Jefferson County Fiscal Court v. Peerce
| Decision Date | 19 February 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 2000-SC-0534-DG.,2000-SC-0534-DG. |
| Parties | JEFFERSON COUNTY FISCAL COURT; Jefferson County Corrections Department; Jefferson County Merit Board; David L. Armstrong, individually and in his official capacity as Judge/Executive of Jefferson County; Ronald Bishop, individually and in his official capacity as Chief of Jefferson County Corrections Department; and Lee A. Karsner, individually and in his official capacity as Captain of Jefferson County Corrections Department, Appellants, v. Thomas PEERCE, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Mitchell L. Perry, Jefferson County Attorney, Louisville, Counsel for Appellants.
Thomas C. Fenton, Morgan and Pottinger, PSC, Louisville, Counsel for Appellee.
Appellee was terminated from his position as a sergeant with the Jefferson County Corrections Department ("JCCD") because of allegations that he used excessive force in an assault upon an inmate, filed and instructed subordinates to file false incident reports about the assault, and violated sections of the Jefferson County Personnel Policies. Pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement then in place, Appellee appealed his termination to the Jefferson County Merit Board ("Merit Board"). The Merit Board found that Appellee had, in fact, engaged in the alleged conduct, but held that "in view of previous departmental discipline practices for similar breaches of conduct, [Appellee's] termination was unjustified." Thus, the Merit Board ordered JCCD to reinstate Appellee and to restore "all back pay and benefits lost as a result of the termination," but recommended that Appellee be demoted in rank from sergeant to Corrections Officer. Approximately a week after the Merit Board's decision, JCCD informed Appellee that it would not reemploy him.
Appellee then filed a petition in the Jefferson Circuit Court in which he sought to enforce the Merit Board's decision. Appellee's petition alleged that JCCD "has refused to follow the Merit Board's order to reinstate Peerce ... has not followed the appeal procedure and has instead unilaterally and improperly decided to ignore a direct order by its appellate review body, in contravention of legislative and public policy." Appellee subsequently filed an amended petition in which he joined as defendants the Merit Board and the Jefferson County authorities who made the final decision regarding his employment, i.e., the Jefferson County Fiscal Court ("Fiscal Court") and Jefferson County Judge-Executive David L. Armstrong ("Armstrong"), who had written Appellee to inform him that he was "exercising his authority" to overrule the Merit Board's decision. Appellee moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted after it concluded that "[t]he action of Jefferson County Fiscal Court and Jefferson County Judge/Executive David Armstrong inconsistent with the Order of the Jefferson County Merit Board is without effect, and the Merit Board's Order is binding." In accordance with its order of summary judgment, the trial court subsequently entered an order that required the Jefferson County Corrections Department to reinstate Appellee and to compensate him for the improper termination:
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Jefferson County Corrections Department shall immediately comply with this Court's Order Granting Plaintiff Peerce Summary Judgment, and shall reinstate Peerce to his former position as a Department officer, and deliver to him all back pay and benefits due and owing Plaintiff which have accrued from the date of Plaintiff's termination to the date of Plaintiff's reinstatement in accordance with this Court's Order Granting Summary Judgment.
Appellants JCCD, Fiscal Court and Armstrong filed a joint notice of appeal from the Jefferson Circuit Court's summary judgment for Appellee. The Court of Appeals held, in what we will refer to as Peerce I, that Armstrong and the Fiscal Court had no authority to countermand the Merit Board's decision and thus affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment:
[I]t is explicitly acknowledged [in KRS 67B.050] that if a county has implemented a merit system, the merit board created thereunder shall have the authority "to employ and dismiss employees." Accordingly, neither the fiscal court nor the judge/executive has conveyed away their power to dismiss corrections employees. Rather, the legislature has vested such authority in the merit board by statute.
