McReady v. Montgomery Cmty. Coll.

• Decision Date: 30 September 2020
• Docket Number: Case No.: GJH-19-2401
• Parties: EDWARD C. MCREADY, Plaintiff, v. MONTGOMERY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

EDWARD C. MCREADY, Plaintiff, v. MONTGOMERY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, et al., Defendants.

Case No.: GJH-19-2401

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND Southern Division

September 30, 2020

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Plaintiff Edward McReady brought this civil action as a pro se litigant against his former employer, Montgomery Community College, and several of its officials and staff (collectively, "Defendants") alleging violations of his right to free expression guaranteed under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 40 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, abusive discharge from public employment, breach of contract, and various permutations of tortious interference with current and prospective employment relations. ECF No. 1. Pending before the Court is Defendants' Motion to Dismiss Complaint. ECF No. 10. No hearing is necessary. See Loc. R. 105.6 (D. Md. 2018). For the following reasons, Defendant's Motion to Dismiss is granted.

I. BACKGROUND¹

A. Factual Background

Plaintiff Edward McReady was first employed by Montgomery College ("the College")as a part-time professor in the Lecturer pay rank from Fall 2000 through Fall 2005. ECF No. 1 ¶ 20. At the end of the Fall 2005 semester, Plaintiff resigned his part-time faculty position and notified the College that he had accepted a position as a full-time Assistant Academic Director of Accounting and Professor at another university.² Id. ¶ 21. However, Plaintiff returned to the College's part-time faculty at the beginning of the Spring 2014 semester. Id. ¶¶ 22.

i. Plaintiff's First Conflict with the College's Management

From Spring 2014 through Summer 2016, the College issued Plaintiff written contracts at the Lecturer pay scale to teach one or two Accounting courses each semester. ECF No. 1 ¶ 30. In August 2016, however, Plaintiff learned that, under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the College and Services Employees International Union, Local 500, CtW ("Collective Bargaining Agreement"), the College should have placed him in the Adjunct II pay rank when the College rehired him in Spring 2014. Id. ¶¶ 26, 38. Plaintiff contacted Defendant Elaine Doong, the Human Resource Department's Payroll Manager, and requested placement in the Adjunct II pay rank retroactive to the Spring 2014 semester with full back pay from that semester forward. Id. ¶ 38. On September 22, 2016, Plaintiff was notified that he had been placed in the Adjunct I pay rank effective retroactively to the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester, but the notification did not address his back pay request. Id. ¶ 39.

Finding this result unsatisfactory, Plaintiff contacted Defendants Katherine Michaelian³and Carolyn Terry⁴, requesting that they honor his "back pay request." Id. ¶ 41. Defendant Michalian referred the back pay request to Defendant Krista Walker⁵ in early October and Defendant Walker issued a second decision on October 21, 2016. Id. ¶¶ 41, 43. In the second decision, Defendant Walker notified Plaintiff that he would be placed in the Adjunct II pay rank effective retroactively to the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester, but denied his back pay request. Id. ¶ 43. This decision was approved by Defendant Robert Roop, the Chief Human Resource Officer, id. ¶ 11, on November 4, 2016. Id. ¶ 47.

Again dissatisfied with management's decision, Plaintiff: (1) filed a grievance on November 14, 2016, id. ¶ 57; (2) emailed Defendant Roop on November 15, 2016 "accus[ing] him of abusing his authority and violating [the College's] Visions, Mission, and Standards Service Statement," id. ¶ 69; and (3) attempted to elevate the issue to Defendant DeRionne Pollard, the College's President, on November 29, 2016, id. ¶¶ 52-53. None of these actions received an adequate response in Plaintiff's view. Defendant Michaelian decided Plaintiff's grievance on January 3, 2017, again denying his back pay request. Id. ¶¶ 57-58. Defendant Michael Carson⁶ wrote to Plaintiff's union representative on November 15, 2016, stating that Plaintiff could face discipline under the College's workplace violence policy "for his bullying and uncivil behavior . . . ."⁷ Id. ¶¶ 70-71. And Plaintiff did not receive a response from Defendant Pollard, instead Defendant Janet Wormack, the College's Senior Vice President forAdministrative and Fiscal Affairs, id. ¶ 10, responded to Plaintiff's emails, but failed to provide a substantive response to Plaintiff's concerns. Id. 1 ¶ 55. Defendants Wormack and Pollard also failed to discipline Defendants Roop and Carson as requested in Plaintiff's November 29 email. Id. ¶ 79. After failing to receive the response he wanted from the College's upper management, Plaintiff brought his complaints to the Union in an email that copied Defendants Pollard, Wormack, Terry, Roop, Carson, and all Part-Time Faculty. Id. ¶ 80.

