McClure v. Independent School District

• Citation: 228 F.3d 1205
• Decision Date: 06 October 2000
• Docket Number: Nos. 99-5029,99-5031,s. 99-5029
• Parties: (10th Cir. 2000) BETTY McCLURE , Plaintiff -Appellee/Cross-Appellant , v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 16 , MAYES COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, also known as Salina Public School District, Defendant -Appellant/Cross-Appellee , MARION STINSON and DENNIS WESTON, Defendants-Cross-Appellees. LARRY MILLS, JOE BROWN, and BILLY RICE, Defendants
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)

Page 1205

228 F.3d 1205 (10th Cir. 2000)

BETTY McCLURE , Plaintiff -Appellee/Cross-Appellant , v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 16 , MAYES COUNTY, OKLAHOMA, also known as Salina Public School District, Defendant -Appellant/Cross-Appellee , MARION STINSON and DENNIS WESTON, Defendants-Cross-Appellees.

LARRY MILLS, JOE BROWN, and BILLY RICE, Defendants.

Nos. 99-5029, 99-5031

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT

October 6, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (D.C. No. 97-CV-825-B ) [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Mark S. Rains (Jerry A. Richardson with him on the briefs) of Rosenstein, Fist & Ringold, Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Defendant-Appellant /Cross-Appellee and Defendants-Cross-Appellees.

Phyllis L. Walta of Walta & Walta, Enid, Oklahoma, for Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Before SEYMOUR, Chief Judge, ALARCON,^* and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges.

SEYMOUR, Chief Judge.

Betty McClure brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Independent School District No. 16 (the District), also known as the Salina Public Schools, and the five members of the Salina Board of Education (the Board). Mrs. McClure alleged that the termination of her employment as an elementary school principal with the District deprived her of her constitutional right to procedural due process. The district court granted summary judgment for Mrs. McClure in part but held that the individual board members were entitled to qualified immunity. Both sides appeal. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I

A review of the record reveals the following facts, many of which are undisputed. Mrs. McClure has a college degree in elementary education and a Master's degree in special education, as well as post-Master's degrees in psychometry¹ and school administration. After working for twenty years in other school districts, she worked for six years as an elementary school principal in the Salina school system. During her sixth year, the 1995-96 school year, she was evaluated by the then-superintendent of schools, Tom Merritt, and given an "excellent" rating. Her contract was renewed for the 1996-97 school year in February 1996 by a unanimous vote of the Board.

Her troubles apparently began as a result of her activities on behalf of the District to obtain additional monies for the school system under the Impact Aid Act.² Due to the efforts of Mrs. McClure and another individual, the District received well over one million dollars in Impact Aid funds. Superintendent Merritt, who had authorized the applications for additional funds, asked the Board to reward Mrs. McClure and the other individual for their efforts with payments of one percent each of the monies received. The Board unanimously approved the payments in July 1995. During the course of the 1995-96 school year, Mrs. McClure received approximately $10,000 to $12,000 from the funds received by the District that school year.

The Board subsequently began to question the payments because the amounts were higher than anticipated.³ They voted to disprove any payments for monies received in the 1996-97 school year. Superintendent Merritt resigned in May 1996. The Board held an executive session regarding the Impact Aid applications in June of that year and then tabled any action to investigate the matter further.

A new superintendent, Vol Woods, was hired to replace Mr. Merritt in early July 1996. On July 29, Mr. Woods gave Mrs. McClure written notice that cause might exist for her dismissal and suspended her with pay. On August 7, the Board directed Mr. Woods to give Mrs. McClure written notice of the reasons for her possible dismissal and to notify her of her right to request a hearing. On August 9, Mr. Woods sent the notification outlining the following reasons for Mrs. McClure's possible dismissal:

1. School employees have smelled liquor on your breath during school hours.

2. You have violated the School District's no smoking policy by smoking on school grounds during regular school hours.

3. You have allowed and accompanied teachers off of the school grounds during regular school hours, when those teachers should have been attending to duties during their planning periods, for you and the teachers to smoke.

