Brown v. Brienen

• Decision Date: 10 November 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-3277.,80-3277.
• Parties: John BROWN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Steve BRIENEN, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Central District of Illinois

553 F. Supp. 561

John BROWN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Steve BRIENEN, et al., Defendants.

No. 80-3277.

United States District Court, C.D. Illinois, Springfield Division.

November 10, 1982.

John A. Beyer, Satter, Ewing & Beyer, Pontiac, for plaintiffs.

William A. Allison, Bane, Allison & Saint, P.C., Bloomington, for defendants.

ORDER

J. WALDO ACKERMAN, Chief Judge.

I.

On July 12, 1977, the McLean County Board adopted a personnel policy. The personnel policy, under a section titled Compensatory Time Off, states:

Employees who work more than thirty-seven and one-half hours in a given work week or work on a county holiday may be granted time off in an amount equal to the overtime worked.

Plaintiffs' ex. C. John King was sheriff when the County Board passed this policy. The sheriff's informal records indicate that deputies were not taking their accumulated compensatory time.

In December of 1978, Defendant Brienen became Sheriff of McLean County. He adopted a more formal policy to provide for compensatory time off. He instructed the deputies to keep records of their overtime, and placed restrictions on when the deputies could take compensatory time off. Defendant Brienen established minimum staffing levels for the sheriff's department. Because of the minimum staffing levels and the County Board's unwillingness to fund additional staffing, the sheriff was unable to give all the accumulated compensatory time. Thus, Plaintiffs accumulated large amounts of compensatory time.

Plaintiffs filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, 1986, alleging a deprivation of property without due process of law and a denial of equal protection of laws. Plaintiffs sought monetary damages, injunctive relief, and attorney fees. This Court, in the first part of a bifurcated trial, held for Plaintiffs on the issue of liability.

Later, on July 2, 1982, relying on Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), this Court vacated its order holding Defendants liable. This holding was not based on a changed view that Plaintiffs had not been deprived of a property right, i.e. their compensatory time off, but rather, since the state provides an adequate remedy to Plaintiffs to recover whatever compensatory time off is due them, there has not been a deprivation without due process. Plaintiffs, pursuant to Fed.R. Civ.P. 59, have filed a motion for modification of judgment. They contend that this Court's reliance on Parratt was incorrect. Defendants have filed a brief in opposition to this motion.

Because the Court believes the State of Illinois provides sufficient process to Plaintiffs, it denies the motion for modification of judgment.

II.

This motion presents a question concerning the construction of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment provides, in part:

Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....

The dispute in this motion revolves around the question of what constitutes due process of law. The construction of this simple sounding phrase is not free from difficulty or dispute. See, e.g., Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961). The legislative history of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 has been labeled inconclusive, id. at 193, 81 S.Ct. at 487 (Harlan, J., concurring), and the courts' interpretations are somewhat contradictory.¹Compare Monroe v. Pape, supra, with Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981).

Plaintiffs assert that the government has deprived them of a property interest. This property interest, however, is in the nature of a contract whether the contract be express or implied. Therefore, the substantive injury in this case was a breach of contract. If the breach had been committed by someone other than a governmental entity, the facts would not raise a constitutional question. Since the County has breached the contract, Plaintiffs assert they were denied due process of law. Plaintiffs could have filed their breach of contract action in an Illinois Circuit Court and sought appropriate relief. Thus, the focus must be on the due process required where an agency of government has breached a contract.

It is important to note exactly what comprises due process. As the court in Ingraham v. Wright explained:

Due process, unlike some legal rules, is not a technical conception with a fixed context unrelated to time, place and circumstances.... Representing a profound attitude of fairness ... `due process' is compounded of history, reason, the past course of decisions, and stout confidence in the strength of the democratic faith which we profess....

