Long v. Board of Educ. of City of Philadelphia, Civ. A. No. 91-2750.

• Citation: 812 F. Supp. 525
• Decision Date: 20 January 1993
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 91-2750.
• Parties: Evelyn L. LONG v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Constance Clayton, Loretta Scuderi, and Francis J. Hoban.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

812 F. Supp. 525

Evelyn L. LONG v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Constance Clayton, Loretta Scuderi, and Francis J. Hoban.

Civ. A. No. 91-2750.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

January 20, 1993.

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Lanier E. Williams, Rosemarie Rhodes, Harper & Paul, Philadelphia, PA, for plaintiff.

Andrew M. Rosen, School Dist. of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

KATZ, District Judge.

The Defendants in the above-captioned case have moved for summary judgment in this civil rights action. For the following reasons, I will grant their motion.

I. Facts

Plaintiff, Evelyn Long ("Plaintiff" or "Long"), a black female, is a teacher employed by the School District of Philadelphia. Since 1978, her assignment has been to teach special education at Northeast High School. Plaintiff has sued the Board of Education of the City of Philadelphia ("the Board"); Constance Clayton ("Clayton"), the Superintendent of the Board as well as Chief Executive Officer of the Board; Loretta Scuderi ("Scuderi"), Superintendent of District Eight, a unit of the Board; and Francis J. Hoban ("Hoban"), Principal of Northeast High School (and a white male). Plaintiff claims that since 1984 and continuing to the present, Hoban has subjected her to a continuing series of racial and sexual harassment acts and that the Board, Clayton and Scuderi have failed to prevent Hoban from subjecting Plaintiff to this harassment, failed to take corrective action, and failed to properly discipline Hoban for his conduct toward the Plaintiff. Plaintiff has raised 18 specific factual allegations of discrimination in her complaint¹:

(1) During the 1984-85 school year, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban improperly required Plaintiff to be responsible for substitute service in the Music Department and refused Plaintiff's requests, as Special Education Chairperson, for substitute Special Education teachers. See Complaint at ¶¶ 13-14.

(2) During the period of 1984-88, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban denied Plaintiff extra-curricular pay, despite her assignment of the extra-curricular duties as Special Education Chairperson and despite the fact white employees and male employees received such compensation. See Complaint at ¶ 15.

(3) On October 16, 1986, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban charged Plaintiff with falsification of her roster. See Complaint at ¶ 16.

(4) On January 27, 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban gave Plaintiff an unsatisfactory rating without cause and improperly removed Plaintiff from her position as Special Education Department Chairperson. See Complaint at ¶¶ 17-19.

(5) In February 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban directed Scuderi to place false documents in Plaintiff's personnel file. See Complaint at ¶ 20.

(6) In April 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban failed to give Plaintiff a Biology roster for the 1988-89 school year, even though she had requested the position and had the proper seniority. The position was given to a white female with less seniority. See Complaint at ¶ 21.

(7) In May 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Plaintiff was forced to take sick leave for severe medical problems caused by Hoban's harassment. See Complaint at ¶ 22.

(8) On June 9, 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban gave Plaintiff an unsatisfactory incident report, regarding an analysis of her teaching performance of a class which she was required to teach but was not qualified to teach. See Complaint at ¶ 23.

(9) During the summer of 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban directed a custodian to break the lock on Plaintiff's locker although the school had a copy of the key for the lock. See Complaint at ¶ 24.

(10) On October 18, 1988, Plaintiff alleges that Plaintiff wrote a letter to Clayton regarding Hoban's harassment and requesting an appointment to review these matters. Plaintiff further alleges that no appointment was given and Clayton took no steps to correct the problem. See Complaint at ¶ 25.

(11) In March or April 1989, Plaintiff alleges that Plaintiff wrote a letter to Scuderi requesting action be taken against Hoban, and that no investigation nor action was taken. See Complaint at ¶ 26.²

(12) On May 17, 1989, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban admonished Plaintiff for arriving late to the auditorium for an assembly, when Plaintiff had been early but had to take a student to the dean's office. See Complaint at ¶ 27.

