Keller v. Board of Educ. of City of Albuquerque
| Decision Date | 20 November 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.00-1667 MV/LFG.,CIV.00-1667 MV/LFG. |
| Citation | 182 F.Supp.2d 1148 |
| Parties | Judith A. KELLER, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, and Bradford Allison, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Mexico |
Paul Kennedy, Mary Han, Kennedy & Han, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for plaintiff.
S. Charles Archuleta, Keleher & McLeod, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for defendants.
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on Defendants' Amended Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. No. 42.]. The Court, after considering the motion, responses, relevant law, and otherwise being fully informed, finds that the motions will be GRANTED in part as to claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and otherwise DENIED.
Plaintiff brought this action against Defendants in the Second Judicial District Court, County of Bernalillo, State of New Mexico. The matter was removed to Federal Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(c). Plaintiff's complaint seeks damages under Title VII ("Title VII") of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981a, 2000e-2, and 2000e-5, the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12112, 12117, 12132, 12133, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. §§ 623 and 626, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the New Mexico Human Rights Act ("NMHRA") N.M.Stat. Ann. §§ 28-1-1 et seq., and state contract law.
As this is a defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, the following facts are construed in favor of the Plaintiff, Dr. Keller. This case arises from Defendants' removal of Dr. Keller from her position as Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the Albuquerque Public Schools ("APS"). Dr. Keller began working at APS in 1982. In August 1994, she was promoted to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. In July 1998, Dr. Keller was notified by APS Superintendent Bradford Allison that she was to be terminated from her position as of head of human resources. At that time, the main justification for her termination given by the Superintendent was that many members of the Board were displeased with her, and that she was being removed for political reasons.
Dr. Allison suggested that Dr. Keller seek a low-level position within APS, but outside of human resources, for the 1998-1999 school year. Despite this conversation, in September 1988, Defendants and Dr. Keller executed an employment contract which provided for her employment as Executive Director of Human Resources for the 1998-1999 school year. This contract specified that termination was to be for cause only. Nonetheless, Defendants removed Dr. Keller from her position approximately nine days later. In October, 1998, prior to her removal from her position in Human Resources, Dr. Keller asked if she should stay in Human Resources until the position was filled. Dr. Allison told her that she should move to RDA, even though APS had yet to select her replacement.
Plaintiff's former position remained unfilled until January 1999, at which time Defendants hired Ms. Gena Jones. Ms. Jones had no experience in the field of education, and significantly less experience than Plaintiff in human resources and management. Ms. Jones was not hired during a first round of interviews. The position remained open through a second round of interviews, at which time Ms. Jones was hired. Ms. Jones is approximately twenty-four years younger than Dr. Keller, and is not known to have a disability.
Dr. Keller created a position for herself in the APS Research, Development and Accountability Department ("RDA") for the remainder of the school year. She had no job responsibilities, no supervisor, and no job classification or title. Her office was located in a former supply closet. At this time, Dr. Keller began an independent study of the correlation between high-school drop-outs and standardized test results in elementary school.
In March 1999, Dr. Keller was diagnosed with breast cancer. Dr. Keller immediately discussed her diagnosis with Dr. Allison. Dr. Allison allegedly responded by telling Dr. Keller about many women he knew who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and subsequently died from the illness. Furthermore, in this meeting he stated that she would have to leave APS, or at a minimum, her salary would have to be "cut."
A few days later, APS Compensation Manager Dan Noble informed Plaintiff he had been instructed to place her position at RDA at a salary level that would represent a fifty-five percent (55%) reduction in her salary. With this reduction, Dr. Keller's salary would supply less compensation than her retirement. Thus, she chose to retire. Dr. Keller was the only Cabinet level employee to be removed from a Cabinet position during the 1998-1999 school year. She was the oldest Cabinet-level employee, the oldest female Cabinet-level employee by a substantial margin, and the only Cabinet-level employee to be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Following her demotion, Dr. Keller was given a variety of reasons for her removal from her position as head of human resources. Initially, Dr. Allison told her that he was removing her for political reasons, and that she had fallen into disfavor with many members of the board. When the case went before the EEOC, Defendants stated that Dr. Keller was removed because APS wanted someone more "professional" in the position, with experience outside the New Mexico School District. Next, in his interrogatories, Dr. Allison stated that Plaintiff requested her demotion from her job as head of human resources. Finally, Richard Toledo, at all relevant times a member of the Board of Education, refuted all of Dr. Allison's earlier explanations and testified that Dr. Keller was removed for the sole reason that Dr. Allison insisted on her removal and the Board acquiesced.
Plaintiff claims that prior to learning of Dr. Keller's age and disability, Dr. Allison promised Dr. Keller that her contract for her position as head of Human Services would be renewed. Dr. Allison frequently made comments about needing "new blood" in APS to Dr. Keller. In deposition testimony, high-level administrators and APS Board members noted that Dr. Allison preferred to hire younger, attractive women. Deposition testimony contains allusions to inappropriate interactions between Dr. Allison and his younger female staff members or interns.
The "save harmless" policy, which allows demoted employees to retain their salary level until the end of the school year, was allegedly created to address the emotional distress experienced by employees during significant employment changes. Under this plan, Dr. Keller retained the salary received as Assistant Superintendent during her time with RDA.
It appears that in the past, while employees in APS were required to enter into a new contract at the beginning of every school year, these were considered routine renewals, and employees were rehired unless they were to be terminated for cause. In deposition testimony, Plaintiff claimed that since the early 1980's, an APS employee could expect to be retained unless there was cause for not renewing the employment contract each year. Thus, while there is nothing explicit in the contract terms which would give rise to this expectation APS appears to have maintained the practice of routine renewals and terminations only for cause.
The treatment for Dr. Keller's breast cancer includes taking tamoxifen. A side effect of this drug is the drying and thinning of vaginal tissue, which renders vaginal intercourse painful.
Summary judgment is an integral part of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which are intended to "`secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action.'" Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 1). Under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, summary judgment is appropriate when the Court, viewing the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, determines that "there is no genuine dispute over a material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Thrasher v. B & B Chemical Co., 2 F.3d 995, 996 (10th Cir.1993).
The moving party bears the initial burden of showing that "there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Bacchus Indus., Inc. v. Arvin Indus., Inc., 939 F.2d 887, 891 (10th Cir. 1991). Once the moving party meets this burden, Rule 56(e) "requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the pleadings and by her own affidavits, or by the `depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file,' designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548. "Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is no `genuine issue for trial.'" Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).
Although the material submitted by the parties in support of and in opposition to the motion must be construed liberally in favor of the party opposing the motion, see Harsha v. United States, 590 F.2d 884, 887 (10th Cir.1979), the burden on the moving party may be discharged by demonstrating to the district court that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's position. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548. In such a situation, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
Defendants raise a number of arguments for granting summary judgment. The Court will address each in turn.
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