430 U.S. 651, 675, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 1414, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977) (quoting Anti-Fascist Comm. v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, 162-63, 71 S.Ct. 624, 643-44, 95 L.Ed. 817 (1951) (Frankfurter, J., concurring)). Rather than looking to one technical rule, an analysis of due process should look to a number of different factors. The factors usually examined are: one, the private interest that will be affected; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation, and the likely value of additional or substitute safeguards; and, three, the state interest involved. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 903, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). An examination of the state interest should include the functions involved, and the fiscal and administrative burdens entailed by the different procedural safeguards. The courts have consistently noted that at some point the societal value of additional procedures is outweighed by the cost. Id. at 348, 96 S.Ct. at 909.

Here, as previously stated, in my opinion Plaintiffs have been deprived of a property interest. Generally, due process requires greater procedures when liberty interests are implicated as opposed to property interests. Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U.S. 134, 178-79 n. 6, 94 S.Ct. 1633, 1656 n. 6, 40 L.Ed.2d 15 (1974) (White, J., concurring and dissenting); Kimbrough v. O'Neil, 523 F.2d 1057, 1065 (7th Cir.1975) (Stevens, J., concurring). In fact, "where only property rights are involved, mere postponement of the judicial enquiry is not a denial of due process, if the opportunity given for ultimate judicial determination of liability is adequate." Parratt v. Taylor, supra, 451 U.S. at 540, 101 S.Ct. at 1915 (quoting Mitchell v. W.T. Grant Co., 416 U.S. 600, 611, 94 S.Ct. 1895, 1902, 40 L.Ed.2d 406 (1974)). Plaintiffs do not contest the adequacy of the postdeprivation procedures offered by the State of Illinois, and it appears that the state offers plaintiffs a fair opportunity for a judicial determination of liability.

The second prong of the Eldridge test is the risk of erroneous deprivation of the plaintiffs' interest. Recent cases, including Parratt, indicate that a subsequent hearing may satisfy this requirement. The Court's approach is functional and the risk of erroneous deprivation, of necessity, is tied to the adequacy of the hearing. Ellis v. Hamilton, 669 F.2d 510 (7th Cir.1982). The fundamental requirement of a hearing that complies with due process is an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. Parratt, supra, 451 U.S. at 540, 101 S.Ct. at 1915 (quoting Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. 545, 552, 85 S.Ct. 1187, 1191, 14 L.Ed.2d 62 (1965)). Accord, Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 429, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 1154, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982). Plaintiffs have not contended, and most likely could not contend, that they were denied the opportunity to have a meaningful hearing. This hearing, to be meaningful, must come before an individual is finally deprived of a property interest. Logan, supra, at 430, 102 S.Ct. at 1155; Parratt, supra, 451 U.S. at 540, 101 S.Ct. at 1915; Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at 333, 96 S.Ct. at 902.

The timing and nature of the required hearing depends on an accommodation of the competing interests. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 579, 95 S.Ct. 729, 738, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975). It cannot be said that plaintiffs' property interest in compensation for overtime is of paramount importance. In this case it appears the State of Illinois has provided procedures tailored "to the capacities and circumstances of those who are to be heard." Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at 349, 96 S.Ct. at 909 (quoting Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 268-69, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 1020-21, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970)). The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires no more.

The third prong of Eldridge examines the effect of the procedural safeguards on fiscal and administrative functions. To require a predeprivation hearing every time a government official's action or inaction might breach a contract, would create a heavy burden on the operation of government. It is doubtful that the drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment intended such a result. Cf. Parratt, supra, 451 U.S. at 544, 101 S.Ct. at 1917. While fiscal considerations are not the sole touchstone of procedural due process questions, any fiscal consideration will weigh heavily against Plaintiffs' cause.

Thus, this is a case where Plaintiffs have been temporarily denied a property interest and have an opportunity for an adequate hearing at a meaningful time. Since an analysis of the competing interests favors a postdeprivation remedy, Plaintiffs fail all prongs of the Eldridge test. Therefore, they were not deprived of their due process rights.

Recent cases support this Court's ruling that Defendants did not violate Plaintiffs' constitutional right to due process of law. In Parratt v. Taylor, supra, the Court held that a negligent tort injury, committed by state officials acting under color of law, did not constitute a deprivation of property without due process of law where there was an adequate, postdeprivation opportunity for an ultimate judicial determination of liability. The Parratt majority relied, in part, on the practical difficulty of having the state provide a hearing before the...