(13) In June 1989, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban required Plaintiff to relinquish certain textbooks, which were given to a white female teacher. In September 1989, Hoban instructed her not to distribute any textbooks until she received further notice although to Plaintiff's knowledge no other teachers received a similar instruction. See Complaint at ¶ 28 and 31.

(14) On June 5, 1989, Plaintiff alleges that the Assistant Principal at the direction of Hoban admonished Plaintiff for missing a scheduled meeting, despite the fact Plaintiff notified the Assistant Principal of a scheduling conflict. See Complaint at ¶ 29.

(15) In June 1990, Plaintiff alleges that Plaintiff was not given her preferred roster despite her seniority level. See Complaint at ¶ 30.

(16) On September 6, 1990, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban notified Plaintiff that he would be using her classroom for registration, despite other available rooms. Other space was subsequently used as a result of Plaintiff's protests. See Complaint at ¶ 32.

(17) In September 1990, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban caused Plaintiff's classes to be oversized and once the excess students were removed Plaintiff was left with pre-dominately male classes. See Complaint at ¶ 33.

(18) On March 11, 1991, Plaintiff alleges that Hoban accused Plaintiff of improperly allowing a student to attend classes, when the student should have been excluded from school for an incomplete measles immunization. See Complaint at ¶ 34.

Plaintiff frames her allegations of racial and sexual harassment and discrimination as a denial of equal protection under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Count 1) and a violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act ("PHRA"), 43 P.S. § 951 et seq. (Count 2).

II. Requirements to Grant Summary Judgment

Summary judgment is authorized by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, which states:

The judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.

The party seeking summary judgment "bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of `the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,' which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). "Material" facts are those facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the substantive law governing the claims made. An issue of fact is "genuine" only "if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party" in light of the burdens of proof required by substantive law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 2512, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

As will be detailed for each count below, the Plaintiff has failed to establish the existence of any genuine issues of material fact against any of the defendants.

III. Count 1: Plaintiff's Section 1983 Claim

a. Allegations 1-11 are time-barred.

Since Congress did not provide for a statute of limitations for § 1983, the United States Supreme Court has held that state statutes of limitations applicable to personal injury actions govern all § 1983 cases. See Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 276-280, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 1947-1949, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985). For § 1983 cases arising in Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit has used Pennsylvania's two-year personal injury statute of limitations, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5524(2). See Knoll v. Springfield Township School District, 763 F.2d 584, 585 (3d Cir.1985). The statute of limitations begins running when the cause of action accrues. The accrual of a plaintiff's § 1983 claims is governed by federal law. See Deary v. Three Un-Named Police Officers, 746 F.2d 185, 197 n. 16 (3d Cir.1984). A civil rights cause of action accrues under federal law when the plaintiff "knew or had reason to know of the injury that constitutes the basis of the action." Sandutch v. Muroski, 684 F.2d 252, 254 (3d Cir.1982).

In the list of Plaintiff's claims above, factual allegations (1) through (11) accrued more than two years prior to the filing of Plaintiff's complaint. Plaintiff filed her complaint on April 29, 1991. There is no dispute regarding when these alleged violations occurred. With respect to allegations (1)-(4), there also is no dispute regarding whether Plaintiff knew that the actions constituted a potential cause of action at the time of their occurrence as she filed formal complaints with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission regarding allegations (1), (2) and (4) and with her union regarding allegation (3). Furthermore, Plaintiff has not alleged that she did not know or have reason to know at the time the allegations (5) through (11) occurred that she was being harassed or discriminated against on the basis of her sex and/or race. Therefore, this court finds that the allegations (1) — (11) must be dismissed with prejudice as these incidents are time-barred.

b. Liability of Defendant Clayton

Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Clayton failed to prevent Defendant Hoban's harassment of her, failed to take corrective action, and failed to properly punish Defendant Hoban. See Complaint at ¶ 12.³ Plaintiff's claim against Defendant Clayton must fail as Clayton...