4. You have often left school grounds without permission.

5. The majority of teachers at the elementary school have lost confidence in your administrative leadership.

6. You are frequently gone from the school and are unavailable for assistance to your teachers in your building.

7. You manage employees in your building by intimidation and fear.

8. You have used vulgar language to your employees in front of other employees.

9. You have personally brought liquor onto the school premises.

10. You belittle and humiliate subordinate employees.

11. You have improperly reviewed personnel files of School District employees.

12. The Board of Education lacks confidence in your abilities as an administrator.

Aplt. App., vol. I at 133-34.⁴

Mrs. McClure requested a due process hearing, which was held on August 29, 1996. She was present and represented by counsel, who objected to the participation of all five Board members due to bias and particularly to the participation of Marion Stinson and Dennis Weston on the ground that they had previously expressed a bias against Mrs. McClure. The attorney for the District, Doug Mann, while stating his view that the Board had the right to serve as fact finder, responded that members who were biased or who could not decide solely on the evidence should disqualify themselves. No one did.

Mr. Mann sought to introduce affidavits from thirteen District employees making various accusations against Mrs. McClure. Mrs. McClure's attorney then moved to have the affidavits barred on the ground that their admission denied her the right to cross-examination. Mr. Mann responded that the affiants had refused to appear in person and, because the Board had no subpoena power, he could not force them to provide live testimony. Approximately half of the affiants were in fact present at the hearing but did not testify. The affidavits in general made broad, conclusory allegations stating that the affiants had smelled liquor on Mrs. McClure's breath at school on unspecified occasions, that she smoked cigarettes in her office after 3:00 p.m. on school days and occasionally left school grounds with other teachers to smoke elsewhere, that she used vulgar language in front of school staff, and that her management style was one of fear and intimidation.

The Board presented three live witnesses, Cathy Bennett, Janet Morgan, and Judy Buster. Ms. Bennett was a teacher who was supervised by Mrs. McClure and whom Mrs. McClure had put on a plan of improvement in March 1996. She testified on direct examination that she had smelled liquor on Mrs. McClure's breath, that she had seen Mrs. McClure smoking during the school day in her office several times, and that Mrs. McClure was difficult to contact about school problems. On cross-examination Ms. Bennett became upset, left the stand, and refused to answer any more questions. Janet Morgan also gave live testimony. She is Cathy Bennett's daughter and admitted that she was angry with Mrs. McClure for putting her mother on a plan of improvement. The third live witness, Judy Buster, was an elementary teacher who testified that she smelled liquor on Mrs. McClure's breath back in 1994-95, had seen her smoking in her office, and had heard her use vulgar language. She also stated that Mrs. McClure was intimidating and often away from the building. Mrs. McClure presented testimony from several witnesses, all of whom were cross-examined.

The Board went into executive session and returned to vote unanimously to dismiss Mrs. McClure immediately. She subsequently applied for employment in public school systems within an eighty mile radius of Salina, sending out fifty to seventy resumes. After these attempts were unsuccessful, Mrs. McClure took early retirement and filed this lawsuit.

The district court granted summary judgment for Mrs. McClure on her claim that the due process hearing was rendered constitutionally inadequate by her inability to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against her, and awarded her both nominal and actual damages. The court also determined that Mrs. McClure had presented a fact issue on her allegation that she was denied the right to an impartial tribunal because two of the five Board members at her hearing were biased against her, but then held this claim mooted by the holding in her favor on the confrontation issue. Finally, the court held that the individual Board members were entitled to qualified immunity and that Mrs. McClure had presented no evidence to support an award of punitive damages against them in any event.

The District argues on appeal that the district court erred in holding as a matter of law that a due process deprivation occurred when the District presented affidavits at Mrs. McClure's termination hearing from affiants whom Mrs. McClure was not allowed to cross examine. The District also asserts that the court erred in awarding Mrs. McClure more than nominal damages on her due process claim despite evidence that she would have been terminated even if no due process violation had occurred. Mrs. McClure cross-appeals, contending that the court erred in granting the two individual Board members qualified immunity on her claim of bias and that she presented sufficient evidence to support an award of punitive damages against them. In addition, Mrs. McClure objects to the damages awarded, asserting that the court erred in giving her only nominal damages for her mental pain and suffering and in calculating her compensatory damages.

II

We review de novo the district court's grant of a motion for summary judgment, see Ben Ezra, Weinstein & Co., Inc. v. America Online, Inc., 206 F.3d 980, 984 (...