ii. Plaintiff's Second Conflict with the College's Management

In October 2016, Plaintiff received an email from a human resources staff member informing him that it was "the College's intention to offer [him] an assignment consisting of 8 Instructional [credit hours]" for the Spring 2017 semester. ECF No. 1 ¶ 81 (alteration in original). Consequently, in November, Plaintiff emailed Defendant Michaelian requesting that he be considered for assignment to two of several four-credit-hour Accounting courses that had yet to be designated for assignment. Id. ¶ 83. Defendant Michaelian responded, informing Plaintiff that Ms. Andrea Foster, his Department Chair on the Takoma Park campus, would be in touch regarding his assignments for the Spring 2017 semester. Id. ¶ 84. The following day, Ms. Foster informed Plaintiff that he had been "added to the Spring 2017 schedule of Accounting courses." Id. ¶ 85. Plaintiff thanked Ms. Foster, and accepted her decision. Id.

The conflict came on January 12, 2017, when James Baisey, the College's Tacoma Park course coordinator for the BEACHMPS Accounting program, notified Plaintiff that "[d]ue to low enrollments . . . one or both of [Plaintiff's] classes may need to be reassigned[.]" Id. ¶ 87. On January 18, 2017, Plaintiff informed Mr. Baisey, Ms. Foster, and Defendant Michaelian that his name had been removed from one of the courses for which he had been designated for assignment and asked whether he would be "assigned one of the . . . presently unassignedAccounting courses on the Rockville campus. . . ?" Id. ¶ 88. Defendant Michaelian responded: "The classes at Rockville are being assigned to a full-time faculty member to make load and to part-time faculty with good faith consideration [for] this Spring [2017] semester." Id. ¶ 89 (alteration in original). Plaintiff contends Defendant Michaelian's statement was intentionally false because "Defendant Michaelian knew that she was approving the assignment of at least one of those remaining unassigned four classes to a part-time faculty member, i.e., Darryl Lesesne who did not have good faith consideration." Id. ¶¶ 89-90 (emphasis in original). Plaintiff refers to this misrepresentation as Defendant Michaelian's "Dishonesty and Malfeasance." Id. ¶ 99.

Following this initial exchange, Plaintiff and Defendants engaged in numerous communications surrounding Plaintiff's course assignment and Defendant Michaelian's alleged Dishonesty and Malfeasance.

• January 19, 2017: Plaintiff emailed Defendant Michaelian advising her that her January 18 statement was false and requested that she take corrective action. Id. ¶ 91-92.

• January 20, 2017: Defendant Michaelian responded claiming "the cancellation of a course previously assigned to a full-time professor in BEACHMPS 'necessitated' that she give the full-time professor one of the courses previously designated for assignment to [Plaintiff.]" Id. ¶ 94.

• January 20, 2017 [2:26 PM]: Plaintiff responded to Defendant Michaelian and explained in detail why her justification for the reassignment was flawed and asked her to reassign Professor Lesesne's course to Plaintiff. Id. ¶ 97.

• January 20, 2017 [4:04PM]: Defendant Michaelian responded stating that she stood by her decision and that Plaintiff could file a grievance if he wished. Id. ¶ 98.

• January 30, 2017: Plaintiff emailed Defendant Sanjay Rai requesting that he disciplineDefendant Michaelian and asked that Defendant Rai "recommend that the College compensate [him] for the monetary damages" resulting from Defendant Michaelian's behavior. Id. ¶ 100-02.

• January 31, 2017: Plaintiff sent a follow up email to Defendant Rai attaching email exchanges between Plaintiff and Defendant Michaelian. Id. ¶ 104.

• February 1, 2017: Defendant Rai informed Plaintiff that he would not discipline Defendant Michaelian or recommend that Plaintiff receive monetary compensation. Id. ¶ 105.

• February 1, 2017: Plaintiff emailed Defendant Rai expressing "shock and surprise" at Defendant Rai's "decision not to perform [his] duties." Id. ¶ 106 (alteration in original).

• February 6, 2017: Defendant Carson emailed Plaintiff asking him to "refrain from emailing all part-time faculty and other individuals that are not part of the grievance process" because "it is disruptive[.]" Id. ¶ 108.

• February 11, 2017: Plaintiff emailed a human resources staff member "express[ing] his concern that, since Defendant Michaelian had appointed him to only four credit hours of teaching in the Spring 2017 semester[,] . . . he would not properly be considered for appointment to the full eight credit hours in the subsequent Spring 2018 semester." Id. ¶ 123. Plaintiff copied this email to an unknown number of faculty members. Id.

• February 16, 2017: A meeting took place between Plaintiff and Defendant Michaelian during which Plaintiff asked: "You lied to me didn't you . . . ?" Id. ¶ 127.

• February 23, 2017 [2:58AM]: Plaintiff requested that Defendant Michaelian "disavow her January 18, 2017 intentional misrepresentation[,]" and copied the email to Defendants Pollard, Rai, Wormack, and Terry. Id. ¶ 120.

• February 23, 2017: Plaintiff

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