East Mississippi State Hosp. v. Callens

• Decision Date: 15 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 2000-CT-00258-SCT.,2000-CT-00258-SCT.
• Citation: 892 So.2d 800
• Parties: EAST MISSISSIPPI STATE HOSPITAL, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, Dr. Ramiro J. Martinez and Roger McMurtry v. Jimmy B. CALLENS.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

892 So.2d 800

EAST MISSISSIPPI STATE HOSPITAL, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, Dr. Ramiro J. Martinez and Roger McMurtry v. Jimmy B. CALLENS.

No. 2000-CT-00258-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 15, 2004.

Rehearing Denied February 17, 2005.

Office of the Attorney General by Lawrence Arthur Schemmel, attorney for appellants.

Mary Marvel Fyke, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

CARLSON, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. We are requested today in this appeal to revisit our prior decisions which require a state employee to exhaust certain statutorily mandated administrative remedies prior to invoking the judicial process which, pursuant to statute, provides for only limited judicial review based on the administrative record. In so doing we must consider the remedies available to a state employee who alleges that his termination from state employment was in retaliation for his lawful exercise of certain rights or for other improper reasons. The employee in this case sought relief through state administrative procedures, first through his former employer and then through the Employee Appeals Board (EAB). Upon receiving an adverse decision from the EAB hearing officer, the aggrieved employee did not appeal to the full Board pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 25-9-131, but instead filed an original action in state court and was awarded damages by a jury plus an award by the trial judge of attorneys' fees and expenses, as well as damages under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act (MTCA). In an effort to strictly adhere to our prior case law, a divided Court of Appeals reversed the jury verdict, and trial court judgment consistent therewith, and rendered judgment for the defendants, finding that the grievance procedure before the EAB was the exclusive remedy for a state employee to pursue claims based on violations of state or federal rights. We accepted the Court of Appeals' invitation to grant certiorari. Having now revisited the critical issues presented to us, and upon mature consideration, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and affirm in part and reverse and render in part the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY AND THE TRIAL COURT

¶ 2. In its opinion, the Court of Appeals provided the following statement of facts in this case:

Jimmy B. Callens was terminated from his state position as Program Director for the Adolescent Unit of the East Mississippi State Hospital prior to the end of his one-year probationary period. Callens, believing his termination to be unjustified, pursued his grievance through procedures set out in the Mississippi State Employee Handbook but was unsuccessful in obtaining any relief from the employing agency, the Mississippi State Department of Mental Health. His contention was that he was terminated for his efforts to correct, or at least expose, improper treatment of some of the patients by the hospital staff.

Callens perfected an appeal of his termination to the Employee Appeals Board, an arm of the State Personnel Board charged by statute with conducting de novo inquiries into adverse personnel actions when requested to do so by the affected state employee. Callens's appeal was dismissed by the hearing officer designated to conduct the hearing on motion of the employing agency. The agency's motion sought dismissal on the ground that Callens was a probationary employee who could be discharged at will, with or without cause, and thus was without any basis in fact to appeal his dismissal. The hearing officer dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, finding that under the Appeals Board rules, the only grounds on which a probationary employee could appeal his dismissal, were claims for various forms of discrimination that did not extend to First Amendment free speech claims. Callens did not appeal that decision to the full Employee Appeals Board. By his failure to do so, he likewise forfeited any right under the applicable statute to seek further review of that decision by way of an appeal to the judicial branch as authorized by Mississippi Code Annotated Section 25-9-132 (Rev.1999).

Instead, one year later, Callens filed this original action in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County in which he asserted a claim for damages advancing two alternate theories of liability. The first was that his termination was due to the exercise of his First Amendment right to speak out on matters of public concern, such a claim being actionable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994). Alternatively, Callens asserted that his firing was in retaliation for his reporting improper operations at East Mississippi State Hospital, thus making his termination actionable under Mississippi common law as an exception to the employee-at-will doctrine first recognized in McArn v. Allied Bruce-Terminix Co., 626 So.2d 603, 607 (Miss.1993).

