Hicks v. Board of Ed. for School Dist. 189
| Decision Date | 11 October 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-483,78-483 |
| Parties | , 33 Ill.Dec. 683 Dr. Leo HICKS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT 189 et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Richard G. Younge, East St. Louis, for plaintiff-appellant.
Robert H. Rice, Belleville, for defendants-appellees.
Plaintiff, Dr. Leo Hicks, appeals from the judgment of the circuit court of St. Clair County finding in favor of defendant, Board of Education for School District 189, on his action for damages and injunctive relief. In his complaint, plaintiff alleged that the Board improperly transferred and demoted him from his administrative position to mathematics instructor and improperly denied him hearings on certain actions taken by it which affected his employment. Plaintiff also sought injunctive relief and punitive damages from the Board for its allegedly willful failure to process a workmen's compensation claim he filed.
Plaintiff commenced his employment with School District 189 in November, 1956, as a teacher. In January, 1975, plaintiff, who was then serving in an administrative position and employed under contractual continued service, suffered a work related injury. He was thereafter paid workmen's compensation temporary total disability benefits until March, 1975, when he returned to work. Plaintiff did not return to work during the 1975-76 school term and reported to the Board that he was physically unable to work because of his earlier injury. He was not paid workmen's compensation benefits during that period, however, although the Board processed his claim and forwarded all medical bills he submitted to its workmen's compensation insurer for payment. The record reflects that plaintiff worked neither the 1976-77 nor 1977-78 school terms and that he received a $39,000 lump sum settlement for his workmen's compensation claim.
On July 26, 1976, the Board reassigned plaintiff from his administrative position to mathematics instructor without a reduction in salary. The reassignment apparently was made necessary because the Board consolidated plaintiff's administrative position with another and filled the new position with a different administrator who had more seniority than plaintiff. After plaintiff received notice of his reassignment, he submitted a written request to the Board for a hearing and for a bill of particulars, neither of which was granted. Relying on a provision in the collective bargaining agreement between the Board and the teachers' union, plaintiff thereafter requested that he be allowed to choose the school where he would teach mathematics. This request was also not honored by the Board.
On April 5, 1977, the Board notified plaintiff that his salary for the 1977-78 school term would be reduced by approximately $10,000 so as to conform with the then existing teachers' salary schedule. Plaintiff did not return to work during the 1977-78 school term, and in August, 1978, he informed the Board that he had been granted a disability pension under the teachers' retirement system.
At the close of all the evidence, the trial court found all the issues raised by plaintiff's four-count complaint in favor of the Board and against the plaintiff and entered judgment for the Board.
The issues raised by plaintiff in this appeal are several but may be condensed into two questions: (1) whether the trial court erred in finding that the Board's reassignment of plaintiff and reduction of his salary were proper where plaintiff was allegedly denied certain contractual and procedural due process rights; and (2) whether the evidence adduced by plaintiff on the issue of the Board's allegedly unreasonable delay in processing plaintiff's workmen's compensation claim justified an award of punitive damages to plaintiff.
We find no error in the decision of the trial court; therefore, we affirm.
Section 24-11 of The School Code (Ill.Rev.Stat.1977, ch. 122, par. 24-11), which governs the procedures for removal or transfer of tenured teachers, provides in pertinent part:
" * * * Contractual continued service status shall not restrict the power of the board to transfer a teacher to a position which the teacher is qualified to fill or to make such salary adjustments as it deems desirable, but unless reductions in salary are uniform or based upon some reasonable classification, any teacher whose salary is reduced shall be entitled to a notice and a hearing as hereinafter provided in the case of certain dismissals or removals. * * *."
Under this section, it has been held that a person serving in an administrative capacity in a school enjoys no property interest in his position as administrator as would require a due process hearing prior to his reassignment to a regular teaching position (Danno v. Peterson, 421 F.Supp. 950 (N.D.Ill.1976).) Moreover, in Lester v. Board of Education of School...
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