Hinson v. Clinch Cty. GA Bd. Educ.

• Decision Date: 25 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-13345,99-13345
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) Kay Sessoms HINSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CLINCH COUNTY, GEORGIA BOARD OF EDUCATION; the Superintendent of Schools for Clinch County, Georgia; et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 821

231 F.3d 821 (11th Cir. 2000)

Kay Sessoms HINSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CLINCH COUNTY, GEORGIA BOARD OF EDUCATION; the Superintendent of Schools for Clinch County, Georgia; et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 99-13345.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

October 25, 2000.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. (No. 97-00144-CV-HL-7), Hugh Lawson, Judge.

Before EDMONDSON, DUBINA and WILSON, Circuit Judges.

WILSON, Circuit Judge:

Dr. Kay Sessoms Hinson, a high school principal in Clinch County, Georgia who was transferred to a teaching position, brought this employment discrimination action against the Clinch County Board of Education, its superintendent, and various board members under Title VII and 42 U.S.C. 1983. On appeal, Hinson contends that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the defendants after concluding that she did not suffer a "demotion" for which the defendants might be liable. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

BACKGROUND

Dr. Hinson was the principal of Clinch County High School for four years. She was the first female high school principal hired in Clinch County, Georgia since at least 1950. Dr. Hinson's husband, David Hinson, worked as the media and technology coordinator for the Clinch County school system.

Dr. Hinson's troubles with the Clinch County Board of Education (the "Board") seem to have been triggered by a disagreement with defendants Henry Moylan, Allen Kennedy and Jimmy McMillan over where to locate a new middle school. Dr. Hinson also had a history of tense conversations with Kennedy regarding Kennedy's son, a student at the high school. Another source of friction between Dr. Hinson and Kennedy was his habit of referring to Dr. Hinson by a childhood nickname, "Kay Baby," even after Dr. Hinson had asked Kennedy to call her by her proper name.

After Dr. Hinson recommended locating the middle school adjacent to her high school, and after she and Kennedy had an unpleasant discussion about Kennedy's son, Kennedy and Moylan moved into positions of power over her. Moylan became superintendent of schools; Kennedy successfully ran for the Board. After Kennedy won his election and joined McMillan on the Board, he symbolically "buried" Dr. Hinson in front of the local courthouse to celebrate his victory.

Shortly thereafter, Dr. Hinson began hearing rumors that Moylan and Kennedy were "plotting" to remove her as principal. Moylan reassured Dr. Hinson that she was doing a good job and should not worry about being terminated.

Despite these assurances, the Board voted to remove Dr. Hinson as principal and move her to an administrative position.¹ Moylan told Dr. Hinson that she was being transferred to a county-wide position because he needed Dr. Hinson's expertise in writing grant applications and improving the county's system-wide testing. Although Moylan described the move as a promotion, Dr. Hinson suspected it was merely a make-work position designed to facilitate her removal as principal. She was doubtful because she was told she would receive a significant pay cut, she had already been performing the functions of the new job while she was the principal, and the new position did not exist before the vote.²

Dr. Hinson told Moylan she did not want an administrative position and preferred a job where she would have contact with students. The Board then voted to transfer Dr. Hinson to a full-time teaching position at Homerville Elementary and Middle School. After the Georgia Association of Educators requested a hearing on Dr. Hinson's behalf to contest her transfer, the Board voted to maintain Dr. Hinson's old salary in her new position. Thereafter, the Board declined to grant a hearing, claiming that Dr. Hinson had not suffered a demotion that entitled her to a hearing under Georgia law.

Dr. Hinson's salary was contingent on her working 210 days a year. This is the same number of days she would have worked as a principal, but twenty more days a year than teachers normally worked. Dr. Hinson was not assigned any tasks to perform during these additional twenty work days, but was required to show up and sit at her desk with nothing to do.

To replace Dr. Hinson as principal, the Board chose the man who had served under her as vice-principal, Donald Tison. Tison had less experience as a principal than Dr. Hinson and held fewer advanced degrees.³ Dr. Hinson filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, claiming that the Board had discriminated against her based on her gender and her age.⁴

Responding to Dr. Hinson's charge, the Board stated it transferred Dr. Hinson not because of her gender, but "because of basic disagreements with her approach to operating and administering the Clinch County High School. The Board was also somewhat disappointed in her capabilities as a principal."

