Martinez Catala v. Guzman Cardona
| Decision Date | 06 June 1997 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 93-1487 (JP).,Civil No. 93-1930 (JP). |
| Citation | 971 F.Supp. 641 |
| Parties | Marisol MARTINEZ CATALA, et al., Plaintiff, v. Hon. Maria D. GUZMAN CARDONA, et al., Defendant. Francisca SANTIAGO SERRANO, et al., Plaintiff, v. Hon. Maria D. GUZMAN CARDONA, et al., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Carlos Del Valle Cruz, Lespier & Muñoz Noya, Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiff.
José R. Gaztambide-Añeses, Gaztambide & Plaza, San Juan, PR, for Defendant.
The Court has before it defendants' motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs, opposition and cross-motion for summary judgment, and their respective supplements and corrections thereto (docket Nos. 45, 49, 50, 54, 66, 68 and 74). This is a consolidated action for damages and reinstatement in which plaintiffs allege they were demoted or discharged from their municipal government positions because of their political affiliation, in violation of their rights under the First Amendment and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Plaintiffs in the first of the consolidated cases held various positions as assistants to the Mayor of the Municipality of Flórida, Puerto Rico, and plaintiffs in the second case were employees of the Elderly Community Center of the Municipality of Flórida, Puerto Rico. In early January 1993, after the elections during which defendant María Guzmán was elected Mayor of the Municipality of Flórida, plaintiffs were either demoted or fired from their positions.
All plaintiffs allege that they were discharged or demoted because of their political affiliation with the Popular Democratic Party ("PDP") and/or non-allegiance to the New Progressive Party ("NPP"), in violation of their First Amendment rights. As a second issue, plaintiffs assert that their dismissals violated their rights to due process protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Plaintiffs admit they did not request administrative hearings to contest their dismissals. However, they contend that administrative hearings would have been futile, since the hearing officers would have been members of the NPP party and would have upheld the unconstitutional dismissals. Therefore, plaintiffs argue that their failure to request hearings should not prevent them from requesting relief.
Defendants admit that all plaintiffs were terminated or reassigned. They assert, however, that all of the employees who were assistants to the Mayor were discharged either because they held confidential positions, or because their original appointments were in violation of various provisions of the Puerto Rico Personnel Law. Therefore, they assert that the appointments were null ab initio and accordingly plaintiffs had no cognizable property interest in continued employment. Even if they had a property interest, defendants contend, there was no violation of their due process rights because plaintiffs did not request hearings to contest the adverse personnel actions. In the second consolidated case, defendants assert that the employees of the Elderly Center were terminated due to lack of funds, not because of any political discrimination by defendants.
Defendants moved for summary judgment on the grounds that political affiliation was an appropriate criterion for all the positions held by plaintiffs and therefore the dismissals did not violate their First Amendment rights. Secondly, defendants asserted that none of the plaintiffs, except Pedro Rivera Maldonado, who was reassigned to a career position, had a cognizable property interest in continued employment because all were hired in violation of applicable laws and regulations. As a final argument, defendants contend they are entitled to qualified immunity because a reasonable person would not have known that dismissing plaintiffs violated their constitutional rights.
Plaintiffs oppose defendants' motion on the ground that it is not adequately supported by admissible evidence. Plaintiffs also argue that defendants' failure to produce job descriptions is fatal to their argument that political affiliation was an appropriate requirement for plaintiffs' positions. Plaintiffs contend that defendants must establish the inherent functions of a position in order to prove that political affiliation is an appropriate requirement for that position. Finally, plaintiff argue that defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity because at the time of the dismissals, it was clearly established that municipal employees could not be fired for political reasons unless political affiliation was a valid requirement for the position. Regardless, assert plaintiffs, the municipality itself cannot claim the defense of qualified immunity. With respect to the Due Process claims, plaintiffs assert that since all municipal employees in Flórida were hired in contravention of the personnel laws, employees validly expected that they would not be dismissed except in an even-handed application of the personnel laws. Plaintiffs assert that this expectation rises to the level of a cognizable property interest. Plaintiffs have cross-moved for summary judgment on their Due Process claims, asserting that a law enacted in 1991 normalized their appointments and thereby accorded them a property interest in their employment. Plaintiffs' arguments are general, and fail to incorporate the facts appearing in the plaintiffs' personnel files. Cases such as the one at bar must be decided based on each plaintiff's unique circumstances; broad arguments alone are insufficient. As a result of plaintiffs' failure to support their arguments by reference to the contents of their personnel files or other concrete evidence, the Court was required to expend substantial resources of its own in carefully reviewing these records, as they are critical evidence in this case.
