Hall v. Gary Community School Corp.

• Decision Date: 01 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-3402.,00-3402.
• Citation: 298 F.3d 672
• Parties: James R. HALL, III, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GARY COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

298 F.3d 672

James R. HALL, III, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GARY COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 00-3402.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 13, 2001.

Decided August 1, 2002.

Douglas M. Grimes (argued), Gary, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Gilbert King, Jr. (argued), Gary, IN, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: RIPPLE, ROVNER, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

After James Hall was discharged from his teaching position by the Gary Community School Corporation (GCS), he sued GCS under Title VII. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Hall alleged that GCS terminated his employment in order to retaliate against him for filing discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A jury returned a verdict in Hall's favor, but the district court granted GCS's post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law. Hall now appeals, and we affirm.

Hall began working for GCS in 1987 as a non-permanent teacher and taught at a number of GCS schools until his indefinite teacher contract was terminated in June 1996. In 1987 Hall started teaching social studies classes at Emerson Middle School. His performance evaluation from that year noted that he suffered from punctuality problems and needed improvement. The next year he was transferred to Tolleston Middle School, where he worked as an at-risk counselor. The year after that he was transferred to another teaching position at Beckman Middle School. While at Beckman, Hall continued to suffer from punctuality problems. He was disciplined and docked pay for his "frequent late arrivals," for leaving the school during the day without informing office personnel, and for not returning in time to supervise students. During this school year (1989-90) he was subsequently transferred back to Emerson. Hall's performance evaluation at the end of the year noted a number of deficiencies pertaining to his teaching performance and classroom management, and again noted a tardiness problem. The evaluation ultimately recommended that Hall's contract be renewed for the following year, but recommended that he be "closely monitored for improvement" and that his contract not be renewed again if he fails to improve.

In June 1990 Hall was transferred to Horace Mann High School. At Horace Mann, Hall's punctuality problem continued. In 1991 a disciplinary conference was held and Hall was docked pay. Later that year Hall failed to attend another disciplinary meeting and was reprimanded for "flagrant disregard for the rules and regulations." At the end of the 1991-92 school year, Hall's teaching position was eliminated and he was transferred back to Tolleston. Hall wished to remain at Horace Mann and applied for an opening to teach an economics class. GCS informed Hall that he would not be hired for that position because, even though he was licensed to teach economics, he did not have the necessary hours specified by the state accrediting agency. GCS hired a non-licensed female teacher for the position instead. Hall then filed a charge of gender discrimination with the EEOC. Hall and GCS entered into an agreement whereby Hall would withdraw his charge and would remain at Horace Mann and teach the economics class beginning in 1993.

In April 1993 Hall filed a second EEOC charge, alleging that he was being harassed for filing his previous charge. In June GCS notified Hall that another social studies teacher was returning to Horace Mann to teach the economics class and that he was being transferred to West Side High School. Hall then amended his EEOC charge to include the transfer as part of his retaliation charge. Hall also contended that the transfer violated his settlement agreement, and asked GCS for a hearing. A hearing was held, but the decision to transfer Hall was upheld.

Hall then began teaching at West Side, and his earlier problems persisted. In January 1995 West Side school officials held a meeting with Hall to discuss his punctuality problem, poor classroom management, and poor human relations skills. A memorandum from that meeting prepared by then-Assistant Principal Jenneth Motley noted that Principal Clifton Gooden evaluated Hall's classroom on a number of recent occasions, and found deficiencies relating to classroom management, class presentations, and grading procedures, and that, despite repeated requests, Hall failed to produce his lesson plans. In addition, the memorandum noted fourteen instances in which Hall was tardy between November 1994 and January 1995, and other instances when he had left his classroom unattended. The meeting concluded with school officials offering Hall techniques to improve in the areas in which he was deficient and informing him that improvement was expected.

In March 1995 Gooden recommended to the GCS Board of Trustees that Hall's contract be terminated or that he be suspended without pay for excessive tardiness, poor classroom management, and poor human relations skills. A hearing was held before GCS Director of Human Resources Peter Troupos. In October 1995 Troupos issued a memorandum concluding that there was ample evidence documenting Hall's deficiencies in the three areas specified by Gooden; however, his contract could not be terminated because statutory due process deadlines had not been adhered to. Gooden then held a meeting with Hall and informed him that improvement was expected.

Later that month, Hall received a letter from then-Assistant Principal Robert Redding noting five more occasions on which Hall had been tardy. In November Redding observed Hall's classroom and gave him low scores in many of the evaluation areas. In the subsequent months, Gooden observed Hall on a number of occasions and also gave him poor evaluations. During this period, Hall also failed to provide Gooden with his lesson plans and failed to attend faculty meetings. In January 1996 Hall filed another EEOC charge, alleging that Gooden and Redding were harassing him by frequently observing and evaluating him. After Hall failed to attend another faculty meeting on February 29, Gooden again recommended that Hall's contract be terminated for insubordination and "substantial inability to perform teaching duties." In May a hearing was held before the GCS Board of Trustees, and the Board terminated Hall's contract on the grounds of "insubordination and other good and just cause for termination."

Hall then filed this lawsuit against GCS and Gooden, alleging that he was fired in retaliation for his EEOC charges. A trial was held in June 2000, and at the close of the trial GCS and Gooden moved for judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50. The district court granted the motion for Gooden, but denied the motion for GCS. The jury returned a verdict of $285,000 for Hall, and GCS renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law. In August, the district court granted GCS's motion.

We review the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law de novo, viewing the evidence and drawing reasonable inferences in Hall's favor. Mathur v. Bd. of Trs. of S. Ill. Univ., 207 F.3d 938, 941 (7th Cir.2000). Our standard of review is the same as when reviewing a decision on summary judgment, except that we now have the benefit of knowing exactly what...