Mandavilli v. Maldonado

• Decision Date: 22 February 1999
• Docket Number: No. Civ. 97-1518(JP).,Civ. 97-1518(JP).
• Parties: Satya N. MANDAVILLI, et. al., Plaintiffs, v. NORMAN I. MALDONADO, et. al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

Page 180

38 F.Supp.2d 180

Satya N. MANDAVILLI, et. al., Plaintiffs, v. NORMAN I. MALDONADO, et. al., Defendants.

No. Civ. 97-1518(JP).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

February 22, 1999.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Wilma E. Reveron-Collazo, San Juan, P.R., Nora Vargas-Acosta, Rio Piedras, P.R., for plaintiffs.

Eric R. Ronda del Toro, Mercado & Soto, San Juan, P.R., Julio Nigaglioni Arrache, Cancio, Nadal, Rivera, Diaz & Berrios, San Juan, P.R., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

PIERAS, Senior District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The Court has before it Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (docket No. 60), Motion Requesting Leave to Correct Summary Judgment (docket No. 49) and Plaintiff's Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment (docket No. 64). Plaintiffs Satya N. Mandavilli ("Mandavilli"), Luis Gast Pineda ("Gast"), Laura Mastrangelo Puech ("Mastrangelo") and Carmen Castañeyra de Las Casas ("Castañeyra") are all former professors at the Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico ("RUM"). Defendants include officials of RUM, the Chancellor, the Dean of the School of Engineering, the Chairperson of the Chemical of Engineering Department, members of the Engineering Personnel Committee, the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and members of RUM's Administrative Board. Plaintiffs allege that they have suffered discrimination at the hands of Defendants based on national origin, race, ethnic background, sex, and age in their denial of tenure.

This case involves claims for declaratory and injunctive relief as well as for monetary damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, § 1983, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended at 42 U.S.C. § 2000e ("Title VII"), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621, 29 U.S.C. § 215, 28 U.S.C. 1343(4), 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a), and supplemental state law claims under article 1802 of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico, 31 L.P.R.A. § 5141.

A brief history of the proceedings in this case is in order. Plaintiffs filed their Complaint on April 8, 1997, and on September 2, 1997, the Court held an Initial Scheduling Conference (ISC). Because the parties were not prepared for the ISC, the Court scheduled a Further ISC for October 14, 1997. At the Further ISC, the Court set trial for March 16, 1998 and allowed until February 16, 1998 for the filling of any dispositive motions. On January 29, 1998, the parties filed a Joint Petition for Rescheduling of Proceedings, which the Court initially rejected. On February 24, 1998, however, at the Pretrial Conference and to the Court's chagrin, the parties were not prepared for trial. Thus, the Court decided to conduct a Further Status Conference, resetting trial for November 16, 1998. The Court inadvertently did not schedule a new dispositive motion deadline at the February 24, 1998 meeting, and therefore, on August 5, 1998, entered an Order setting the deadline for the filing of any dispositive motions as September 8, 1998. On October 8, 1998, the Court noted that the dispositive motion deadline had passed, and further informed the parties that the Clerk's Office's Notice to Counsel and the Public in response to Hurricane Georges did not apply to the instant case.

According to Defendants, the August 5, 1998 Order setting the dispositive motion deadline was mistakenly sent to Attorney Eric Ronda, who had not been working at Defendants' attorneys' firm since May 31, 1998. The Clerk's Office informed the Court that when Ronda had notified it of his new address and law firm, all filings in cases where he had appeared as an attorney were thereafter sent to his new law firm. Thus, in this case, Defendants' attorneys did not receive the Order indicating September 8, 1998 as the dispositive motion deadline from the Clerk's Office, and they found out about the Court's Order from Wilma Reverón, Plaintiffs' attorney. If Ronda had filed a motion withdrawing from the case when he left Defendants' attorneys' law firm, the Clerk's Office would have continued to send filings to the law firm representing Defendants instead of to Ronda at his new firm. If Attorney Ronda had initially forwarded the Court's Order to his old law firm, the parties would also not be in this predicament. If the Court had set a dispositive motion deadline when it rescheduled trial in February, all parties would have known of the September 8, 1998 deadline well in advance.

