Burton v. Cascade School Dist. Union High School No. 5

• Decision Date: 28 March 1975
• Docket Number: No. 73-1568,73-1568
• Citation: 512 F.2d 850
• Parties: 13 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 283, 9 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 9904 Peggy BURTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CASCADE SCHOOL DISTRICT UNION HIGH SCHOOL NO. 5 et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 850

512 F.2d 850

13 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 283, 9 Empl. Prac.

Dec. P 9904

Peggy BURTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CASCADE SCHOOL DISTRICT UNION HIGH SCHOOL NO. 5 et al Defendants-Appellees.

No. 73-1568.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

March 28, 1975.

Charles F. Hinkle (argued), Portland, Or., for plaintiff-appellant.

Robert W. DeArmond, Salem, Or., for defendants-appellees.

Before LUMBARD, ^* MERRILL and WRIGHT, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

This is an appeal by a non-tenured, homosexual schoolteacher from a district court order granting her damages and attorney fees for what was adjudged her wrongful dismissal, but refusing to reinstate her to her old position. We affirm.

Appellant Peggy Burton began to teach at Cascade High School in July 1970. She was in the second month of her second full year as a teacher of biology, earth sciences, ecology, consumer education, and business mathematics, and as supervisor and referee of girls' sports activities. The defendant Federico, the school principal, confronted her with information coming to him from the mother of a student that appellant was a homosexual. At a conference with Fredrico and, again at an appearance before a special school board meeting, appellant acknowledged that she was a "practicing homosexual."

At the meeting on October 18, 1971, a resolution was adopted suspending Ms. Burton upon "recommendation of the administration based on her admitting to be a homosexual." Later, allegedly on advice of counsel, the board revised its October 18 resolution to read:

Peggy Burton be dismissed and the contract terminated as a teacher in the district because of her immorality of being a practicing homosexual.

This was done in order that the dismissal might comply more closely with Ore.Rev.Stat. § 342.530(1)(b), which before its repeal in 1973 provided:

Dismissal of teachers. (1) During the period of the contract ... the district school board shall dismiss teachers only for:

(b) Immorality;

Plaintiff initiated this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking declaratory relief that defendants had violated her civil rights by their dismissal of her on account of her status as a practicing homosexual. She also sought damages and reinstatement to her teaching position. The district court sustained her claim that the dismissal was improper because section 342.530(1)(b), the statute upon which it was based, was unconstitutionally vague. However, the court limited its relief to an award of money damages amounting to the balance of her salary for the teaching year 1971-72, one-half of her salary for the following teaching year, and $750 for attorney fees and costs, along with an order that the school expunge from its board meeting records and personnel files all references to plaintiff's dismissal. The court refused to order reinstatement to the teaching position.

Plaintiff appealed the district court's refusal to order reinstatement, and defendants cross-appealed from the money judgments in plaintiff's favor. Heretofore, on November 13, 1974, we dismissed the cross-appeal for failure to file a brief within the time prescribed by rule, or at all.

This leaves only the question whether the district judge erred in refusing to order that the plaintiff be returned to her old position. In analyzing this question, we note that plaintiff had neither tenure, nor even sufficient seniority to qualify for consideration for a three-year contract after the school year ended, under Ore.Rev.Stat. § 342.508 (1971). Under Oregon law, her only "rights" respecting reemployment at the end of the 1971-72 school year, had the school board not wrongfully dismissed her during the period of her contract, would have been governed by Ore.Rev.Stat. § 342.513(1) (1974), which provides:

342.513 Renewal or nonrenewal of contracts for following year. (1) Each district school board shall give written notice by March 15 of each year to all teachers ... in its employ who are not under tenure or who are not eligible for a three-year contract under ORS § 342.508 of) the renewal or nonrenewal of the contract for the following school year. In case the district school board does not renew the contract, the material reason therefor shall, at the request of the teacher ..., be spread upon the records of the school district and the board shall furnish a statement of the reason for nonrenewal to the teacher .... If any district school board fails to give such notice by March 15, the contract shall be considered renewed for the following school year at a salary not less than that being received at the time of renewal.... ¹

