Goodreau v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. Of Va.

• Decision Date: 10 October 2000
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 3:99CV00102.
• Citation: 116 F.Supp.2d 694
• Parties: Maurice Guillaume GOODREAU, III, Plaintiff, v. The RECTOR AND VISITORS OF the UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia

116 F.Supp.2d 694

Maurice Guillaume GOODREAU, III, Plaintiff, v. The RECTOR AND VISITORS OF the UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 3:99CV00102.

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, Charlottesville Division.

October 10, 2000.

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Dane H. Butswinkas, M. Elaine Horn, Paul T. Hourihan, Williams & Connolly, Washington, DC, for plaintiff.

Richard C. Kast, Susan M. Davis, Associates General Counsel and Special Assistants Attorney General, University of Virginia Office of General Counsel, Charlottesville, VA, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MOON, District Judge.

Plaintiff Maurice Goodreau, a 1990 graduate of the University of Virginia ("University"), brought this action against the Rector and Visitors of the University, as well as against several members and former members of the University's administration and Honor Committee, as a result of the University's revocation of his degree in 1998. Plaintiff attempts to set forth nine different causes of action for violations of state and federal law against various combinations of Defendants. Plaintiff's first and second claims assert a breach of state contract law against the Board of Visitors and ask for a declaratory judgment against the Board that the degree revocation was an ultra vires act under Virginia law. Plaintiff's third claim arises under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and alleges Fourteenth Amendment due process violations by all individual Defendants.¹ In his fourth claim, which is also brought under § 1983, Plaintiff asserts that the current and former Rectors of the University, the University President, and the members of the Board of Visitors violated his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment by failing to train and oversee the members of the Honor Committee in a proper manner. Plaintiff's fifth claim also arises under § 1983 and alleges that certain former members of the Honor Committee, as well as several John and Jane Does, abridged his rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA"), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g. Plaintiff's sixth cause of action, again under § 1983, asserts that the current and former Rectors, the President, and the members of the Board also violated FERPA by failing to train and oversee the Honor Committee. In his seventh cause of action, Plaintiff claims under § 1983 that certain former members of the Honor Committee unlawfully retaliated against him for exercising his rights under FERPA and the United States Constitution. Plaintiff's eighth claim, also under § 1983, alleges that the current and former Rectors, the President, and the members of the Board imposed an excessive fine in violation of the Eighth Amendment by revoking his degree. Lastly, Plaintiff asks for a declaratory Judgment against all Defendants stating that the degree revocation was null and void. In response to Plaintiff's claims, Defendants have filed a motion for summary judgment in accordance with Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' motion will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. FACTS

Maurice Goodreau matriculated at the University of Virginia in the fall of 1987 as a transfer student from George Mason University. As part of the admissions process,² Goodreau acknowledged that he would be participating in the University's Honor System and wrote essays concerning his understanding of the system and the requirements for abiding by it. University literature that Goodreau received during the admissions process and after his matriculation made it clear that the University's Honor System provides for a single sanction and that "permanent dismissal is the only penalty" for a breach of the Honor Code. None of that literature, however, stated that degree revocation was a possibility should a student be convicted of an honor offense after graduation. During the spring of his final year as a student, Goodreau used his position as president and treasurer of a student club to conduct a scheme whereby he stole more than $1500 in University funds by submitting forged or false reimbursement vouchers. Goodreau's actions remained undetected during the remainder of his student tenure, and he graduated from the University in 1990, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from the McIntire School of Commerce.³

At the beginning of the following academic year, the incoming president of Goodreau's former club noticed discrepancies in the organization's records and referred the matter to the University police. In August and September of 1990, Goodreau admitted taking University funds for personal use. As a result of his voucher scheme, Goodreau was served with a warrant for felony embezzlement on October 8, 1990, and he eventually pled guilty to a lesser offense of misdemeanor embezzlement on December 6, 1990. In addition to the criminal investigation stemming from the theft, the University's Honor Committee initiated an honor case against Goodreau in October of 1990.⁴

