Doody v. Town of N. Branford
| Decision Date | 24 September 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:11cv01306 (AWT).,3:11cv01306 (AWT). |
| Citation | 972 F.Supp.2d 281 |
| Parties | Michael DOODY, Plaintiff, v. TOWN OF NORTH BRANFORD, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
John R. Williams, Rose Longo–McLean, John R. Williams & Associates, LLC, New Haven, CT, for Plaintiff.
Alexandria L. Voccio, David S. Monastersky, Howd & Ludorf, LLC, Hartford, CT, for Defendant.
RULING ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Plaintiff Michael Doody (“Doody”) brings this action against defendant Town of North Branford (the “Town”) alleging that the Town deprived him of a constitutionally protected property interest without due process of law in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The Town has moved for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, the defendant's motion for summary judgment is being denied in part and granted in part.
Doody is the former Deputy Chief of Police for the Town, a former Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Town, and a member of the Town Council. As part of his responsibilities as Deputy Chief, Doody was in charge of preparing the annual budget for the North Branford Police Department (the “NBPD”). Once prepared, the budgetwould be reviewed by the Chief of Police and the Board of Police Commissioners (the “Commissioners”), and ultimately presented to the Town Council. The Town Council, including Doody in his capacity as Council member, considered the proposed budgets for all departments in the Town, and voted on motions approving or modifying these proposals.
In early 2011, Doody prepared the NBPD's 2011–2012 budget, as usual, and it was subsequently approved by the Chief of Police and the Commissioners. The draft budget included funding for all then-current NBPD positions, including Doody's own Deputy Chief position. On April 5, 2011, the Town Council reviewed the proposed NBPD budget and passed a motion “to refer to the Police Commission a question of how a $110,000 decrease in their budget could be applied and to [ask the Police Commission to] bring an explanation back to the Council” the following night. (Def.'s Ex. E.) Doody abstained from this vote, as it was his practice to abstain from votes that dealt with the police department payroll or that could affect his salary. Other than Doody's abstention, the vote to pass the motion was unanimous.
The next afternoon, April 6, 2011, the Commissioners held an emergency meeting to address the Town Council's motion and discuss how to implement the $110,000 budget reduction. At this meeting,
Chief [of Police] Canelli informed the Commission[ers] that there is no place in the budget for an amount of money of [that] magnitude to come from except from the ... full-time personnel account. The Chief and Commissioners looked through the budget and found that no other cuts could be made from the proposed 2011/2012 Police Budget except the full-time personnel account. The Chief informed the Commission that in addition to the salary shown in the budget for personnel positions, other monies would also be affected such as[:] medical benefits, pension contributions, clothing allowing [sic], longevity, etc. to reach the requested $110,000 budget cut.
(Deft.'s Ex. F.) The Commissioners unanimously passed a motion adopting the Chief's recommendation to eliminate $110,000 from the full-time personnel account, “if necessary.” Id. The Commissioners also noted that “they [were] not prepared to determine which personnel would be eliminated at [that] time.” Id.
That evening, Police Commissioner Dan Troiano reported the Commissioners' recommendation to the Town Council, which then passed a motion implementing the $110,000 cut from the NBPD full-time personnel account. Rather than abstain, Doody voted against this motion, but he was the only Town Council member to do so.
Faced with the mandate to reduce their personnel budget by $110,000, the Commissioners had to decide which officer or officers to layoff. In order to limit the impact on policing services provided to the Town, the “Commissioners considered eliminating a non-union position, which consisted of the Chief of Police and Deputy Chief” because
[a]n elimination of any position other than [those] ... would have resulted in the layoff of the two least senior members of the Police Department in accordance with the union agreement. Such loss of personnel would have directly, negatively impacted the provision of police services[, in the minds of the Commissioners,] because the two least senior members of the Police Department were officers directly patrolling the Town and responding to calls for service.
(Troiano Aff. (Deft.'s Ex. D) ¶ 10.) The Commissioners then requested that LieutenantDavid D'Ancicco survey the police departments in similar towns to determine how they were structured, and whether one of these positions could be eliminated without affecting policing services. Lieutenant D'Ancicco found that many comparable departments did not have a Deputy Chief, and were able to function effectively with only a Chief of Police.
On July 12, 2011, a notice announcing that a special meeting of the North Branford Police Commissioners would be held the next day was posted in the Town Hall. The notice did not state what topics the Commissioners would consider or what motions would be discussed. At this meeting, the Commissioners unanimously voted that “the $110,000 budget cut from the fulltime ... account shall be [accomplished through] the elimination of the Deputy Chief position effective July 14, 2011.” (Def.'s Ex. A.) Apart from the publicly posted notice announcing the meeting's general existence, Doody received no official communication from the Commissioners or the Town that a vote was taking place, or that his position was being considered for elimination. Doody was, however, told by a fellow officer about the vote while on vacation in Missouri. He received a call shortly before the July 13 meeting began, and his wife was able to attend the meeting, although Doody was not. The Commissioners sent official notice of the elimination of his position to Doody by hand-delivered letter on July 17, 2011.
Shortly after receiving this letter, Doody spoke with the North Branford Town Manager in order to protest his termination. He informed the Town Manager that he believed that his layoff “was wrong” and that the Town “could have [taken] different steps” to implement the budget cuts, and asked “how [he] could ... appeal [his] layoff.” (Doody Dep. (Deft. Ex. C) 58–60). Although the Town Manager informed Doody that “he would look into it ... [Doody] never heard anything back from him.” Id. at 58. Other than this conversation, Doody took no steps to appeal his layoff before filing the instant case.
Doody claims that the Town deprived him of his Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process by failing to provide him with a hearing both prior to and after eliminating his position. The Town contends that because Doody's position was eliminated as a result of budgetary issues, and not based on any charges against Doody, it was under no obligation to provide a pre- or post-termination hearing unless Doody specifically requested one.
A motion for summary judgment may not be granted unless the court determines that there is no genuine issue of material fact to be tried and that the facts as to which there is no such issue warrant judgment for the moving party as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322–23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Gallo v. Prudential Residential Servs., 22 F.3d 1219, 1223 (2d Cir.1994). Rule 56(c) “mandates the entry of summary judgment ... against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548.
When ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the court must respect the province of the jury. The court, therefore, may not try issues of fact. See, e.g., Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Donahue v. Windsor Locks Bd. of Fire Comm'rs, 834 F.2d 54, 58 (2d Cir.1987); Heyman v. Commerce & Indus. Ins. Co., 524 F.2d 1317, 1319–20 (2d Cir.1975). It is well-established that “[c]redibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of the judge.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505. Thus, the trial court's task is Gallo, 22 F.3d at 1224.
Summary judgment is inappropriate only if the issue to be resolved is both genuine and related to a material fact. Therefore, the mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment. An issue is “genuine ... if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505 (internal quotation marks omitted). A material fact is one that would “affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law.” Id. As the Court observed in Anderson: “[T]he materiality determination rests on the substantive law, [and] it is the substantive law's identification of which facts are critical and which facts are irrelevant that governs.” Id. Thus, only those facts that must be decided in order to resolve a claim or defense will prevent summary judgment from being granted. When confronted with an asserted factual dispute, the court must examine the elements of the claims and defenses at issue on the motion to determine whether a resolution of that dispute could affect...
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