Huang v. Bd. of Trustees for State Colleges

• Decision Date: 22 December 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99 CA 2805.,99 CA 2805.
• Citation: 781 So.2d 1
• Parties: Jenn-Tsai HUANG v. LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Raymond Authement, President Gary Marotta, Academic Vice President Anthony Potter, Dean Donald Dareing, Chairman and Members of the College Tenure Committee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 1

781 So.2d 1

Jenn-Tsai HUANG v. LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Raymond Authement, President Gary Marotta, Academic Vice President Anthony Potter, Dean Donald Dareing, Chairman and Members of the College Tenure Committee.

No. 99 CA 2805.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

December 22, 2000.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Alan Dabdoub, New Orleans, Counsel for Appellant Jenn-Tsai Huang.

Rickey Miniex, Rebekah Gallo, Lafayette, Counsel for Appellee Louisiana State Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities and the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Raymond Authement, President, Gary Marotta, Academic Vice President, Anthony Potter, Dean, Donald Dareing, Chairman and Members of the College Tenure Committee.

Before: WHIPPLE, FOGG and CRICHTON, JJ.¹

SCOTT J. CRICHTON, J. Pro Tern.

This case presents the following issue for our resolution: whether the trial court erred in finding that Dr. Jenn-Tsai Huang failed to prove that the denial of his tenure was a violation of his constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and to be free from discrimination based upon national origin and ancestry under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Title VII (42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.), 42 U.S.C. § 1981, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) as well as Art. I, Sect. 12 of the Louisiana Constitution.² For the following reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, Dr. Jenn-Tsai Huang, filed suit against The University of Southwestern Louisiana, presently the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Louisiana State Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities, Dr. Raymond Authement, President of USL, Dr. Gary Marotta, Academic Vice—President of USL, Dr. Anthony Ponter, Dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Donald Dareing, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department and members of the College Tenure Committee for denial of tenure allegedly based on national origin, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and § 1983 as well as Article I, Section 12 of the Louisiana Constitution. Testimony and other evidence produced during a four-day bench trial reveal that the following are undisputed facts.

In September 1987, Dr. Jenn-Tsai Huang began teaching as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Southwestern Louisiana, presently the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (USL). Dr. John F. Stephens, III, then Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department had hired Dr. Huang on a probationary basis, which required yearly reappointments. Dr. Huang was not tenured but was on a tenure track. The faculty handbook provided for Huang's tenure determination as follows:

A faculty member appointed at the rank of Assistant Professor serves a probationary period not to exceed seven continuous years of full-time service. The faculty member will be evaluated during the sixth year of service to determine if he or she is considered to be eligible for tenure. At the end of the sixth year, the results of the evaluation will be made known to the faculty member.

Dr. Huang received three annual evaluations of "Good" (Category III) and three of "Very Good" (Category III*) for the years 1987 to 1992 and received yearly appointments from 1987 to 1993. Huang taught 31 sections of a total of over 500 students during his 6 years at USL. From March 1992 until August 1993, there were 8 student evaluations of Dr. Huang which the district court found to be a representative sample of the total number of students taught by Dr. Huang. Of the 77 students who answered in these 8 evaluations, 17 (approximately 22%) disagreed with the following statement about Huang: "in general the instructor presented material clearly enough for me to understand."

In March of 1993, Dr. Huang was reviewed for tenure. Dr. Donald Dareing, chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department after Dr. Stephens, polled the Mechanical Engineering Departmental Tenure Committee for their recommendation concerning tenure for Dr. Huang. The departmental vote was unanimously against recommending tenure for Dr. Huang. The School of Engineering tenure committee voted six to one against tenure for Dr. Huang. Huang's annual evaluations were not reviewed by the tenure review committees. Dr. Anthony Ponter, Dean of the Engineering School evaluated the tenure application and recommended denial of tenure for Dr. Huang to Dr. Gary Marotta, Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Marotta likewise evaluated the application and forwarded to USL's President, Dr. Raymond Authement, his recommendation against tenure. Dr. Authement, President of USL, agreed with the previous recommendations and formally denied tenure to Dr. Huang. Huang was notified that his employment was terminated, effective at the conclusion of the spring semester 1994. There is no indication that this termination breached Dr. Huang's annual contract provisions.

