Klaassen v. Univ. of Kan. Sch. of Med.

• Decision Date: 03 February 2015
• Docket Number: Case No. 13–CV–2561–DDC–KGS.
• Citation: 84 F.Supp.3d 1228
• Parties: Curtis KLAASSEN, Ph.D., Plaintiff, v. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

84 F.Supp.3d 1228

Curtis KLAASSEN, Ph.D., Plaintiff

v.UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 13–CV–2561–DDC–KGS.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

Signed Feb. 3, 2015.

Jeremy K. Schrag, Alan L. Rupe, Kutak Rock LLP, Wichita, KS, for Plaintiff.

Anthony F. Rupp, Tara S. Eberline, Foulston Siefkin LLP, Overland Park, KS, Sara L. Trower, University of Kansas, Office of the General Counsel, Lawrence, KS, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DANIEL D. CRABTREE, District Judge.

The University of Kansas fired plaintiff Dr. Curtis Klaassen, a longtime medical professor at the school, on January 24, 2014. Plaintiff filed this lawsuit against the University of Kansas, the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and the University of Kansas Medical Center (collectively, “KUMC”). Plaintiff also sued various KUMC officials in their official and individual capacities. Plaintiff alleges that defendants retaliated against him and violated various federal and state laws after he criticized KUMC for financial mismanagement, misuse of grant funds, and other misconduct.

Defendants filed an Answer (Doc. 79) and then filed two Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings (Docs. 80, 82) on June 17, 2014. On January 26, 2015, plaintiff filed a Motion for Leave to Amend the Complaint (Doc. 101). This Memorandum and Order addresses plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend and both Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings. For the following reasons, the Court grants plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend and grants defendants' Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings in part and denies them in part. Specifically, the Court dismisses all claims asserted by plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint except:

• Counts 1, 6, and 7—First Amendment Retaliation, Procedural Due Process, and Substantive Due Process against defendant Girod in his official capacity;

• Count 1—First Amendment Retaliation against the Individual Defendants in their individual capacities;

• Count 6—Procedural Due Process against defendants Stites and Girod in their individual capacities;

• Count 12—Tortious Interference with a Prospective Business Relationship against defendants Terranova, Kopf, Jaeschke, Carlson, and Hagenbuch in their individual capacities;

• Count 13—Conversion against defendant Stites in his individual capacity;

• Count 14—Tortious Interference with Contract against defendant Stites in his individual capacity; and

• Count 15—Violations Pursuant to the Kansas Judicial Review Act against KUMC.

I. Motion for Leave to Amend

Plaintiff seeks leave amend his Complaint by filing the Second Amended Complaint (Doc. 101–1). The Second Amended Complaint is substantially similar to the Amended Complaint. However, it makes two sets of relevant changes: (1) it adds allegations to Counts 1, 6, 8, 9, and 11; and (2) it adds Count 15, a claim under the Kansas Judicial Review Act. Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a)(2) instructs that the Court “should freely give leave [to amend the complaint] when justice so requires.” The Court has not entered a scheduling order in this case, and the litigation is still in its early stages. Plaintiff asserts that he seeks to add allegations based on facts he discovered in a parallel state court lawsuit and to update the Court that he has exhausted his administrative remedies on his Kansas age discrimination claim. The Court concludes that this explanation is reasonable and therefore grants plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend.

The Second Amended Complaint supersedes the Amended Complaint. Nevertheless, the Court will still rule on defendants' two Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings—which attack the Amended Complaint—because the Second Amended Complaint is in large part identical to the Amended Complaint. However, where plaintiff had modified or added allegations in a way that prevents the Court from ruling on defendants' motions on a particular claim, defendants may file additional motions for judgment on the pleadings because they have not had a chance to challenge plaintiff's pleading of his Second Amended Complaint.

II. Factual Background

The following facts are taken from plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint and viewed in the light most favorable to him. S.E.C. v. Shields, 744 F.3d 633, 640 (10th Cir.2014).

Plaintiff served as a professor at KUMC from 1968 until the school fired him in 2014. Plaintiff's duties as a tenured KUMC medical professor involved applying for and winning research grants. Research grants funded not only his research, but also part of his salary and the salaries of the graduate students who worked with him. When plaintiff won a grant, he became the “principal investigator” for that grant. The principal investigator is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of a project funded by a research grant. During his time at KUMC, plaintiff was particularly successful at winning grants from the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”). However, whenever plaintiff won an NIH grant, the NIH actually awarded the grant to KUMC, not plaintiff. In other words, KUMC always was the actual recipient of NIH grants.

