Downes v. Beach

• Decision Date: 30 November 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77-1535,77-1535
• Citation: 587 F.2d 469
• Parties: Sylvia DOWNES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Marguerite BEACH and Robert Doty, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 469

587 F.2d 469

Sylvia DOWNES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Marguerite BEACH and Robert Doty, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 77-1535.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Submitted Sept. 28, 1978.

Decided Nov. 30, 1978.

Paul A. Baca, Denver, Colo., for plaintiff-appellant.

Samuel Berman and Harry R. Sayre of Adams & Sayre, Denver, Colo., for defendants-appellees.

Before McWILLIAMS, McKAY and LOGAN, Circuit Judges.

LOGAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered in a suit commenced under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Allegations were that plaintiffs, including Sylvia Downes, had been discharged from their employment as nurses by the Las Animas-Huerfano Counties Health Board for exercise of their First Amendment rights. The trial court granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of defendants-appellees Marguerite Beach and Robert L. Doty, the responsible supervisory officers, and against Ms. Downes.

The only question on appeal is the appropriateness of the grant of the motion for summary judgment under the circumstances of this case.

Downes and the other plaintiffs had been employed as nurse practitioners by the Las Animas-Huerfano Counties Health Department in its Children and Youth Project in Trinidad, Colorado for several years. Conflicts arose between these nurses and their supervisors over the working conditions and administration of the project. In a letter dated March 14, 1975, signed by several employees, including Downes, a "sick out" and mass resignations were threatened if certain demands were not met. The other nurse plaintiffs participated in a "sick out" on March 26 and 27, 1975, and were fired. In an action they brought in the federal district court five other nurse plaintiffs received jury verdicts totalling $4,550 against defendants Beach and Doty. Responding to a motion for new trial the court found that the "sick out" was not constitutionally protected free speech, and entered judgment n. o. v. dismissing those plaintiffs from the case. They have not appealed.

Ms. Downes, not an original plaintiff, was allowed to join that suit after it was commenced. The jury brought in a verdict in her favor for a total of $14,000 against Beach and Doty. The court granted a motion for new trial on the Downes claim, stating that although she was absent from work on the "sick out" days she had testified that she had obtained actual sick leave authorization, had a doctor's appointment, and missed work until April 21, 1975 because of emergency surgery. The judge said it was not clear from the record whether she had resigned upon discovery that her co-workers had been fired, or had been dismissed. Then the order stated:

Beside the fact that it is not clear whether Sylvia Downes resigned or was dismissed, the First Amendment issue remains viable only in her case. This fact is of greater significance to our decision to grant her a new trial. If she did not participate in the "sick out," we cannot hold as a matter of law that Defendants dismissed her for a constitutionally permissible and sufficient reason. The jury was told that they need only find that the termination of Plaintiffs was based in part upon constitutionally impermissible reasons. Assuming that Sylvia Downes was dismissed for constitutionally impermissible reasons, it might have been that there also existed sufficient and constitutionally neutral reasons for her dismissal.

Thereafter defendants-appellees filed a motion for summary judgment against Ms. Downes supported by an affidavit of the project director, various exhibits and a brief. The exhibits showed Ms. Downes as a signer of the March 14, 1975 letter threatening the "sick out" and resignation; she had applied in February for annual and educational leave to attend a high school reunion and human sexuality workshop during the period March 26 through April 4, 1975; and defendant Beach on March 24, had denied all leave requests because of staffing problems.

Exhibits also included a March 28, 1975 letter from Beach and Doty to Downes indicating they accepted her verbal resignation, and were requesting the Colorado Department of Health to terminate her employment. The letter cited absences without proper notification as the reasons for the requested termination. Joan Truby, Director of Public Health Nursing, Colorado Department of Health, also sent a letter (Exhibit 5) to Downes, dated March 28, indicating possible disciplinary action due to improper absences. On April 24, 1975, Downes wrote to the Colorado Department of Health (with copies sent to Beach and Doty) and indicated that she considered herself constructively dismissed (Exhibit 6). A similar letter to Joan Truby was dated May 5, 1975 (Exhibit 7). The final document was a referee's decision of the Colorado Labor Department finding Ms. Downes had been constructively discharged and granting her full award benefits (Exhibit 8).

In response Downes submitted an affidavit declaring simply that she did not voluntarily resign, that she was forced into submitting a letter of separation by the action of the defendants, and that she would not have resigned but for the actions defendants took which indicated they no longer wanted her to work in their agency.

Following this exchange the trial court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment. The key portion of its order was as follows:

Assuming that Plaintiff was wrongfully discharged, as found by the Referee, Defendants contend that they violated no First Amendment rights of Plaintiff.

That is the critical issue of this case. See Mt. Healthy City School District Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 45 U.S.L.W. 4079, 4082 (429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471) (Jan. 11, 1977). Plaintiff has set forth no facts to indicate that she was dismissed in violation of her First Amendment rights.

The instant situation is not one where there is a contractual right to continued employment, nor where the individual has tenure rights guaranteed under the state or federal law. We agree that the case is controlled by Mt. Healthy City School Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977), decided just two weeks before the trial court order granting the new trial to Ms. Downes. Mt. Healthy involved an untenured school teacher whose contract had not been renewed. The teacher had been involved in several disruptive incidents at school, and most recently had released to the local radio station the school principal's memorandum on teacher dress and appearance.

The Court held that a three-step process should be used to determine if the teacher's constitutional rights had been violated. The burden is on the plaintiff to show, first, that his or her conduct is constitutionally protected, and second, that the conduct was a substantial or motivating factor in his dismissal. Third, if the plaintiff satisfies this...