Cornwell v. Ferguson

• Decision Date: 24 January 1977
• Docket Number: No. 75-2311,75-2311
• Citation: 545 F.2d 1022
• Parties: George W. CORNWELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Chester H. FERGUSON and D. Burke Kibler, III, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1022

545 F.2d 1022

George W. CORNWELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Chester H. FERGUSON and D. Burke Kibler, III, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 75-2311.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Jan. 24, 1977.

Michael L. Bryant, Gainesville, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.

John D. Carlson, Charles E. Miner, Jr., Tallahassee, Fla., James S. Quincey, Gainesville, Fla., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, and HILL and FAY, Circuit Judges.

FAY, Circuit Judge:

The questions before us are whether the district court properly abstained and stayed the action in federal court pending the disposition of a previously filed similar state court action and whether the state court's decision then constituted res judicata to warrant the federal court's granting the defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment. We find abstention and res judicata were proper, and therefore affirm.

Plaintiff had been notified that he would not receive tenure as an associate professor at the University of Florida and that his annual employment contract would not be renewed after a certain date. Plaintiff filed a petition for redress before the University's Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee alleging suppression of academic freedom, denial of constitutional rights of free speech, denial of due process, expectancy of continued employment, unconstitutionality and vagueness of tenure criteria, and denial of equal protection of the law. After providing the plaintiff a public adversary hearing which consumed 175 hours over a six month period and comprised thirty six volumes of transcript, the Committee reported its findings and made its recommendation to the president of the university. Based on the Committee's finding of no constitutional deprivation, the president decided not to renew plaintiff's employment or recommend him for tenure. Plaintiff sought review of the president's decision by the Board of Regents and the State Board of Education, but was denied such review and advised the decision of the president was the final administrative determination. ¹

Plaintiff then chose to petition the state district court of appeal for certiorari pursuant to Florida Statute § 120.31. ² Three months later plaintiff filed this action in federal district court, alleging similar causes of action. Upon defendant's motion, the district court stayed the proceedings in the federal court pending the outcome of the state proceedings. After reviewing the lengthy transcript and briefs and after hearing argument of counsel, the state appellate court denied the plaintiff's Petition for Writ of Certiorari, affirming the administrative decision and finding all of plaintiff's issues to be without merit. No further relief was sought nor appeal taken from the decision of the state appellate court. The parties then returned to the federal district court, which granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment based on res judicata.

In his appeal, plaintiff claims that the absence of special circumstances precluded the district court from abstaining in plaintiff's federal civil rights action; ³ that the scope of the proceedings, the burden of proof, the issues, and the parties in the federal action were different from the state court certiorari review action; and that plaintiff did not voluntarily and fully litigate his federal claims in state court when required to proceed there by the federal court.

Defendants submit that plaintiff's voluntary choice of the state forum precludes his later complaint of the decision of that forum.

It should first be noted that plaintiff was a non-tenured professor with no expectation of continued employment and there is no issue of property right involved. ⁴ All of the matters about which plaintiff complains in the federal forum were specifically raised before the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, which reviewed and ruled on them. The state district court of appeal then reviewed and ruled on them. The statutory review provided by Florida Statute § 120.31 was not similar to common law certiorari, but more akin to a regular appeal of right and a review of the complete administrative record. Plaintiff was afforded his full due process rights in that he had a hearing with notice, was represented by counsel, was allowed to present witnesses and evidence on his behalf and to cross-examine the opposing witnesses, and enjoyed the benefit of review of the committee's findings as adopted by the university president in a competent judicial forum. Due process does not require federal courts to get involved in every action alleging a federal constitutional or civil rights claim. State courts and other tribunals are fully competent to resolve such issues. Here the complaining party freely and voluntarily chose to first seek relief from the state court. This court has previously held that a state court judgment is conclusive as to all matters which were litigated or might have been litigated in the first action. Garner v. Louisiana State Board of Education, 489 F.2d 91 (5th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 830, 95 S.Ct. 53, 42 L.Ed.2d 55; Frazier v. E. Baton Rouge Parish School Board, 363 F.2d 861 (5th Cir. 1966).

The mere fact that an administrative-faculty committee conducted the initial proceedings, the results of which were reviewed by the university president, does not in any way in itself negate the validity or decrease the value of those proceedings; this Court has encouraged exactly this kind of procedure. See Megill v. Board of Regents of State of Florida, 541 F.2d 1073, 1077 (5th Cir. 1976), citing Bishop v. Wood, --- U.S. ----, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976); Blunt v. Marion County School Bd., 515 F.2d 951 (5th Cir. 1975); Shanley v. Northeast Independent School District, 462 F.2d 960 (5th Cir. 1972).

In England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 84 S.Ct. 461, 11 L.Ed.2d 440 (1964), chiropractors seeking to practice in Louisiana without complying with the educational requirements of the Louisiana Medical Practice Act brought an action against the Board of Medical Examiners in federal district court for an injunction and declaratory judgment that, as applied to them, the Act violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Invoking the doctrine of abstention, the three judge district court remitted the parties to the state courts for a determination of the applicability of the Act to chiropractors. The district court retained jurisdiction "for the just disposition of the litigation should anything prevent a prompt state court determination." 180 F.Supp. 121, 124 (D.C.La.1960). The chiropractors then brought proceedings in the state courts, unreservedly submitting, briefing, and arguing not only the state law question but also their Fourteenth Amendment claims, which were resolved against them. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld these decisions. The chiropractors then returned to a three judge federal district court which, upon defendants' motion, dismissed the case since the state court had ruled on all the issues. The chiropractors appealed directly to the United States Supreme Court which held that "if a party freely and without reservation submits his federal claims for decision by the state courts, litigates them there, and has them decided there, then whether or not he seeks direct review of the state decision in this Court he has elected to forgo his right to return to the District Court." 375 U.S. 411, 419, 84 S.Ct. 461, 467, 11 L.Ed.2d 440 (1964). ⁵ However, under the facts of the England case and in light of the reasonable misunderstanding arising from Government and Civic Employees Organizing Committee, CIO v. Windsor, 353 U.S. 364, 77 S.Ct. 838, 1 L.Ed.2d 894 (1957), the case relied on by the appellants and the district court, the Supreme Court was unwilling to apply this rule to the England case, and therefore reversed and remanded the case. 375 U.S. 411, 422, 84 S.Ct. 461, 11 L.Ed.2d 440.

In the instant case, not only did appellant freely and without reservation submit his federal claims for decision by the state court, ⁶ litigate them and have them decided there, but appellant actually proceeded first to the state courts on the same issues that he later raised in district court. Certainly this supports abstention by the district court even more so than in the England case where the complainants came directly and originally to the federal court.

Jennings v. Caddo Parish School Board, 531 F.2d 1331 (5th Cir. 1976), presented a situation very similar to...