Therefore, the Court concluded that there was no clear party at fault for the late filing of Defendants' Summary Judgment Motion and on October 28, 1998, ordered Plaintiffs to respond to Defendants' Summary Judgment Motion by November 11, 1998. Instead of filing a response, Plaintiffs filed an Opposition to Motion Requesting Leave to File Motion for Summary Judgment on October 30, 1998, arguing that it would be unfair to permit Defendants to file a summary judgment motion at such a late date and in violation of the Court's Orders. On November 9, 1998, the parties met with the Court for a Pretrial Conference as well as to discuss the outstanding issues before the Court, particularly the late filing of Defendants' Summary Judgment Motion. At this meeting, although Plaintiffs were not available by phone pursuant to the Court's ISC Order, the parties came to a settlement agreement, signed by Plaintiffs' and Defendants' attorneys, and thus, the Court refrained from ruling on the outstanding motions before it. On the eve of trial, however, Plaintiffs informed the Court that they had decided not to accept the settlement agreement, and on November 16, 1998 after further settlement discussions, the Court continued the trial sine die. On December 7, 1998, the Court denied Plaintiffs' Opposition to Motion Requesting Leave to File Motion for Summary Judgment and Ordered Plaintiffs to respond by December 30, 1998. Defendants never filed a reply to Plaintiffs' Opposition to Defendants Motion to Dismiss.

II. UNCONTESTED FACTS

Based on the record and parties' contentions, the following facts are undisputed.

A. Tenure and Promotion Evaluation Process at the University of Puerto Rico

At the time the events giving rise to Plaintiffs' Complaint occurred, the University of Puerto Rico ("UPR") was comprised of the Río Piedras, Medical Sciences and Mayaguez (RUM) campuses, the University Colleges of Humacao and Cayey, and the Administration of Regional Colleges. RUM is the second largest campus of the UPR system and is comprised of the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Agricultural Sciences, and Business Administration. These colleges are further sub-divided into departments and sections. The UPR is a public corporation which does not operate as a private enterprise and is funded mostly by the Puerto Rico Government.

The UPR is governed by rules and regulations regarding the process of evaluating professors for promotions in rank and tenure determinations. Various factors must be taken into consideration when determining promotions and tenure pursuant to Section 49.3 of the Regulations of the UPR. These factors include:

quality of teaching, research or disclosure; devotion to duties and college service; compliance with teaching duties; professional improvements; cooperation in the workings of the faculty, including committees; research and creation works performed; conferences on subjects related to its field of expertise; publications; expositions, concerts and other analogous; acknowledgments received; well grounded and supported opinions by its fellow workers and other persons related to its job; professional attitude; disposition of the professor to participate in professional activities; and its fairness, tact, good judgment, discretion, and objectivity in handling situations in which it takes part; spontaneous cooperation with the unit it serves and with the institution in general.

In their evaluation process for tenure or promotions, professors are subject to both peer and student evaluations. The peer evaluations are conducted by other tenured professors from the same department as the tenure or promotion candidate, and this body of professors is called the Department Personnel Committee. Student evaluations are distributed at the end of the academic semester and are ultimately compiled and made part of the professor's personnel file.

Once a professor is entitled to a promotion or tenure, the professor's Department Personnel Committee issues a recommendation as to whether the Committee supports the proposed action. Along with this assessment, the Department Personnel Committee delivers a copy of student evaluations and the candidate's personnel file to the Faculty Personnel Committee. The Faculty Personnel Committee is comprised of one elected representative from each Department Personnel Committee and one or two representatives appointed by the Dean. Upon receiving the information from the Department Personnel Committee regarding a tenure/promotion candidate, the Faculty Committee decides either to accept or reject the Department Personnel Committee's recommendation or to render one of their own. Also at this time, the Dean and Chair of the Department may also make their own recommendations for or against a candidate.

The Faculty Committee's evaluation is then sent to the Administrative Board of RUM, together with the Department Personnel Committee's recommendation, student evaluations, other relevant documents, and the Chair or Dean's position statement. The Administrative Board is the entity which ultimately decides if a professor will be promoted or given tenure. The Administrative Board is comprised of the Deans of the Colleges of Engineering, Arts & Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, and Business Administration; the Deans of Students Affairs, Academic Affairs, and Administration; one representative elected by the students; two representatives elected by the faculty; and the...