The parties stipulated to certain facts during the Initial Scheduling Conference, see docket No. 28. The Court has supplemented these facts by comparing the parties' statements of contested and uncontested facts, as supported by the personnel files of the plaintiffs. The court has omitted uncontested facts proposed by defendants where such facts are not supported by information contained in the personnel files.
1. The defendant Municipality of Flórida is a unit of local government under the laws of Puerto Rico that is considered a person for purposes of the Federal Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
2. Defendant, María D. Guzmán Cardona, was elected Mayor of the Municipality of Flórida in the general elections held on November 4, 1992. She is a well-known member of the NPP and ran on the NPP ticket.
3. Defendant María L. González is the Personnel Director of the Municipality of Flórida.
4. All plaintiffs were dismissed during the month of January 1993. Further, none of the plaintiffs availed himself of informal or formal administrative procedures for grievance hearings.
5. The parties do not dispute the personnel histories of the individual plaintiffs who worked as assistants to the Mayor in Civil Case No. 93-1487(JP).
Ms. Martínez Cátala started working for the Municipality of Flórida on March 1, 1985, as the Municipal Assembly Secretary, a trust position. On June 11, 1992, Ms. Martínez Cátala received a letter from then Mayor de León, offering her the position of Administrative Aide, with career status and an increase in salary. Ms. Martínez Cátala accepted the position on June 18, 1992, and began working as an Administrative Aide to the Mayor on July 1, 1992.
Ms. Vázquez Maldonado began working for the Municipality of Flórida on January 26 1986, as a Filing Clerk, a career position, with probationary status. On January 30, 1989, Ms. Vázquez Maldonado was offered the position of Secretary to the Mayor. On April 3, 1989, she was promoted to this confidential position, with an increase in salary.
Ms. Díaz Cortez began working for the Municipality of Flórida on October 15, 1983, with a probationary status as an Activities Coordinator. On February 1, 1989, she was promoted to Public Relations Officer, a trust position.
Mr. Cintrón Maldonado began working for the Municipality in 1985 as a driver for the Department of Public Works. He was reclassified as an MPL Driver with an increase in salary on September 1, 1985. On September 3, 1985, he was appointed Director of the Sports and Recreation Department. On July 7, 1989, he resigned from his position as Director of the Sports and Recreation Department, effective July 10, 1989. In November of 1989, he returned to a position as Administrative Aide in the Municipal Graveyard with permanent status as a career employee, without complying with the personnel laws. On September 1, 1991, Cintrón Maldonado was promoted to Director of Sports and Recreation Department, a trust position. He became Director of the Civil Defense Department on February 1, 1992, also a trust position.
Ms. Cardona de Jesús began working for the Municipality as an Administrator in the Municipal Dispensary on January 15, 1985, a trust position. Thereafter, on September 3, 1985, she was reclassified as an Administrative Aide, although she continued to work in the same place and continued to perform the same duties and functions. During 1989, the Municipal Dispensary became a Commonwealth Department of Health facility.
Mr. Rivera Maldonado started working in the Finance Division in January of 1973, as a Bookkeeping Secretary. During 1984-1985, plaintiff left his position as Bookkeeping Secretary and became Bookkeeping Official, a permanent career position. He became Director of Finance, a confidential position, in 1988. Like the...
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...850 F.2d 10, 14 (1st Cir.1988); Kercado-Melendez v. Aponte-Roque, 829 F.2d 255, 264 (1st Cir.1987); Martinez Catala v. Guzman Cardona, 971 F.Supp. 641, 648-9 (D.P.R.1997). Cepero-Rivera, nonetheless, must make a fact-specific showing that a causal connection exists between the adverse treat......
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