Dr. Hinson received a right-to-sue letter. She timely sued the Board; Moylan, the superintendent of schools (both as an agent of the County and as an individual); and the individual Board members who had voted to transfer her. Her complaint alleged, among other things, that the Board and the individual defendants violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq., and deprived her of due process under 42 U.S.C. 1983.

Within two weeks after Dr. Hinson filed her complaint, the Board convened a special Sunday meeting. The only Board members present were those who had voted to remove Dr. Hinson as principal.⁵ The subject of that meeting was some videotapes that had come to the Board's attention. The videotapes, some of which were discovered in the office of Dr. Hinson's husband at the high school, had been taken by a camera installed in the high school's visiting girls' locker room. A theft had occurred in the locker room during one of the games, and the reason for the videotaping was to monitor the locker room for unauthorized entry. The camera was installed with the knowledge of both Dr. Hinson and the vice-principal who subsequently replaced her, Tison.

Dr. Hinson's husband was charged with the crime of eavesdropping and suspended from his employment with the school system. The Board did not punish Tison for his involvement. Nor did it punish Lonnie Webb, the resource officer who actually installed the camera. Ultimately, it was determined that there was nothing unlawful about installing the camera or maintaining the tapes. After a hearing, David Hinson lost his job.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hinson's lawsuit was working its way through the district court. The parties took discovery and engaged in discovery disputes. After some preliminary procedural skirmishes, the defendants moved for summary judgment. After the parties had briefed the summary judgment issues, Dr. Hinson moved to compel discovery. She sought to compel deposition answers, pay records, computer information, and minutes of administrative meetings. The district court denied Dr. Hinson's motion, stating she had been dilatory in seeking to compel discovery.

Shortly after the Hinsons received the adverse decision from the hearing tribunal about Mr. Hinson's job, Dr. Hinson moved to amend her complaint. She sought to add her husband as a party and to add claims alleging that the Board had acted against both Hinsons in retaliation for Dr. Hinson's lawsuit. Noting that Dr. Hinson waited to amend her complaint until discovery was closed and dispositive motions had been filed, the court denied Dr. Hinson's motion based on undue delay.

After disposing of these preliminary matters, the district court granted summary judgment against Dr. Hinson. First, the court noted that this court's precedent barred Dr. Hinson from bringing a Title VII action against the individual defendants.⁶ Second, the court granted summary judgment for the defendants on Dr. Hinson's claim under 42 U.S.C. 1983 alleging a violation of her due process rights. The court noted that Dr. Hinson's due process claim was based on her state law rights as an employee; therefore, she had no substantive due process claim.⁷ Further, the court ruled that Dr. Hinson's procedural due process claim failed because the Georgia law giving her a property right in continued employment only provided a hearing if she suffered a "demotion," that is, a decrease in salary, prestige, and responsibility. Since Dr. Hinson did not suffer a loss of salary, the court concluded that Georgia law did not entitle her to a hearing before being transferred. Therefore, the court granted judgment for the defendants on Dr. Hinson's 1983 procedural due process claim.

Last, the district court ruled for the defendants on Dr. Hinson's Title VII claim. The court ruled that Dr. Hinson suffered no adverse employment action. The court also noted that even if Dr. Hinson had received a demotion, she had not offered any "significantly probative evidence which supports her contention that the real reason for Defendants' decision was her gender. In the absence of such a showing, the County Defendants are entitled to summary judgment on Plaintiff's Title VII claim." Having granted summary judgment on Dr. Hinson's federal claims, the court exercised its discretion under 28 U.S.C. 1367(c) to dismiss Dr. Hinson's state law claims without prejudice.

DISCUSSION

We review the denials of the plaintiff's motions to compel discovery and amend her complaint for abuse of discretion. See R.M.R. by P.A.L. v. Muscogee County Sch. Dist., 165 F.3d 812, 816 (11th Cir.1999) (motion to compel); Technical Resource Servs. v. Dornier Medical Sys., 134 F.3d 1458, 1464 (11th Cir.1998) (motion for leave to amend complaint). Given that Dr. Hinson had waited so long to file her motion, the district court acted within its discretion in denying Dr. Hinson leave to add her husband as a new party and to add new claims on both their behalf. Nor did the district court abuse its discretion in denying Dr. Hinson's motion...