The dispute that led to this lawsuit started in 2010, when plaintiff became dissatisfied with then-Dean of the School of Medicine Barbara Atkinson's leadership at KUMC. Plaintiff helped form a “Committee of Eight,” made up of the Chairs of the basic sciences departments, which met with the University of Kansas' Chancellor to express concerns about KUMC's financial situation and lack of shared governance. In March 2011, the Committee of Eight met with Atkinson, during which plaintiff accused her and KUMC of taking money from the basic sciences programs to pay for other KUMC programs. In April 2011, one month after their meeting, Atkinson removed plaintiff from his position as Chair of the Pharmacology/Toxicology Department, a position he had held for nine years.

In October 2011, plaintiff met with members of the Pharmacology/Toxicology Department to discuss one of plaintiff's NIH grants. During the meeting, plaintiff accused KUMC and two KUMC officials of mismanaging federal grant money. On November 1, 2011, plaintiff also spoke with Dr. Gregory Kopf, Associate Vice Chancellor of Research Administration and Executive Director of the KUMC Research Institute, Inc. (“KUMCRI”) about KUMC's mismanagement of federal grant money.

Following those meetings, Paul Terranova, Vice Chancellor for Research, directed KUMC to place plaintiff on administrative leave with pay from November 1, 2011 through December 15, 2011, citing his “belligerent behavior” and “mishandling [of] grant funds.” Doc. 101–1 at ¶¶ 11, 55. Plaintiff asserts that the allegations of misconduct against him were pretextual and that KUMC placed him on administrative leave because he complained about KUMC's mismanagement of federal grant money, lack of shared governance, and financial mismanagement.

On November 21, 2011, at Terranova's direction, KUMC submitted requests to the NIH to remove plaintiff as the principal investigator for two grants and replace him with two other KUMC researchers. On January 10, 2012, KUMC reassigned plaintiff from the Department of Pharmacology/Toxicology to the Internal Medicine department and notified him it was moving his assigned office and research laboratory space to another building away from the Department of Pharmacology/Toxicology. That same day, KUMC administration told plaintiff he had overspent on his remaining NIH grants. Plaintiff maintains that the grants were overspent because Terranova and Kopf took money out of the accounts without plaintiff's permission.

In November 2011, while plaintiff was on leave, Terranova asked Allen Rawitch, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at KUMC, to investigate plaintiff. Following his investigation, Rawitch prepared an Inquiry Report. This report outlined a number of incidents that KUMC officials considered evidence of plaintiff's unprofessional behavior. Plaintiff contends the Inquiry Report was a pretext and KUMC actually placed him on leave because he had criticized the school.

On May 29, 2012, Rawitch convened an ad hoc faculty committee to hear the allegations described in the Inquiry Report. The hearing committee recommended that KUMC publicly censure plaintiff and asked plaintiff to issue a general apology. Steven Stites, Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs, adopted the committee's recommendation.

In December 2012, plaintiff sent an e-mail to Stites, who was then Interim Dean and Executive Vice Chancellor of KUMC, and to another Internal Medicine department professor. This e-mail complained that KUMC had misappropriated NIH grant funds by transferring money from accounts for which plaintiff served as principal investigator to accounts not related to the grant's research. On May 1, 2013, plaintiff met with Stites and others in the Internal Medicine department to discuss the grants. Plaintiff told Stites during the meeting that KUMC had misappropriated $200,000 in grant funds for which plaintiff then served or previously had served as principal investigator. Plaintiff alleges Stites improperly suggested using money from new grants to cover deficits in old existing grants, which plaintiff said was unethical conduct.

On May 8, 2013, Stites placed plaintiff back on administrative leave. According to plaintiff, Stites did so because plaintiff objected to KUMC's handling of grant money. In September 2013, while plaintiff remained on administrative leave with pay, KUMC asked the NIH to remove plaintiff as principal investigator on another grant.

On November 13, 2013, KUMC held a hearing before a faculty committee at which it charged plaintiff with professional misconduct and requested his termination. Plaintiff alleges that Stites and other employees received promotions from KUMC for their testimony against him at this hearing. After the hearing, the faculty committee recommended that KUMC reinstate plaintiff immediately and give him only a...