Brack v. Budish

• Citation: 539 F.Supp.3d 794
• Decision Date: 17 May 2021
• Docket Number: Case No. 1:19-cv-1436
• Parties: Gary BRACK, Plaintiff, v. Armond BUDISH, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

539 F.Supp.3d 794

Gary BRACK, Plaintiff,

v.Armond BUDISH, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 1:19-cv-1436

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

Signed May 17, 2021

Ashlie Case Sletvold, Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway, Brian D. Bardwell, Jessica Smith Savoie, Subodh Chandra, Chandra Law Firm, Cleveland, OH, for Plaintiff.

Brendan D. Healy, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Christopher G. Keim, Lindsey Carr Siegler, Michael N. Chesney, Cleveland, OH, for Defendant Armond Budish.

Benjamin G. Chojnacki, R. Todd Hunt, Walter & Haverfield, Cleveland, OH, for Defendant Ken Mills.

Brendan D. Healy, Kenneth M. Rock, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Cleveland, OH, for Defendant Cuyahoga County.

D. Patrick Kasson, Steven A. Chang, Reminger Co., Columbus, OH, David R. Vance, Jon M. Dileno, Zashin & Rich, Cleveland, OH, for Defendants MetroHealth System, Akram Boutros, Jane Platten.

Brendan D. Healy, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Michael N. Ungar, Ulmer & Berne, Cleveland, OH, for Defendant Earl Leiken.

OPINION AND ORDER

J. Philip Calabrese, United States District Judge Plaintiff Gary Brack served as MetroHealth's interim director of nursing at the Cuyahoga County jail until removed from that position following answers to questions he provided to members of the Cuyahoga County Council at a public meeting in May 2018. He alleges that Defendants fired him in retaliation for these public comments. For seven weeks in 2018, during the events at issue, Defendant Earl Leiken served as the chief of staff to Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish. Plaintiff names Mr. Leiken as a defendant in his individual capacity. He moves for judgment on the pleadings on most, but not all, of the claims pending against him. For the reasons that follow, the Court GRANTS his motion.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

In the current procedural posture, the Court takes the following facts pled in the amended complaint as true. Also, the Court limits this statement of facts to those relevant to evaluating Plaintiff's claims against Mr. Leiken on this motion for judgment on the pleadings.

A. Run-Up to May 22, 2018

In 2015, MetroHealth hired Plaintiff Gary Brack, a registered nurse and medical-services administrator with 20 years’ experience, to manage its nursing operations for Cuyahoga County. (ECF No. 30, ¶¶ 34, 35, PageID #187.) In 2017, MetroHealth promoted Mr. Brack to interim director of ambulatory care for the Cuyahoga County jail. (Id. , ¶ 35.) In this capacity, Mr. Brack had responsibility for managing nursing services at the jail and all that entailed. (Id. , ¶ 36.)

On April 18, 2018, the amended complaint alleges that the County's budget director warned the County Executive, Mr. Leiken, and the County's fiscal director in an email of "a critical situation in the County Jail regarding nurses." (Id. , ¶ 5, PageID #182.) Specifically, she alerted them that "[t]he jail is rated for approximately 1,700—it is overcrowded, prisoners are sleeping on mats on the floor, and our population is disproportionately unhealthy. A shortage of nurses creates risk." (Id. ) Mr. Leiken responded to the email by thanking the budget director for the "heads up." (Id. )

By May 2018, according to the amended complaint, healthcare at the County jail was in a state of crisis. (Id. , ¶ 57, PageID #192.) Allegedly, Ken Mills, the County's Director of Corrections, blocked the hiring of nurses until the staffing situation reached a critical point. (Id. ) Mr. Mills made a "mission-critical request" of County Council for additional nurse staffing. (Id. ) This request prompted the Council's Public Safety Committee to hold a hearing to inquire of Mr. Mills and MetroHealth how matters had reached this point. (Id. )

MetroHealth designated its medical director, Dr. Thomas Tallman, to speak for the hospital. (Id. , ¶ 58.) Because he could not attend due to a conflict, Dr. Tallman worked with Mr. Brack to prepare testimony for the Council's Public Safety Committee. (Id. ) The night before the hearing, the two men sent an outline of planned remarks to Jane Platten, MetroHealth's chief of staff. (Id. ) According to the amended complaint, the chief of staff instructed Mr. Brack not to criticize the County in his remarks and not to speak without her advance permission. (Id. , ¶ 59.)