Appellants also make much of the fact that the Merit Board was created by the Fiscal Court and therefore, they argue that the Fiscal Court and the Judge/Executive must have final say over personnel matters and the Board can only make recommendations to them. While the Merit Board was created by Fiscal Court ordinance, the authority to do so is statutory as stated above. Moreover in viewing the language of the ordinance, we are further convinced that the Merit Board has the final authority over dismissals of corrections employees.... In reading the language in Ordinance 8, the question that comes to mind is, what possible significance would this subsection have, if the Judge/Executive has the final authority to overrule a decision of the Merit Board? The Judge/Executive is entitled to vote on an issue before the Merit Board only in the event of a tie. In this case, Armstrong clearly overstepped his authority by unilaterally deciding not to follow the Board's decision.
Appellants sought discretionary review from the Court of Appeals's decision, but this Court denied the motion and Peerce I thus became final. Upon remand, the trial court entered an order that required JCCD to reinstate Appellee to his former position, but permitted JCCD to demote Appellee in accordance with the Merit Board's decision. Appellee then returned to work, and JCCD immediately demoted him.
The trial court then granted Appellee leave to amend his previous complaint, and Appellee filed a Second Amended and Supplemental Petition that included five (5) additional state and federal causes of action relating to his previous termination and his post-reinstatement demotion:
Second1 Cause of Action
The Defendants Jefferson County Corrections Department, Jefferson County Fiscal Court, and Jefferson County Judge-Executive David L. Armstrong, acting in his official capacity and individually, wrongfully and maliciously discharged the Plaintiff from his employment in violation of Chapter 67B of the Kentucky Revised Statutes and contrary to the public policy of the Commonwealth of Kentucky expressed therein, causing the Plaintiff to suffer damages in excess of the jurisdictional requisite of this Court.
In discharging the Plaintiff from his employment, the Defendants Jefferson County Corrections Department, Jefferson County Fiscal Court, and Jefferson County Judge-Executive David L. Armstrong, acting in his official capacity and individually, acted under color of state law and maliciously subjected the Plaintiff to the deprivation of his rights and privileges under the Constitution of the United States causing the Plaintiff to suffer damages in excess of the jurisdictional requisite of this Court.
On June 3, 1996, the Defendant, Jefferson County Corrections Department, delivered to the Plaintiff written notice that effective June 4, 1996, the Plaintiff was demoted from his position as sergeant to the rank of officer.
In demoting the Plaintiff on June 3, 1996, the Defendant, Jefferson County Corrections Department, acted maliciously in retaliation for the Plaintiff's resort to judicial proceedings to vindicate his employment rights, contrary to the public policy of the Commonwealth of Kentucky expressed in Chapter 67B of the Kentucky Revised Statutes and Section 14 of the Constitution of Kentucky, causing the Plaintiff to suffer damages in excess of the jurisdictional requisite of this Court.
The Defendant, Jefferson County Corrections Department, wrongfully and maliciously demoted the Plaintiff on June 3, 1996, in violation of Chapter 67B of the Kentucky Revised Statutes and contrary to the public policy of the Commonwealth of Kentucky expressed therein causing the Plaintiff to suffer damages in excess of the jurisdictional requisite of this Court.
In demoting the Plaintiff on June 3, 1996, the Defendant, Jefferson County Corrections Department, acted under color of state law and maliciously subjected the Plaintiff to the deprivation of his rights and privileges under the Constitution of the United States causing the Plaintiff to suffer damages in excess of the jurisdictional requisite of this Court.
JCCD subsequently suspended Appellee with the intention of terminating his employment because of allegations that Appellee had written racial slurs on the wall of a detention center restroom. The trial court again granted Appellee leave to amend his complaint in response to this new development, and Appellee filed a Third Amended and Supplemental Petition, which added two (2) additional causes of action and included additional defendants:
Seventh Cause of Action
On or about April 8, 1997, JCCD and Bishop failed and refused to promote the Plaintiff to the position of sergeant. The Plaintiff was qualified and eligible for such promotion to sergeant.
Officers less qualified than the Plaintiff were promoted to sergeant on or about April 8, 1997.
Bishop, acting in his official capacity and individually, and JCCD, wrongfully and maliciously failed and refused to promote the Plaintiff in retaliation for the Plaintiff's exercise of his constitutional right under Section 14 of the Kentucky Constitution to petition the courts for redress, causing the Plaintiff to suffer damages in excess of the jurisdictional requisite of this Court.
In failing and refusing to promote the Plaintiff, Bishop, acting in his...
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