Ferguson v. Thomas

Citation430 F.2d 852
Decision Date13 August 1970
Docket NumberNo. 28227.,28227.
PartiesWilliam C. FERGUSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Alvin I. THOMAS et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Sam Houston Clinton, Jr., Clinton & Richards, Austin, Tex., for appellant.

Jack Sparks, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Texas, Crawford C. Martin, Atty. Gen. of Texas, Nola White, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Pat Bailey, Executive Asst. Atty. Gen., J. C. Davis, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., for appellees.

Before THORNBERRY, DYER and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Circuit Judge:

The District Court denied relief to Dr. William C. Ferguson after a plenary trial of his claims that the defendant officials of Prairie View A. & M. College terminated his employment as an instructor and refused to approve his off-campus residence hall for student use because he exercised rights of expression and association protected by the Federal Constitution. He also alleged that the procedures followed in effectuating his termination denied him due process of law.1 Finding no violation of any right cognizable by the court below as to the termination of his employment, we affirm that court's final judgment insofar as it dismissed that claim. However, the trial court did err in ruling on the basis of nonjoinder of a local party, that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on the claim related to the College's refusal to approve Dr. Ferguson's off-campus student residence. We reverse and remand as to that issue.

TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT

Dr. Ferguson came to Prairie View A. & M. College, an institution in the Texas A. & M. University System, in September of 1958 as head of the Department of Business Administration, with an educational background which included a Ph.D. in Business Administration and prior teaching experience. He remained in this position until 1965, when he ceased to be head of the department but continued to teach in the department as a full professor. No instructor or administrator at Prairie View A. & M. College had tenure in the technical sense of that term. Contracts of employment were made annually on either a nine or twelve-month basis. Decisions to offer continued employment to personnel already on the college's staff were based upon the recommendations of the instructor's senior faculty members and the Dean and President of the college, and were subject to the final approval of the Board of Directors of the Texas A. & M. University System under Art. 26131. Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Anno. Subsection 6 of this same statute vested authority in this Board to make such by-laws, rules and regulations as it deemed necessary for the proper government of the college and its faculty.

At the time this alleged cause of action arose the applicable rules and regulations of the Texas A. & M. University System provided that "officials, teachers and employees shall be appointed by the respective executive in charge (of each institution), subject to confirmation by the Board of Directors. Officials, teachers and other employees shall be subject to dismissal for cause at any time by the Board of Directors or by the executive in charge, subject to review by the Chancellor (of the Texas A. & M. University System) and the confirmation of the Board of Directors." No procedures were specified for such appointment, confirmation, dismissal or review. No mention whatever was made of the subject of administrative determinations not to offer renewal or consecutive contracts of employment within the System.

A number of irritations, disagreements and disputes between Dr. Ferguson and the college administration manifested themselves during the course of the 1966-1967 school term. These matters reached a high point in a mid-April 1967 confrontation which occurred the day after Dr. Ferguson took one of his Business Law classes from its regularly assigned classroom space to the campus auditorium to enable students to discuss campus grievances with several of the members of a teacher-student organization. The President of Prairie View College, Dr. A. I. Thomas, called Dr. Ferguson to his office and, in the presence of a number of administrative and faculty personnel and two students he had gathered for the occasion, he served upon Dr. Ferguson a document containing fifteen "guidelines" relating to performance of his duties as an instructor. No copy of this document had been served on Dr. Ferguson before he reached the meeting. After allowing him to read it and to make a brief objection, the meeting was dismissed. A sixteenth point in the "guidelines" placed Dr. Ferguson on temporary probation for the balance of his contract teaching period. The "guidelines" were specifically applicable to Dr. Ferguson and were not applicable to any other instructor at the college.

On July 15, the Dean of his college department notified Dr. Ferguson that "* * * beginning September 1, 1967 we are terminating your services to the college." When Dr. Ferguson challenged the correctness of this unreasoned notice, President Thomas at first advised him by letter that college policy permitted his services to be terminated without cause on thirty days notice. The President noted his agreement with the termination in the same letter. President Thomas then discovered that his termination without cause statement was in error under the prevailing practices of the University System. Therefore, on the next day he dispatched a more lengthy letter to Dr. Ferguson which set out and detailed three reasons for the termination of his services. The reasons given were: (1) the dispute between Dr. Ferguson and the head of the Business Administration Department relative to making that department into a separate school of the college hampered proper operation of the department, (2) the use of classroom periods for discussions with students unrelated to the subject matter required to be taught resulted in inferior instruction, (3) the limitations of Dr. Ferguson's health. The record developed in the trial court demonstrated that at the time of this letter President Thomas had before him factual support for each of the three reasons.

Dr. Ferguson requested a hearing on his termination before the Board of Directors of the Texas A. & M. University System and asked that the head of his department and his college dean be present at the meeting. The Board advised Dr. Ferguson that they would hear him but would not hear from the department head or dean until after he had presented his case. On the day appointed, President Thomas and Dr. Ferguson appeared before the Board of Directors. President Thomas outlined the reasons why Dr. Ferguson was not offered another contract of employment. These were the same three reasons set out in his detailed letter. After this statement was made Dr. Ferguson was given the opportunity to make a response and to give such explanation as he cared to make to the Board, which he proceeded to do. Approximately a week later, and without hearing from the department head or dean, the Board wrote Dr. Ferguson: "The Board of Directors considers this to be an administrative matter to be handled by President Thomas and President Rutter (the President of the University System)." Dr. Ferguson was not reemployed.

The court entered no formal findings of fact or conclusions of law, but at the conclusion of the proof, dictated a statement into the record. In substance, the court found: Dr. Ferguson was not on tenure, the 15-point guideline and temporary probation document put Dr. Ferguson on notice that his activities were not in keeping with college administrative policies, Dr. Ferguson was given the opportunity to speak at the meeting where these guidelines were laid down, Dr. Ferguson received formal notice that he would not be reemployed, Dr. Ferguson received the equivalent of a hearing in the sense that he was presented with the complaints against him and afforded an opportunity to speak in response to these complaints at the faculty, administrative and university board levels; and, on these findings the court concluded: that it did not need to reach a decision on the merits as to whether Dr. Ferguson was a competent teacher, and, that Dr. Ferguson had been deprived of no constitutional right because the procedures applied to him met the fundamental rudiments of fair play.

At the threshold we must determine Dr. Ferguson's legal relationship to Prairie View College and the University System. It is admitted that he was employed for a limited period of time, that that time period expired and no new contract for subsequent employment was tendered to him. It is also admitted that he had no tenure, and thus no right to additional employment. Pred v. Board of Public Instruction, 415 F.2d 851 (5th Cir. 1969). But a college can create an obligation as between itself and an instructor where none might otherwise exist under the legal standards for the interpretation of contract relationships regularly applied to transactions in the marketplace if it adopts regulations or standards of practice governing nontenured employees which create an expectation of reemployment. Greene v. Howard University, 134 U.S. App.D.C. 81, 412 F.2d 1128 (1969).

In the case at bar, the evidence adduced from defendant college officials establishes two points of major importance to the case sub judice. First, they consistently denominated and treated their action in Dr. Ferguson's case as a termination of his employment rather than a decision not to offer him a new or subsequent term of employment. Second, they conceded that under prevailing practices, a decision not to offer such an instructor a renewal contract of employment required a showing of cause. Their treatment was sufficient to create for Dr. Ferguson an expectancy of reemployment that required that his termination be accomplished under procedures which would accord him the fundamentals of due process. Indeed, the requirement to show cause for...

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