's standards of conduct. The committee concluded that plaintiff should be reinstated without loss of pay or benefits.

The personnel manual provides that the decision by the executive director to approve, reject or modify the committee's decision shall be final. Defendant Pinkston concurred with the committee's opinion and directed that it be implemented. After approving the decision on October 20, 1988, Pinkston contacted Baxter and told him to report for work on October 31.

Defendant Slovis sent a memo to Ray Hawkins, Director of Grady Emergency Medical Services, on October 26, 1988, notifying him that he would no longer function as the plaintiff's "medical control physician" and that Baxter could "no longer function under my medical license as a paramedic at Grady Memorial Hospital." When Baxter reported for work on October 31, he was told by Hawkins that he could not return to his job. Hawkins gave him a copy of Slovis' memo.

On November 1, plaintiff met with defendant Slovis in Hawkins' office at the hospital. Slovis informed Baxter that he was withdrawing his sponsorship because of the incident of August 10, 1988 and insisted that Baxter admit his mistake and undergo retraining before Slovis would sponsor him. Baxter insisted that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Step IV Committee. Slovis refused to let Baxter come back to work under Slovis' license.²

Defend...