Appellant was awarded the full salary she would have received for that part of her contract following her unlawful dismissal pursuant to an unconstitutional statute. We cannot say that the district judge abused his broad equitable discretion in not also ordering that Ms. Burton be allowed to return to her teaching post for a period at least equivalent to the unserved portion of her contract. ² The trial judge faced a difficult task of balancing the appellant's interest in completing her wrongfully terminated one-year contract against the disruption which he may have felt her reinstatement for a few months would inevitably cause to the school district, the school's staff, the student body, and the community in light of the long-standing nature of the controversy. ³

Reinstatement of wrongfully dismissed teachers has occasionally been required, without consideration of whether or not they were tenured. This extraordinary equitable remedy has commonly been imposed in factual situations involving racial discrimination, the special target of federal and state legislation (and of three constitutional amendments). See, e. g., Franklin v. County School Board, 360 F.2d 325, 327 (4th Cir. 1966) (where black teachers only were dismissed upon merger of two previously segregated schools, priority rehiring rights and damages were ordered due to the discriminatory pattern of the dismissals).

The other common factual situation in which reinstatement has been required involves the case in which dismissal appears to have been in reprisal for the legal exercise of free expression in a manner critical of the public employer. See Pred v. Board of Public Instruction, 415 F.2d 851 at 859 (5th Cir. 1969). Cf. Stewart v. Pearce, 484 F.2d 1031 (9th Cir. 1973).

However, even courts which have ordered reinstatement have nonetheless intimated that the appropriate remedy may be influenced by a careful weighing of all facts and circumstances. ⁴ On the facts presented in the case before us, we cannot say that an award limited to monetary damages was inadequate for a wrongful dismissal, under an unconstitutionally vague statute, of a nontenured teacher.

The common thread running through the cases in which reinstatement was directed after appellate review seems to be that such relief is necessary, not only to redress injury to the complainant but also to discourage school systems from taking similar action against other teachers in the future. As noted previously, we cannot say that plaintiff was denied adequate compensation for her claimed interests in finishing the school year. Nor can we say that the district judge erred in concluding impliedly that declaratory relief and damages would provide a sufficient deterrent to future board attempts to dismiss teachers serving annual appointments on the basis of "immorality."

Our holding is not inconsistent with Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). There, the Supreme Court suggested that a refusal to rehire a nontenured teacher on the basis of "immorality" would at least require a hearing at which the teacher had an opportunity to refute this charge which might stigmatize his reputation in the community. Here, Ms. Burton was given a hearing at which she freely admitted her homosexuality, and the district court repudiated the school board's attempt to justify its dismissal of her by characterizing this condition as "immoral." The basis for any possible stigma has been eliminated. ⁵

Appellant was granted full pay for the loss resulting from the wrongful termination of her one-year contract. And although the parties have stipulated that Ms. Burton was an "adequate teacher," we cannot say that her chances of reemployment were such as to warrant our finding the same type of "property interest" in reemployment which might require reinstatement of a tenured teacher, or one under longer-term contract with the district. ⁶ We hold only that, given the speculative nature of any expectation of reemployment appellant may have had, ⁷ the district judge's award of an additional half-year's salary (above and beyond the back pay award for the unserved portion of her original contract) seems generous, and well within the lower bounds of his remedial discretion.

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

LUMBARD, Circuit Judge (dissenting):

I dissent regarding the relief to which Ms. Burton is entitled.

Reinstatement is the appropriate remedy for an individual who has been removed from her job in violation of the Constitution. Most courts have not treated reinstatement as an "extraordinary equitable remedy." In fact, they have ordered reinstatement as a matter of course, even in cases involving nontenured teachers. See, e. g., Gieringer v. Central School District No. 58, 477 F.2d 1164 (8th Cir.) (reversing unpublished district court decision), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 832, 94 S.Ct. 165, 38 L.Ed.2d 66 (1973); Fisher v. Snyder, 476 F.2d 375 (8th Cir. 1973), affg. 346 F.Supp. 396 (D.Neb.1972); Rolfe v. County Board of Educ., 391 F.2d 77 (6th Cir. 1968), affg. 282 F.Supp. 192 (E.D.Tenn.1966); Johnson v. Branch, 364 F.2d 177 (4th Cir. 1966) (en banc) (reversing 242 F.Supp. 721 (E.D.N.Car.1965)), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 1003, 87 S.Ct. 706, 17 L.Ed.2d 542 (1967); Chase v. Fall Mountain Regional School Dist., 330 F.Supp....