Yi-Yu Pan, Dr. Huang's wife, visited Dr. Dareing at his home to discuss the tenure decision. During their conversation, Dr. Dareing suggested that the Huangs return to work in their own country. Dr. Dareing also testified that (i) the graduate students might tend to have more favorable comments about Dr. Huang because most of the graduate students were Chinese and Indians and that (ii) the undergraduate course evaluations would be more of a measure of the quality of his teaching than the graduate course evaluations.

Dr. Huang appealed to the Faculty Welfare Committee, a committee comprised of professors from various colleges at USL, which functions as a reviewing body for grievances made by professors. On October 11, 1993 that committee wrote to Dr. Authement that they had concluded their investigation and found no grounds for reversing the decision to deny tenure.

Dr. Huang filed suit against the forementioned defendants and the parties presented evidence during a four day bench trial. The district court ruled in favor of the defendants dismissing Dr. Huang's claims at his cost. Dr. Huang appeals, asserting that the district court erred in that it made incorrect factual findings and conclusions of law and made unreasonable evaluations of credibility. Huang specifically asserts as error the district court's conclusion that 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 were not violated under the facts and circumstances of this case and claims that the district court misapplied Chung v. Morehouse College, 1975 WL 292 (N.D.Ga.1975). Finding no reversible error, we affirm the district court judgment.

LAW AND DISCUSSION:

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The Louisiana Supreme Court has announced a two-part test in which the appellate court must find the following for the reversal of a factfinder's determinations: (1) there is no reasonable factual basis from the record for the finding of the trial court, and (2) the record establishes that the finding is clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous). Cormier v. Comeaux, 98-2378 (La.07/07/99), 748 So.2d 1123, rehearing denied (La.9/3/99), citing Stobart v. State Through Dept. of Transp. and Development, 617 So.2d 880 (La.1993). This test dictates that a reviewing court must do more than simply review the record for some evidence which supports or controverts the trial court's finding: there must be a review of the record in its entirety to determine whether the trial court's finding was clearly wrong or manifestly erroneous. Id. This is because

[t]he appellate review of fact is not completed by reading only so much of the record as will reveal a reasonable factual basis for the finding in the trial court, but if the trial court or jury findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse even though convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.

Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840, 843 (La. 1989). Even though an appellate court may feel its own evaluations and inferences are more reasonable than the factfinder's, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review where conflict exists in the testimony. Cormier, supra, at 1127.

When findings are based on determinations regarding the credibility of witnesses, the manifest error—clearly wrong standard demands great deference to the trier of fact's findings; for only the factfinder can be aware of the variations in demeanor and tone of voice that bear so heavily on the listener's understanding and belief in what is said. Where documents or objective evidence so contradict the witness's story, or the story itself is so internally inconsistent or implausible on its face, that a reasonable fact finder would not credit the witness's story, the court of appeal may well find manifest error or clear wrongness even in a finding purportedly based upon a credibility determination. But where such factors are not present, and a factfinder's finding is based on its decision to credit the testimony of one of two or more witnesses, that finding can virtually never be manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong.

Rosell v. ESCO, supra, 549 So.2d at 844-845, citations omitted.

A judgment and reasons for judgment are two separate and distinct legal documents and appeals are taken from the judgment, not the written reasons for judgment.³ LSA-C.C.P. art. 1918. Ziegel v. South Cent. Bell, 93-547 (La.App. 5 Cir. 03/16/94), 635 So.2d 314. The court of appeal reviews judgments and, where the court of appeal believes that the trial court reached the proper result, the judgment will be affirmed. Id., citations omitted. Accordingly, even if the trier of fact erred in findings of fact, we are constrained to affirm the judgment if the judgment is reasonable in light of the record as a whole.

APPLICABLE LAW

The four criteria sufficient to establish prima facie case of...