Federico v. Bd. of Educ. of Public Schools
Decision Date | 23 January 1997 |
Docket Number | No. 96 Civ. 3515.,96 Civ. 3515. |
Citation | 955 F.Supp. 194 |
Parties | John FEDERICO, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF the TARRYTOWNS, Maureen Barbelet, President of the School Board, Laura Copeland, Mary McGee, Jimmy Warren, Gordon Ferguson, Joseph Lillis and Andre Valdespino, Trustees of the School Board, Donald R. Kusel, Superintendent of Schools, Susan K. Heiferman, Director of Instruction and Personnel, Carol Conklin, Principal of Sleepy Hollow High School, Theresa Waterbury, Assistant Principal, Sleepy Hollow Middle School, and Samuel Ralabate, Chairman Fine Practical and Performing Arts of Sleepy Hollow High School, Defendants. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Monroe Yale Mann, Port Chester, NY, for Plaintiff.
Marcia B. Paul, Kay Collyer & Boose L.L.P., New York City, Robert Lefland, Tarrytown, NY, for Defendants.
John Federico brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Board of Education of the Public Schools of Tarrytowns ("the Board"), the Board's members, and certain officials of the Sleepy Hollow Middle and High Schools ("Sleepy Hollow"). Federico contends that immediately before and after the termination of his employment as a music teacher, several of the individual defendants made defamatory remarks that deprived him of his liberty without due process of law and violated his First Amendment free speech rights and right to assembly. Federico also asserts that the statements constitute defamation under New York state law, a claim over which this Court has supplemental jurisdiction.
Presently before this Court is defendants' motion for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. For the reasons stated below, defendants' motion is granted.
In September 1994, John Federico was employed by the public schools of the Tarrytowns School District ("the District") in the Village of North Tarrytown, New York ("the Village") as a first year probationary music teacher. On April 12, 1995, defendant Donald Kusel, the Superintendent of Schools in the Village, notified Federico that at the Board's upcoming meeting he would recommend the termination of Federico's employment. The Board subsequently accepted Kusel's recommendation and, on May 25, 1995, voted not to renew Federico's employment contract for the following school year.
Federico's claims in this action arise out of statements that were made by four of the individual defendants immediately before and after the Board's decision and relate to the reasons for the Board's decision not to renew Federico's employment contract. Those statements, the substance of which defendants do not contest for the purposes of this motion, are as follows.
On April 28, 1995, defendant Carol Conklin, Principal of Sleepy Hollow, in the presence and hearing of approximately sixteen students, stated,
On May 26, 1995, defendant Laura Copland, a member of the Board, stated, in the presence of a number of seventh grade students, "If you knew what we know about Mr. Federico, you wouldn't be supporting him, you wouldn't want to be in the same room with him."
Also on May 26, 1995, defendant Theresa Waterbury, Assistant Principal of Sleepy Hollow, in the presence and hearing of student Sandra Texeira, spoke the following words: Later that day, Waterbury, in the presence of a student, stated, "Mr. Federico has done something very wrong that the students would not want to know, and if they knew the reason why, they would have fully agreed with the school board decision."
On May 28, 1995, Kusel, in the presence and hearing of Celeste Buzzeo, the parent of a student, stated,
In June 1995, Federico appealed the Board's decision to terminate his probationary employment to the New York State Department of Education. During that appeal, Federico alleged that the remarks made were slanderous and sought a name-clearing hearing. The Commissioner of Education denied both the appeal and hearing request.
In March 1996, Federico commenced an action against the defendants in the New York Supreme Court, Westchester County. The complaint set forth state law claims of defamation, as well as claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for deprivation of constitutional rights under the Fourteenth and First Amendments. On May 10, 1996 defendants, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b), removed the action to this Court, and shortly thereafter moved to dismiss, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), for failure to state a cause of action. In addressing the merits of the motion, the parties submitted documents and exhibits external to the pleadings. Thus, on September 18, 1996, this Court, with the agreement of all parties, converted the motion into one for summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56.
Under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, "a motion for summary judgment must be granted if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The moving party must initially satisfy a burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323-25, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-54, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); see also Gallo v. Prudential Residential Servs. Ltd., 22 F.3d 1219, 1223 (2d Cir.1994). The burden then shifts to the nonmoving party to come forward with "specific facts, showing that there is a genuine issue of fact for trial," Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e), by a showing sufficient to establish the existence of every element essential to the party's case, and on which the party will bear the burden of proof at trial. The Court cannot try issues of fact, but can only determine whether there are issues to be tried. Donahue v. Windsor Locks Bd. of Fire Com'rs, 834 F.2d 54, 58 (2d Cir.1987). When making that determination, the Court is to inquire whether there is "sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a jury to return a verdict for the party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510-11, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
In deciding whether a genuine issue of material fact exists, "the court is required to draw all factual inferences in favor of the party against whom summary judgment is sought." Ramseur v. Chase Manhattan Bank, 865 F.2d 460, 465 (2d Cir.1989). A genuine issue, however, "is not created by a mere allegation in the pleadings ..., nor by surmise or conjecture on the part of the litigants." United States v. Potamkin Cadillac Corp., 689 F.2d 379, 381 (2d Cir.1982) (citations omitted). Accordingly, a party may not rely on such speculation or conjecture as to the true nature of facts to overcome a motion for summary judgment. Knight v. United States Fire Ins. Co., 804 F.2d 9, 12 (2d Cir.1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 932, 107 S.Ct. 1570, 94 L.Ed.2d 762 (1987).
In order to allege a violation of his due process rights, Federico must establish that he has suffered a deprivation of a constitutionally protected liberty interest or property interest. See Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 570-71, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705-06, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972), holding limited by Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976); Gagliardi v. Village of Pawling, 18 F.3d 188, 193 (2d Cir.1994). If the interest he asserts is not of a constitutional dimension, then his arguments must fail. Roth, 408 U.S. at 570-71, 92 S.Ct. at 2705-06. Here, Federico does not contend that the statements deprived him of any property interest1 but alleges instead that he was deprived of a liberty interest without due process as a result of defendants' defamatory statements.
Defamation alone, however, does not constitute a deprivation of a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause. See Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 701, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1160-61, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976); Martz v. Incorporated Village of Valley Stream, 22 F.3d 26 (2d Cir.1994). Our Court of Appeals has interpreted Paul to require that some "stigma plus" be established before mere defamation will rise to the level of a constitutional deprivation. Martz, 22 F.3d at 31. That is, the damage arising from the defamation must be accompanied by a significant deprivation of an interest protected by state or federal law, or by an alteration of legal status. See Paul, 424 U.S. at 708-09, 96 S.Ct. at 1164; Valmonte v. Bane, 18 F.3d 992, 1000 (2d Cir.1994). In the context of a state employer's decision not to rehire an employee, that "plus" is established where it deprives the employee of the freedom to take advantage of other employment opportunities without the requisite due process protections. See Donato v. Plainview-Old Bethpage Cent. Sch. Dist., 96 F.3d 623, 630 (2d Cir.1996); O'Neill v. City of Auburn, 23 F.3d 685, 691 (2d Cir.1994); Quinn v. Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corp., 613 F.2d 438, 446 (2d Cir.1980). Furthermore, where the statements impinge on the employee's professional competence, stigmatization giving rise to a cause of action requires "something considerably graver than a charge of failure to perform a particular job, lying within the employee's power to correct." O'Neill, 23 F.3d at 692; Donato, 96 F.3d at 630; Russell v....
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