Echevarria v. Gracia Anselmi

• Decision Date: 20 August 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 85-0997 (JAF).
• Citation: 642 F. Supp. 843
• Parties: Jose Ramon ECHEVARRIA, Plaintiff, v. Jose G. GRACIA ANSELMI, Former Administrator, Right to Employment Administration; Rafael Cordero, Administrator, Right to Employment Administration, and Juan Manuel Rivera Gonzalez, Secretary of the Department of Labor and Human Resources, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

642 F. Supp. 843

Jose Ramon ECHEVARRIA, Plaintiff, v. Jose G. GRACIA ANSELMI, Former Administrator, Right to Employment Administration; Rafael Cordero, Administrator, Right to Employment Administration, and Juan Manuel Rivera Gonzalez, Secretary of the Department of Labor and Human Resources, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Defendants.

Civ. No. 85-0997 (JAF).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

August 20, 1986.

Israel Roldán González, Aguadilla, P.R., for plaintiff.

Paul B. Smith, Jr., Saldaña, Rey, Moran & Alvarado, Santurce, P.R., for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND JUDGMENT

FUSTE, District Judge.

This is our second trial on discrimination cases related to Puerto Rico politics.¹ The case is the result of alleged civil rights and constitutional violations following the general elections held in this jurisdiction in November 1984.

Plaintiff Echevarria, a member of the New Progressive Party (PNP), the political party that lost the gubernatorial election to the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), and former Regional Director for the Ponce, Puerto Rico office of the Right to Employment Administration (REA), seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1979), against José G. Gracia Anselmi (Gracia), Rafael Cordero (Cordero), and Juan Manuel Rivera González (Rivera). Gracia served as Executive Director of REA for the period January 15 through March 31, 1985. Cordero is the incumbent Executive Director of REA. Defendant Rivera was the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Human Resources, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, at the times material to this suit.

REA is an administrative agency under the Department of Labor and Human Resources. It was created by virtue of local law in 1968 to promote the creation, by public and private employers, of employment opportunities, and to train and/or update training of those unemployed so as to make them candidates for potential employment. The Agency has its organic act, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29 secs. 1101-1152 (1968), known officially as the Right to Employment Act. REA's activities are supervised by a Consulting Board presided by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Human Resources. The Administrator of REA is appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico. P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29 sec. 1102 (1983).

Plaintiff Echevarria seeks relief against the defendants claiming that Gracia violated his civil rights when he was demoted from Regional Director to a career position as administrative assistant within the Agency.² It is a stipulated fact that Gracia separated/demoted plaintiff effective March 15, 1985 by letter delivered the same day, from his position as Regional Director to that of administrative assistant. Plaintiff's salary as Regional Director was $1,878 a month. His salary was decreased to $1,596. The parties further stipulated that codefendants Gracia and Cordero are members of the PPD. They further stipulate plaintiff's PNP status, as well as the fact that the Regional Director who replaced plaintiff, Mrs. Daisy Silvagnoli, is a member of the PPD. Defendants admit that Mrs. Silvagnoli is also a member of the Ponce Municipal Assembly, there representing the party in power, the PPD. Fine tuning plaintiff's claim, Echevarria asserts that his demotion to the position of administrative assistant was due solely to his political affiliation, in violation of the standards set out in Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976) and Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980).

The pretrial conference was held on January 28, 1986. On said occasion, we gave the parties a firm trial setting for July 28-30, 1986, trial commencing at 9:30 A.M. No objection was noted by the parties. On July 18, 1986, defendants filed a partial motion for summary judgment, requesting a pretrial determination of their qualified-immunity affirmative defense. Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), plaintiff was entitled to oppose within ten days. The opposition was filed July 28, 1986, at 9:45 A.M., just after the case had been called for trial. We refused to entertain the motion for summary judgment. Mindful of Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982) and De Abadía v. Izquierdo Mora, 792 F.2d 1187 (1st Cir. 1986), we balanced the interests to be protected by an early presentation in a summary judgment context of the qualified-immunity defense and the well-known rule that summary judgment motions are inappropriate on the eve of trial. It was obvious that trial was the alternative of choice.

