Jiménez-González v. Alvarez-Rubio

• Decision Date: 08 February 2010
• Docket Number: Civil No. 09-1656 (JAG).
• Citation: 683 F. Supp.2d 177
• Parties: Dalix M. JIMENEZ-GONZALEZ, et al., Plaintiff(s) v. Zoime ALVAREZ-RUBIO, et al., Defendant(s).
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

683 F.Supp.2d 177

Dalix M. JIMENEZ-GONZALEZ, et al., Plaintiff(s) v. Zoime ALVAREZ-RUBIO, et al., Defendant(s).

Civil No. 09-1656 (JAG).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

February 8, 2010.

Eduardo A. Vera-Ramirez, Eileen Landron-Guardiola, Luis A. Rodriguez-Munoz, Landron & Vera LLP, Guaynabo, PR, for Plaintiffs.

Jorge L. Capo-Matos, O'Neill & Borges, Yadhira Ramirez-Toro, Department of Justice, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

GARCIA-GREGORY, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is a motion to dismiss filed by Defendants Zoime Alvarez-Rubio ("Alvarez-Rubio"), Saul Rivera-Rivera ("Rivera-Rivera"), Michael A. Quinones-Irizarry ("Quinones-Irizarry"), Enid Ortiz-Rodriguez ("Ortiz-Rodriguez"), and Mario M. Nazario-Oliver ("Nazario-Oliver") (collectively "Defendants"). (Docket No. 27). For the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendants' motion.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Eleven plaintiffs, all former transitory maintenance employees of the Corporation of the State Insurance Fund ("CSIF"), bring the present civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that they were politically discriminated. Defendants are being sued in their official and personal capacity. Specifically, Plaintiffs assert that their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were violated. Plaintiffs also proffer supplemental claims under the laws and Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Plaintiffs request a declaratory judgment, damages, and injunctive relief.

In their complaint, Plaintiffs Dalix M. Jimenez-Gonzalez ("Jimenez-Gonzalez"), Linnette Rivera-Alicea ("Rivera-Alicea"), Irene Iturrino-Negron ("Iturrino-Negron"), Raul A. Mendez-Mendez ("Mendez-Mendez"), Julio E. Rodriguez-Mendez ("Rodriguez-Mendez"), Edwin Valentin-Hernandez ("Valentin-Hernandez"), Elvin Diaz-Afanador ("Diaz-Afanador"), Diego Aldebol-Vargas ("Aldebol-Vargas"), Andres A. Perez-Santos ("Perez-Santos"), Yanira Torres-Soto ("Torres-Soto"), and David Rivera-Arce ("Rivera-Arce") (collectively "Plaintiffs")¹ allege that they were all employed at the CSIF as transitory maintenance employees for six (6) months. Plaintiffs submit that per the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement ("CBA") in place at the CSIF, after six (6) months, their transitory positions were to become permanent career positions, which they would be openly entitled to compete for. According to Plaintiffs, even though they worked at the CSIF for six (6) months, Defendants did not create the career positions. Instead, on March 9, 2009, Plaintiffs were allegedly notified that their temporary contracts would not be renewed.

Plaintiffs submit that Defendants are all members of the New Progressive Party ("NPP"). Alvarez-Rubio is the administrator of the CSIF and is the nominating authority for said agency. Defendants Rivera-Rivera, Quinones-Irizarry, Ortiz-Rodriguez, and Nazario-Oliver were all appointed by Alvarez-Rubio. Rivera-Rivera is the Associate Director for Human Resources for the CSIF. Quinones-Irizarry is the Regional Director for the CSIF Arecibo Regional Office. Ortiz-Rodriguez is the Regional Director for the CSIF Caguas Regional Office. Nazario-Oliver is the Regional Director for the CSIF Aguadilla Regional Office.

Plaintiffs aver that they are all active members of the Popular Democratic Party ("PDP"). The PDP is a political adversary of the NPP. According to Plaintiffs, Defendants knew that they were active members of the PDP and because of this, decided not to renew their temporary contracts. Plaintiffs claim that because of their political affiliation, Defendants did not allow them to continue to aspire to a career position with the CSIF. (Docket No. 16).