On or about November 15, 1990, members of the Honor Committee contacted Goodreau by telephone, but he did not cooperate with the investigation because he felt as though there should not be a hearing since he was no longer a student. Goodreau also never spoke with his appointed honor advisor, who would have informed him of the essential aspects of the charges against him, including the fact that a conviction could lead to the revocation of his degree. On November 30, 1990, Honor Committee member Jon Paul Sydnor sent Goodreau a certified letter explaining that he had been accused of an honor offense as a result of his embezzlement of University funds and that he had the right to request a trial within ten days. Sydnor's letter went on to explain that a failure to respond in a timely fashion would be treated as an admission of guilt, which would result in permanent expulsion.

Sydnor's letter itself did not mention the possibility of degree revocation, but there is a dispute as to whether it was accompanied by the original letter of accusation, a document explicitly stating that the facts of Goodreau's case warranted a recommendation by the Honor Committee that his degree be revoked. Sydnor claims that, although he cannot remember the contents of the enclosures sent with his letter to Goodreau, it was his practice to include a copy of the written accusation. Goodreau, however, maintains that he never received the written accusation.

On January 18, 1991, Sydnor sent a second certified letter to Goodreau at the same address to which the first was sent, but after several attempts at delivery the letter was returned to sender. In response to interrogatories, Goodreau stated that his residence during the time of the attempted correspondence was the address to which the letter was sent. Sydnor's second letter would have informed Goodreau that his failure to act on the previous correspondence had been taken as an admission of guilt and that the admission would result in his "permanent denial of readmission to the University and a recommendation to the Faculty Senate that [his] diploma be revoked." On the same day that he mailed the second letter to Goodreau, Sydnor informed the University Registrar of the Honor Committee's pending recommendation of degree revocation and instructed that Goodreau should be permanently denied readmission to the University. On March 3, 1991, Sydnor informed Goodreau by telephone that the Committee would be recommending the revocation of his degree.

On March 27, 1991, the Honor Committee wrote to the Dean of the McIntire School of Commerce to recommend that Goodreau's degree be revoked, but the Dean apparently took no action on the letter. On February 14, 1992, the Registrar sent a letter to the Honor Committee concerning outstanding cases, and the Committee responded on February 17, 1992, with a letter stating that Goodreau had been informed by the Committee that it would be recommending revocation of his degree and that he had "left school admitting guilt," making November 29, 1990, his "effective date of dismissal." However, the record contains no evidence of any attempt made by the Honor Committee to investigate the reason that Goodreau's degree had not been revoked at the time of the Registrar's letter, which was written nearly a year after the Committee's recommendation to the Dean of the School of Commerce.

In 1996, after deciding to pursue a masters degree in business administration, Goodreau contacted the University Registrar to inquire about the "enrollment discontinued" notation on his transcript, and the Registrar referred him to the Honor Committee. Goodreau then spoke with Committee member James Tybur, who informed him that he could file a grievance to contest the notation but that such action could result in the revocation of his degree.⁵ On September 16, 1996, Goodreau submitted a grievance letter asking that the transcript notation be removed. In his letter, Goodreau admitted misappropriating funds from the University, noted that he was informed of the charges against him but did not participate in the investigation, and stated that he was informed after being found guilty in absentia that the Committee would recommend the revocation of his degree. However, Goodreau also asserted in his grievance that he received a letter from the University telling him that he could keep his degree.⁶

The Grievance Panel responded to Goodreau's grievance by conducting an investigation and submitting its findings to the Honor Committee in a closed-session meeting held on November 25, 1996. James Tybur then sent a letter to Goodreau informing him of the meeting and the Committee's decision not to change the notation on his transcript and, furthermore, to request that his degree be revoked by the General Faculty. The University responded to the Committee's request by convening an ad hoc faculty committee to consider the case and...