Hittle v. City of Stockton

• Docket Number: 22-15485
• Decision Date: 04 August 2023
• Citation: 76 F.4th 877
• Parties: Ronald HITTLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA; Robert Deis; Laurie Montes, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

76 F.4th 877

Ronald HITTLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA;Robert Deis; Laurie Montes, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 22-15485

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Argued and Submitted March 27, 2023 San Francisco, California

Filed August 4, 2023

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Troy L. Nunley, District Judge, Presiding, D.C. No. 2:12-cv-00766-TLN-KJN

Elisabeth C. Butler (argued) and Aaron M. Streett, Baker Botts LLP, Houston, Texas; Kelly J. Shackelford, Jeffrey C. Mateer, and David J. Hacker, First Liberty Institute, Plano, Texas; Stephanie N. Taub, First Liberty Institute, Cabot, Arizona; Kayla A. Toney, First Liberty Institute, Washington, D.C.; Alan J. Reinach and Jonathon Cherne, Church State Council, Westlake Village, California; for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Spencer J. Wilson (argued), Arthur A. Hartinger, Ryan P. McGinley-Stempel, and Geoffrey Spellberg, Renne Public Law Group, San Francisco, California, for Defendants-Appellees.

David H. Thompson and Joseph O. Masterman, Cooper and Kirk PLLC, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae Global Leadership Network.

Sue Ghosh Stricklett, American Hindu Coalition, Sterling, Virginia; Nicholas M. Bruno, Charles R. Flores, Alyssa B. McDaniel, Zachary T. Nelson, Beck Redden LLP, Houston, Texas; for Amici Curiae Sikh Coalition, Asma Uddin, Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, American Hindu Coalition, and Coalition for Jewish Values.

Before: Ronald M. Gould and Sandra S. Ikuta, Circuit Judges, and Edward R. Korman,^* District Judge.

OPINION

KORMAN, District Judge:

Plaintiff-Appellant Ronald Hittle ("Hittle") was an at-will employee of the City of Stockton, California (the "City") and served as the City's Fire Chief from 2005 through 2011. During his tenure, Hittle engaged in conduct that troubled his employer, and led ultimately to his termination. The City hired an outside independent investigator, Trudy Largent ("Largent"), to investigate various allegations of misconduct. In a 250-page report referencing over 50 exhibits, Largent sustained almost all of the allegations of misconduct against Hittle.

Largent's Report specifically concluded that Hittle: (1) lacked effectiveness and judgment in his ongoing leadership of the Fire Department; (2) used City time and a City vehicle to attend a religious event, and approved on-duty attendance of other Fire Department managers to do the same; (3) failed to properly report his time off; (4) engaged in potential favoritism of certain Fire Department employees based on a financial conflict of interest not disclosed to the City; (5) endorsed a private consultant's business in violation of City policy; and (6) had potentially conflicting loyalties in his management role and responsibilities, including Hittle's relationship with the head of the local firefighters' union. Based on the independent findings and conclusions set forth in Largent's report, the City removed Hittle from his position as Fire Chief.

Hittle sued the City, former City Manager Robert Deis ("Deis"), and former Deputy City Manager Laurie Montes ("Montes") (jointly, "Defendants") claiming that his termination was in fact the result of unlawful employment discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII") and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA"). Hittle alleged that Deis and Montes terminated his employment as Fire Chief "based upon his religion." Specifically, Hittle alleges that he was fired for attending a religious leadership event.

On February 18, 2021, Defendants moved for summary judgment seeking dismissal of all of Hittle's claims. Hittle subsequently cross-moved for partial summary judgment as to his federal and state religious discrimination claims on April 1, 2021. On March 1, 2022, the district court denied Hittle's motion and granted Defendants' motion as to all of Hittle's claims. Hittle timely appealed.

BACKGROUND

In deciding a motion for summary judgment, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, drawing all reasonable inferences in that party's favor. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Here, we recite the facts in the light most favorable to Hittle. Hittle was the Fire Chief of the Stockton Fire Department during the period relevant to this appeal. In that capacity, Hittle initially reported directly to Gordon Palmer, Stockton's City Manager. After Palmer retired in 2009, Hittle began reporting directly to Montes, who had been appointed Deputy City Manager in 2008.