The case proceeded to trial and the jury was instructed to deliberate Callens's claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994). The jury returned a verdict in favor of Callens in the amount of $125,000. The trial court, concluding that Callens's separate claim under McArn was cognizable under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, proceeded to determine that claim separately from the bench and awarded Callens an additional $50,000 in damages. Callens filed a post-verdict motion for attorney's fees and court expenses. The trial court granted such fees in the amount of $114,569.14.

East Miss. State Hosp. v. Callens, No.2000-CA-00258-COA, at ¶¶ 2-5 (Miss.Ct.App. Dec. 18, 2001). The following additional facts are likewise relevant. Jimmy B. Callens, Ph.D., was a probationary employee at the East Mississippi State Hospital (EMSH, or Hospital), and Dr. Ramiro J. Martinez was the Hospital director. Callens's duties largely involved working with adolescent girls who were confined for drug abuse or other asocial behaviors. After several months on the job, Callens felt that Martinez was not interested in reforming various deficiencies that Callens perceived in patient care and staff discipline, and he wrote to Roger McMurtry, Dr. Martinez's superior at the Mississippi Department of Mental Health (MDMH), outlining his complaints. Callens's immediate supervisor, Tom Elliott, held a conference with Callens in which he was highly critical of Callens for having gone over the heads of his immediate superiors, and four days later Callens was fired.

PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT OF APPEALS

¶ 3. After the circuit court jury verdict in favor of Dr. Callens, EMSH and the other state defendants, MDMH, Martinez, and McMurtry, appealed to this Court, and the case was assigned to the Court of Appeals. A divided Court of Appeals found that, under this Court's precedent, the grievance procedure before the Employee Appeals Board was the exclusive remedy for a state employee to pursue an action under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Also, the Court of Appeals found that this exclusive remedy applied to Callens even though he was a probationary employee. The Court of Appeals further found that judicial estoppel did not apply because the State had not argued that the Board lacked jurisdiction to hear Callens's claim; rather, the Board found that Callens had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Finally, the Court of Appeals found that, while this Court's decision in Hood v. Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation, 571 So.2d 263 (Miss.1990), left unanswered certain questions concerning the appropriate procedural guidelines to be utilized by a state employee attempting to pursue a § 1983 claim through the EAB process, as an intermediate appellate court it was duty-bound to follow Hood and its progeny.

¶ 4. The Court of Appeals' concurrence and dissent opined that United States Supreme Court decisions were controlling and mandated that Callens should be allowed to proceed as he had on his § 1983 claim in state court. The dissent further opined that this Court's decision in Hood was inconsistent with these United States Supreme Court decisions and was thus preempted.

DISCUSSION

¶ 5. Callens argues: (1) that requiring him to litigate his action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 through a state administrative remedy violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution; (2) that forcing him to seek relief from the alleged wrongdoer through the state administrative remedy also violates the Supremacy Clause; (3) that the state administrative remedy does not apply to him; and, (4) that the issue of punitive damages should have been submitted to the jury. The first three issues are combined and restated for clarity as follows:

I. WHETHER THE ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY PROVIDED TO CALLENS THROUGH THE EMPLOYEE APPEALS BOARD WAS HIS SOLE AVAILABLE REMEDY FOR AN ALLEGED 42 U.S.C. § 1983 CAUSE OF ACTION.

¶ 6. Callens asserts that the decision of the Court of Appeals was "grievously violative of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. ...." However, we unhesitatingly acknowledge that while expressing concerns about the perceived procedural quagmire wrought by our decision in Hood v. Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation, 571 So.2d 263 (Miss.1990), the Court of Appeals, while not unanimous in its decision, zealously adhered to the Hood pronouncements in reaching its decision. Likewise, Callens was not timid about his assessment of our decision in Hood. Callens's cert. petition also asserted that "Hood runs wholly afoul of the United States Supreme Court's pronouncements regarding state-promulgated rules and their application to [42 U.S.C.] § 1983 claims." We acknowledge the appropriateness of Callens's assertions consistent with the notions of fair and zealous advocacy.

¶ 7. Since our prior decision in Hood is the focus of today's appeal, we first review the facts in Hood and our pronouncements contained therein. Hood was terminated from his position with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation (DW...