B. The Hearing of the County Council's Public Safety Committee

On May 22, 2018, the Public Safety Committee held a public hearing, which the amended complaint describes as follows. (See generally id. , ¶¶ 63–71, PageID #192–94.) Mr. Mills allegedly denied involvement in issues relating to the hiring of nurses and blamed staffing shortages on fiscal problems. (Id. , ¶ 63, PageID #192–93.) When the Chair of the Committee asked why the staffing issues at the jail had arisen, Mr. Mills allegedly demurred. (Id. , ¶ 65, PageID #193.) Not accepting this response, the Chair pressed the point and said, "If you're not willing to answer that's fine because I'll find out." (Id. ) Noting Dr. Tallman's absence, the Chair wanted to hear from someone with direct knowledge. (Id. )

According to the amended complaint, the Chair then directly asked Mr. Brack about staffing issues. (Id. , ¶ 67, PageID #194.) Mr. Brack responded that Mr. Mills had obstructed hiring and that working relationships were not good. (Id. ) In response to follow-up questions from the Chair, Mr. Brack acknowledged that financial issues were important, but not the entirety of the problem. (Id. ) Additionally, another member of County Council asked Mr. Brack to address relations with Mr. Mills on operations and security. (Id. , ¶ 70.) In response, Mr. Brack characterized Mr. Mills’ role as "problematic" and explained that Mr. Mills "exercised improper authority over medical services that compromised health and safety at the jail." (Id. ) In doing so, Mr. Brack provided his "personal opinion" about Mr. Mills’ "level of disrespect" for the sheriff, who had contractual responsibility for MetroHealth's provision of medical services at the jail. (Id. ; see also id. , ¶¶ 13 & 69.)

Allegedly, MetroHealth's chief of staff repeatedly interjected in these proceedings to minimize the role of Mr. Mills. (Id. , ¶ 69.) Further, the amended complaint alleges that the chief of staff took on the role of speaking for MetroHealth at the hearing and that she had assigned Mr. Brack a secondary role to help with questions relating to issues touching on technical operations at the jail. (Id. , ¶ 60.)

C. Events Following the Hearing on May 22, 2018

On the day after the hearing, the County Executive and Mr. Leiken drove to MetroHealth for an in-person meeting about Mr. Brack, according to the amended complaint. (Id. , ¶ 72, PageID #195.) There, they met with MetroHealth's chief executive officer and chief of staff and demanded Mr. Brack's termination. (Id. ) In an email on May 25, 2018 to the County Executive, copying Mr. Leiken and others, the amended complaint avers that MetroHealth's chief executive officer wrote: "As per your request for MetroHealth to immediately remove our Nurse Supervisor employee from the jail clinic, we have made the adjustment to our staffing model and as of May 28, 2018 the employee will no longer provide services at the jail clinic." (Id. , ¶ 73; ECF No. 30-2, PageID #230.) That same day, the amended complaint alleges that Mr. Brack was placed on administrative leave. (ECF No. 30, ¶ 74.) MetroHealth formally terminated Mr. Brack by letter dated August 29, 2018. (Id. , ¶ 92.)

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Based on these alleged facts, Plaintiff asserts twelve claims altogether, eight against Mr. Leiken. These claims against Mr. Leiken fall into three or four groups, depending on how one counts. Two allege causes of action under Section 1983 for conspiracy to violate civil rights (Claim 1) and First Amendment retaliation (Claim 2). All but one of the rest assert claims for civil liability for various criminal acts—interfering with civil rights, complicity, and obstructing official business—under Ohio law (Claims 6 through 9). Two assert civil liability for various criminal acts—retaliation and complicity—in the alternative (Claims 10 and 11). Finally, also in the alternative, Plaintiff alleges civil conspiracy to terminate Mr. Brack wrongfully (Claim 12). Plaintiff dismissed his claims against Mr. Leiken in his official capacity. (ECF No. 39; ECF No. 40.) Therefore, Plaintiff asserts each of the foregoing claims against Mr. Leiken in his individual capacity. Mr. Leiken moves for judgment on the pleadings on each of the State claims Plaintiff asserts against him.

ANALYSIS

"After the pleadings are closed—but early enough not to delay trial—a party may move for judgment on the pleadings." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c). A motion for judgment on the pleadings essentially constitutes a delayed motion under Rule 12(b)(6) and is evaluated under the same standard. See, e.g. , Anders v. Cuevas , 984 F.3d 1166, 1174 (6th Cir. 2021) ; Holland v. FCA US LLC , 656 F. App'x 232, 236 (6th Cir. 2016). Under that standard, a complaint must "contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ " Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). A complaint "states a claim for relief that is plausible, when measured against the elements" of the cause of action asserted. Darby v. Childvine, Inc. , 964 F.3d 440, 444 (6th Cir. 2020) (citing Binno v. American Bar Ass'n , 826 F.3d 338, 345–46 (6th Cir. 2016) ). To meet Rule 8's pleading standard, a complaint must plead "factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (citing Twombly , 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ). To state a claim, a complaint must "raise a right to relief above the speculative level" into the "realm of plausible liability."...