In May 2010, the City received an anonymous letter purporting to be from an employee of the Stockton Fire Department. The letter described Hittle as a "corrupt, racist, lying, religious fanatic who should not be allowed to continue as the Fire Chief of Stockton." In her subsequent affidavit in support of her motion for summary judgment, Montes stated that the source of this information was not an anonymous individual but a high-ranking Fire Department manager, who had told her that "Hittle favored members of that coalition—who all shared his Christian faith," and that her concern was that "Hittle was providing favorable treatment and assignments" to these other employees. About one month after the City received this letter, Montes told Hittle in a meeting that she had "heard [he] was part of a group of folks, a Christian Coalition, and that [he] shouldn't be involved in that." When Hittle stated that "[a]s a supervisor, you can't tell me I can't practice my faith when I'm off duty," Montes asked him about his "off duty Christian activities." Hittle told her that "there was no Christian clique within the fire department that was meeting together, nor did she have any right to tell [Hittle] what [he] could or could not do with respect to [his] religion while off duty." According to Hittle, during this conversation, Montes said that Hittle should not "be a part of anything like that as the fire chief, and [he] should refrain from doing any of those types of activities" with other firefighters. Montes did not specifically explain what "those type of activities" comprised, but Hittle thought "the inference was the fact that I may have meetings with them, I might pray with them, I may have opportunity to speak to them about God, leadership in that respect." Hittle and Montes are in apparent agreement that Montes did not initiate the "Christian Coalition" term herself.

On July 1, 2020, Bob Deis became City Manager. At Hittle's and Deis's first meeting, Hittle expressed to Deis that he is "a religious man" and that he is "a Christian." Deis responded with "a blank stare, and there was a long pause." Deis's "body language and stare made [Hittle] very uncomfortable." Hittle felt that Deis's "coldness and rejection" was because Hittle had expressed that he was a Christian, and that Deis had heard about the anonymous letter and the "Christian Coalition." Hittle had the "distinct impression" that Deis's "mind was already made up about" Hittle.

In her oversight of Hittle, Montes became concerned about Hittle's performance as Fire Chief in other ways unrelated to Hittle's alleged religious favoritism. Specifically, Montes claimed that Hittle worked against the City's plans to cut public budget costs and expenses, unlike all of the other City Department heads during that time who were cooperating with the City Manager's office in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to avoid the City declaring bankruptcy. As another example, in 2010, a proposition referred to as "Measure H" was slated for the ballot that November. Some members of the City's Fire Department opposed Measure H because they believed that it would undermine Fire Department autonomy and authority. In response, several off-duty firefighters visited nursing homes wearing their on-duty Fire Department clothing and told the residents that Measure H, if passed, would prevent the Fire Department from providing timely services to seniors in the event of an emergency. When the City Manager's office received complaints about on-duty firefighters advocating against Measure H, Deis and Montes raised the issue with Hittle. Montes claimed that Hittle agreed that the conduct was not acceptable but did not make an effort to stop it from occurring. Hittle disputes this allegation, and states that "Local 456 owned an antique fire engine that displayed a banner: 'Stockton Professional Firefighters,' " which had been used for many years for campaigning off-duty prior to the termination of Hittle, with no objection from management. The union used the antique fire truck without objection from Human Resources, Deis, or Montes for holidays and community events for many years and Hittle had not been disciplined for the union using the antique fire truck on off-duty time until 2010, when it was raised by Deis and Montes for the first time.

In light of these and other issues, including what Deis believed was Hittle's failure to "assure that proper decorum and ethical parameters were in place and enforced in his Department," Deis instructed Montes to continue directly supervising Hittle.

According to Montes, during the fall of 2010, due to what she "believed was a clear lack of leadership and management skills displayed by Chief Hittle," Montes directed Hittle "to find and attend a leadership training program." Montes states that she specifically directed Hittle to "find a program intended for Fire Chiefs, or at least designed for the upper management of public entities," and was clear to Hittle that she wanted the leadership training to be related specifically to public sector service. Montes claims that she suggested to Hittle that the League of California Cities may provide such training, and that she was aware that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Post Officers Standards and Training offered upper management training programs...