Fields v. Durham

• Decision Date: 13 September 1988
• Docket Number: No. 88-1564,88-1564
• Citation: 856 F.2d 655
• Parties: 49 Ed. Law Rep. 57 Ralph Rodney FIELDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Joseph T. DURHAM, Individually and as President of Community College of Baltimore; Community College of Baltimore; Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City; James S. Jeffers, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Community College of Baltimore: the Board of Trustees Community College of Baltimore, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 655

856 F.2d 655

49 Ed. Law Rep. 57

Ralph Rodney FIELDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Joseph T. DURHAM, Individually and as President of Community

College of Baltimore; Community College of Baltimore;

Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City; James S. Jeffers,

Chairman of the Board of Trustees Community College of

Baltimore: the Board of Trustees Community College of

Baltimore, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 88-1564.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued July 12, 1988.

Decided Sept. 13, 1988.

Barry Lee Steelman (Daniel S. Katz, Kaplan, Heyman, Greenberg, Engelman & Belgrad, P.A., Baltimore, Md., on brief), for plaintiff-appellant.

John Spencer Wood, Chief Sol. (Neal M. Janey, City Sol., Laurice D. Royal, Asst. Sol., Baltimore, Md., on brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before CHAPMAN, WILKINSON and WILKINS, Circuit Judges.

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

On June 27, 1986, Ralph Fields was terminated from his position as Dean of Faculty and Provost at the Community College of Baltimore by the College's newly appointed president, Joseph Durham. The Board of Trustees approved Field's termination after a hearing held on August 12, 1986. Fields subsequently filed suit against Durham, the College, its Trustees, and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. He alleged that he had been denied due process by defendants' failure to follow the procedures required by the bylaws of the College and the terms of his employment agreement in connection with his discharge.

Plaintiff has, at most, alleged a random and unauthorized failure of College officials to follow state procedures in connection with his termination. Due process is, therefore, satisfied by the meaningful postdeprivation remedies available under state law. Because plaintiff has failed to state a claim under Sec. 1983, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment for defendants on that count. We affirm also the dismissal of plaintiff's state claims without prejudice to his right to pursue those claims in state court.

I.

Ralph Fields began employment with the Community College of Baltimore in 1967 and received faculty tenure in 1970. Fields was promoted to the administrative position of Dean of Faculty/Provost in 1978. The following year, in order to comply with its collective bargaining agreement with the union, the College issued "Conditions of Appointment for Administrators and Non-Instructional Personnel," which precluded an individual from holding an administrative title concurrently with professorial rank and set forth procedures for termination of administrative personnel. In 1984, Fields was reappointed to another three year term as Dean of Faculty/Provost.

In September 1985, in response to administrative and academic problems at the College, the Mayor of Baltimore appointed Joseph Durham interim president. Durham evaluated Fields and other top staff in June, 1986. Durham had earlier notified Fields of deficiencies in his performance. On June 27, 1986, Fields received an unsatisfactory evaluation and was informed that his employment was being terminated. Fields was told of his right to appeal his termination to the President's Cabinet. Feeling that an appeal to the Cabinet would be meaningless, Fields waived that appeal and sought direct review of the termination decision by the Board of Trustees. After a hearing on August 12, 1986, the Board unanimously affirmed his discharge.

Fields filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. He alleged that the College failed to provide him adequate notice, documentation of the specific reasons for his discharge, and a fair pretermination hearing before an impartial decisionmaker as required by the policies and bylaws of the College and the conditions of his employment. In addition to a denial of his right to due process, Fields also alleged pendent state law claims for breach of contract, civil conspiracy, tortious interference with contract, and wrongful discharge. The district court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on the Sec. 1983 claim and declined jurisdiction over the pendent state law claims. Plaintiff appeals.

II.

In Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), the Supreme Court held that when the state deprives an individual of a property interest as the result of the unauthorized failure of its agents to follow state procedure, due process is satisfied by the availability of meaningful postdeprivation process. Id. at 543-44, 101 S.Ct. at 1917. The Court extended this holding to deprivations by intentional but unauthorized acts of state employees in Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 533, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 3203, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984). The Court distinguished between deprivations caused by the random and unauthorized acts of state officials and those occasioned by conduct pursuant to established state procedure. Id. at 532-33, 104 S.Ct. at 3203. In the former due process is satisfied by the availability of meaningful postdeprivation remedies; in the latter, under Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982), it is not.

We conclude that this case is controlled by the holdings of Parratt and Hudson. Defendants' alleged failure to follow established state procedure in connection with Fields' termination was, even if intentional, a random and isolated occurrence not authorized by the state and, in fact, contrary to its procedures. If Fields was deprived of a fair and impartial hearing prior to his termination, due process is satisfied by the availability of adequate state law remedies which he may pursue in state court. The fact that high-ranking officials were involved does not by itself make Parratt/Hudson inapplicable. Holloway v. Walker, 790 F.2d 1170, 1173-74 (5th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 984, 107 S.Ct. 571, 93 L.Ed.2d 576 (1986). Fields has thus failed to state a claim cognizable under Sec. 1983.

A.

We note at the outset that the fact that a predeprivation hearing may be practicable does not invariably render Parratt/Hudson inapplicable. In fact, the emphasis in those cases on departures from established state procedures would appear to presuppose that the very subject addressed by the established procedures would often be predeprivation process. Similarly, in Yates v. Jamison, 782 F.2d 1182 (4th Cir.1985), plaintiffs alleged that the City of Charlotte had destroyed a house they owned without notice and in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Neither state nor city procedures authorized the demolition of a dwelling without a predeprivation hearing. The crux of the plaintiffs' complaint, we noted, was their allegation that their house was destroyed without notice only because the defendants violated established state procedure. Plaintiffs did not challenge the operation of the North Carolina statute or the Charlotte ordinances, both of which required notice and a hearing prior to the demolition of the dwelling.

In finding Parratt applicable, despite the fact that a predeprivation hearing was practicable, we held that Parratt "requires the dismissal of plaintiffs' complaint because they possess an adequate and meaningful postdeprivation remedy in the form of an action for inverse condemnation in state court." Yates, 782 F.2d at 1185.

Here too the authorized state procedure calls for a pretermination hearing. In fact, such a hearing was held. After receiving warnings of deficiencies and a notice of termination, Fields waived his right to a hearing before the President's Cabinet and brought his appeal directly to the Board of Trustees. At the hearing before the Board, Fields was represented by counsel, produced witnesses on his behalf, presented numerous exhibits, and had the opportunity to testify and cross-examine. The Board unanimously affirmed Fields' termination for cause on August 15, 1986.

Fields does not argue that he was not provided with this process. Nor does he contend that the termination procedures set forth in the conditions of his employment or the College's evaluation procedures or bylaws are constitutionally inadequate. Rather, he alleges that because he personally received inadequate notice, an untimely evaluation, insufficient information as to the reasons for his termination, and the like, the process with which he was provided failed to conform with that required by the College's rules and regulations and his employment agreement. Clearly, as the district court observed, the gravamen of all the claims asserted by plaintiff is that the defendants deprived him of due process...