On December 2, 2009, Defendants moved to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims against them. Defendants contend that Plaintiffs failed to adequately plead a political discrimination claim under the First Amendment and an equal protection claim under the Fourteenth Amendment. Alternatively, Defendants claim that they are entitled to sovereign immunity and qualified immunity. (Docket No. 27). Plaintiffs oppose Defendants' dismissal request. (Docket No. 37).

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A. Motion to Dismiss Standard.

In Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), the Supreme Court held that to survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), a complaint must allege "a plausible entitlement to relief." Rodriguez-Ortiz v. Margo Caribe, Inc., 490 F.3d 92, 95-96 (1st Cir.2007) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 559, 127 S.Ct. 1955). The court accepts all well-pleaded factual allegations as true, and draws all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. See Correa-Martinez v. Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 49, 51 (1st Cir.1990). Twombly does not require heightened fact pleading of specifics; however, it does require enough facts to "nudge plaintiffs' claims across the line from conceivable to plausible." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. Accordingly, in order to avoid dismissal, the plaintiff must provide the grounds upon which his claim rests through factual allegations sufficient "to raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Id. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

In Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009), the Supreme Court upheld Twombly and clarified that two underlying principles must guide this Court's assessment of the adequacy of a plaintiff's pleadings when evaluating whether a complaint can survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. See Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949-50. The First Circuit has recently relied on these two principles as outlined by the Court. See Maldonado v. Fontanes, 568 F.3d 263, 268 (1st Cir.2009). "First, the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice." Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

"Second, only a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss." Id. at 1950 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955). Thus, any nonconclusory factual allegations in the complaint, accepted as true, must be sufficient to give the claim facial plausibility. Id. Determining the existence of plausibility is a "context-specific task" which "requires the court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense." Id. "Where the well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, the complaint has alleged—but it has not `shown'—`that the pleader is entitled to relief.'" Id. (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2)). Furthermore, such inferences must be at least as plausible as any "obvious alternative explanation". Id. at 1950-51 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 567, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

DISCUSSION

Plaintiffs bring the present suit under § 1983. It is well settled law that § 1983 "is not itself a source of substantive rights, but merely provides a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred." Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 394, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Under § 1983, a plaintiff must first show that "the conduct complained of was committed by a person acting under color of state law." Destek Group, Inc. v. State of New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, 318 F.3d 32, 39 (1st Cir.2003). Secondly, a plaintiff must show the defendant's conduct deprived a person of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution of the United States. Gutierrez-Rodriguez v. Cartagena, 882 F.2d 553, 559 (1st Cir.1989). "To satisfy the second element, plaintiffs must show that the defendants' conduct was the cause in fact of the alleged deprivation." Rodriguez-Cirilo v. Garcia, 115 F.3d 50, 52 (1st Cir.1997).

Plaintiffs assert that Defendants are all officials of the CSIF, which is an agency of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Moreover, Plaintiffs submit that Defendants acted in their capacity as CSIF officials when they either directly participated, condoned or tacitly authorized: (1) the non-renewal of Plaintiffs' temporary contract and (2) the non compliance with the terms of the CBA, which required the conversion of Plaintiffs' transitory positions to permanent career positions that Plaintiffs would be openly entitled to compete for. We find that Plaintiffs' allegations are sufficient to satisfy the first element of their § 1983 claim. Defendants, nonetheless, argue that the second prong is not satisfied here because Plaintiffs have not properly pled that their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendment were violated. Moreover, Defendants contend that Plaintiffs have failed to adequately allege facts that would lead us to conclude that the conduct of Defendants was the cause of the alleged constitutional deprivation suffered by Plaintiffs.

This Court finds that the causal connection requirement is minimally satisfied, as Plaintiffs allege that Defendants utilized their positions to ignore the terms of the CBA and remove them from the CSIF because of their political affiliation with the PDP. Furthermore, such requirement is met because Plaintiffs claim that Defendants replaced them with persons affiliated to the NPP. Next, we must address whether Plaintiffs properly pled that they were deprived of their protected rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

1. Political Discrimination

Pursuant to the First Amendment, non-policymaking public employees are protected from adverse employment actions based on their political opinions. Marrero-Gutierrez v. Molina, 491 F.3d 1, 9 (1st Cir.2007). This protection extends to public transitory employees. Nieves-Villanueva v. Soto-Rivera, 133 F.3d 92 (1st Cir.1997). Hence, a transitory employee's contract cannot be terminated,...