Having considered the evidence received at trial, we enter our findings of fact and conclusions of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52. We find for plaintiff. His demotion was motivated by political considerations. Defendant Gracia and his successor Cordero, as the hiring authority, could not demonstrate that party affiliation was an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved. Branti, 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. at 1294. We further find that no objective good faith was exercised in demoting plaintiff. The forces which prompted plaintiff's demotion by Gracia and the subsequent discriminatory conduct by defendant Cordero did not reach the threshold of an objectivity test. They simply acted beset or impelled by an uncontrollable, unreasonable determination that those to be employed at REA were to be not only PPD members, but firm defenders of all the postulates of the PPD party platform. The demeanor and, thus, the nonverbal impact of the testimony of defendants Gracia and Cordero was that of a political obsession, a premeditated plan to clean the house. We further hold that, on this record, defendants are not entitled to that part of the benefits of the qualified-immunity defense which was not waived by the late filing of the motion for summary judgment. De Abadía, 792 F.2d at 1195 (immunity from damages by virtue of their qualified immunity, whatever the outcome of plaintiff's claim for restoration of his job with back pay). Objectivity, good faith and reasonability were lacking. Id. at 1193.

The Motion for Summary Judgment

The summary judgment mechanism contemplated by Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 is used to avoid a useless trial. It is a procedural device that makes possible the prompt disposition of controversies without a trial if in essence there is no real dispute as to the salient facts. Rule 56, seen in light of a qualified-immunity defense under Harlow and De Abadía, serves two purposes. The first purpose is of pretrial procedural economy. As stated in De Abadía, 792 F.2d at 1189, citing from Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985),

qualified immunity is more than immunity from money damages; it is "an immunity from suit ... which is effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial. Id. 105 S.Ct. at 2816.... This is so, the Court said, because, the "consequences" with which we were concerned in Harlow are not limited to liability for money damages; they also include "the general costs of subjecting officials to the risks of trial—distraction of officials from their official duties, inhibition of discretionary action, and deterrence of able people from government service. Id. at 2815 (quoting Harlow, ante, 457 U.S. at 816, 102 S.Ct. at 2737)."

The second purpose has been stated. It grants immunity from money damages.

Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), does not hold that the only procedural mechanism to bring before the court the defense of qualified immunity is Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. Harlow specifically holds that the issue of qualified immunity is properly raised as part of the defendant's affirmative defenses incorporated as part of that party's responsive pleading. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 815, 102 S.Ct. at 2736. Of course, Harlow and Mitchell, followed by De Abadía, encourage the parties to obtain a pretrial determination on the issue if the particular circumstances of the case allow framing the defense in the context of a motion for summary judgment. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 816-21, 102 S.Ct. at 2737-40; De Abadía, 792 F.2d at 1188-1190. This, of course, does not mean that a defendant can force the court and his opponent to entertain such motion on the eve of trial. Management Investors v. United Mine Workers, etc., 610 F.2d 384, 388-89 (6th Cir.1979). Here, the late filing did not save defendants time, expense, and exposure to the court. As a matter of fact, our pretrial conference notes show that defendants do not have an expense and/or exposure problem that could be measured in monetary terms. They have been afforded free legal representation and "liability insurance" coverage under Puerto Rico law, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 32 sec. 3085 (Supp.1975). These defendants are entitled to a subsidized defense with full indemnification for a potential damage award. De Abadía, 792 F.2d at 1203 (Torruella, J., dissenting). When the case is called for trial, as in this case, the trial becomes the best test of the rights of the movant and the defenses of the respondent. We see no reason to depart from this common-sense approach. The parties are entitled to their day in court. Both parties were afforded a just and speedy determination of all issues at the district-court level. Fed.R.Civ.P. 1; Wells v. Hico Independent School District, 736 F.2d 243, 251 n. 10 (5th Cir.1984).

The Facts

On February 1, 1977, plaintiff was appointed Regional Director, REA, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He held said position until November 16, 1979. On said date, plaintiff was appointed to the career service as REA's Regional Operations Coordinator. On November 15, 1980, permanent employee status was attained. On March 1, 1981, plaintiff was transferred and appointed to the exempt service as Regional Director, REA, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Subsequently, he was transferred to the same position at the Ponce office, where he...