Luck v. Mazzone

• Decision Date: 20 April 1995
• Docket Number: D,No. 1405,1405
• Citation: 52 F.3d 475
• Parties: Laura LUCK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Honorable Michael A. MAZZONE, Surrogate and County Judge, Individually and in his Official Capacity, New York State Unified Court System and Honorable E. Leo Milonas, Chief Administrator in his Official Capacity, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 94-9052.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 475

52 F.3d 475

Laura LUCK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Honorable Michael A. MAZZONE, Surrogate and County Judge Individually and in his Official Capacity, New York State Unified Court System and Honorable E. Leo Milonas, Chief Administrator in his Official Capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1405, Docket 94-9052.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 13, 1995.

Decided April 20, 1995.

Nancy E. Hoffman, Albany, NY (William A. Herbert, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.

Daniel Smirlock, Asst. Atty. Gen. Albany, NY (Dennis C. Vacco, Atty. Gen., Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Sol. Gen., Nancy A. Spiegel, Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before: FEINBERG, VAN GRAAFEILAND, and KEARSE, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff Laura Luck, a former secretary in the New York State court system, appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., Judge, dismissing her claims brought principally under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988) against defendants Honorable Michael A. Mazzone et al., alleging that the termination of her employment because of a communication she sent to a radio station violated her rights under the Due Process Clause and the First Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on the grounds that the letter Luck sent to the radio station did not pertain to a matter of public concern and that the summary termination of her employment did not violate her right to due process; the court declined to exercise jurisdiction over Luck's pendent state-law claims. On appeal, Luck principally challenges the court's substantive conclusions. We reject her contentions.

A public employee does not relinquish her First Amendment rights to comment on matters of public interest by virtue of government employment. Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 140, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 1686-87, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983) ("Connick "); Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 1734, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968) ("Pickering "). In weighing such an employee's claim that her First Amendment rights have been infringed, however, a court must "seek 'a balance between the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.' " Connick, 461 U.S. at 142, 103 S.Ct. at 1687 (quoting Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1734). That balance must reflect "the common-sense realization that government offices could not function if every employment decision became a constitutional matter." Connick, 461 U.S. at 143, 103 S.Ct. at 1688. Thus, the First Amendment does not immunize from dismissal a public employee who speaks "not as a citizen upon matters of public concern, but instead as an employee upon matters only of personal interest." Id. at 147, 103 S.Ct. at 1690; see, e.g., Ezekwo v. NYC Health & Hospitals Corp., 940 F.2d 775, 781 (2d Cir.) (medical resident's complaints about aspects of residency program that negatively affected her were "personal in nature and generally related to her own situation," and hence dismissal on account of those complaints did not violate the First Amendment), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1013, 112 S.Ct. 657, 116 L.Ed.2d 749 (1991). Whether an employee's speech addresses a matter of public concern is a question of law, see, e.g., Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 386 n. 9, 107 S.Ct. 2891, 2898 n. 9, 97 L.Ed.2d 315 (1987); Connick, 461 U.S. at 148 n. 7, 103 S.Ct. at 1691 n. 7, to be determined in light of "the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed by the whole record," id. at 147-48, 103 S.Ct. at 1690-91; see also Sheppard v. Beerman, 18 F.3d 147, 151 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 73, 130 L.Ed.2d 28 (1994).

In the present case, the events are not in dispute. Luck's position, to which she was nominated by Fulton County Judge and Surrogate Mazzone, was "Secretary to Judge." Luck was hired to work in the Fulton County Surrogate's Court, which was located in the Fulton County Office Building ("FCOB"). Beginning in 1991, Luck's desk was in a room that served as a courtroom/library.

In July 1993, the radio station "WENT" aired a news item about the meeting room of the Board of Supervisors in the FCOB, stating, inter alia, that that room was not air-conditioned and was "about the only place in the entire building without air conditioning." Two days later, Luck sent WENT an anonymous note stating that she wished to correct that news item. Her note made no statement about the Board of Supervisors' room; rather, it stated that the FCOB courtroom/library was "also not air conditioned. These offices contain four employees who work seven hours a day, five days a week." The note was signed, "an overheated worker." Given the note's substance, i.e., its references only to the number of workers in the courtroom/library and the length of their work week in un-air-conditioned surroundings, together with its signature by "an overheated worker," the district court correctly concluded that this communication concerned an employee's essentially private complaint, rather than a matter of public interest. Accordingly, the First Amendment did not foreclose the termination of Luck's employment for sending the note.

Nor do we see merit in Luck's...