Meyer v. State

• Decision Date: 05 July 2018
• Docket Number: A159376
• Citation: 292 Or.App. 647,426 P.3d 89
• Parties: Sarah MEYER and Gail Wooldridge, Personal Representative of the Estate of Martin Wooldridge, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. STATE of Oregon, BY AND THROUGH the OREGON LOTTERY, public bodies, Defendant-Respondent, and Jill Goldsmith, Larry Niswender, Tessa Sugahara, John Kroger, and Craig Durbin, Defendants.
• Court: Oregon Court of Appeals

292 Or.App. 647

426 P.3d 89

Sarah MEYER and Gail Wooldridge, Personal Representative of the Estate of Martin Wooldridge, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v. STATE of Oregon, BY AND THROUGH the OREGON LOTTERY, public bodies, Defendant-Respondent,andJill Goldsmith, Larry Niswender, Tessa Sugahara, John Kroger, and Craig Durbin, Defendants.

A159376

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Argued and submitted September 27, 2016.

July 5, 2018

William D. Stark, Salem, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellants.

Jona J. Maukonen, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent. Also on the brief were Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General.

Before DeVore, Presiding Judge, and Shorr, Judge, and Aoyagi, Judge.^*

SHORR, J.

Plaintiffs, Sarah Meyer and Martin Wooldridge, appeal from a general judgment dismissing their action against defendants Oregon State Lottery (the Lottery), Jill Goldsmith, Larry Niswender, Tessa Sugahara, John Kroger, and Craig Durbin.¹ Plaintiffs assert five assignments of error. We reject plaintiffs' fourth assignment of error without written discussion and write only to address their remaining assignments. First, plaintiffs assign error to the trial court's dismissal of their 42 USC section 1983 claims for failure to state a claim. Second, plaintiffs assign error to the trial court's dismissal of their claim for intentional interference with an economic relationship for failure to state a claim. Third, they assign error to the trial court's denial of their motions to compel production of certain documents created by Goldsmith during the two investigations that she conducted. Finally, in their fifth assignment of error, plaintiffs assert that the trial court erred in granting defendants' summary judgment motion as to plaintiffs' federal and state retaliation claims.² As explained below, we reject plaintiffs' second and third assignments. However, with respect to their first assignment of error, we conclude that the trial court erred in dismissing plaintiffs' section 1983 claim alleging that Niswender and Sugahara violated their right to intimate association. Further, with respect to the fifth assignment of error, we conclude that the trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment on certain aspects of plaintiffs' retaliation claims. As a result, we reverse and remand as to those claims and otherwise affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

We begin with a summary of the facts and procedural history. The relevant acts in this case occurred between 2008 and 2011. Plaintiffs, who were involved in an extramarital romantic relationship, were both managers for the Lottery. Because of anonymous complaints received from various employees regarding their relationship and how it affected their work, the Lottery opened an investigation into plaintiffs' department and, specifically, into plaintiffs themselves. Goldsmith, an outside investigator hired by the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ), performed the investigation. Sugahara, as an attorney for DOJ, oversaw the investigation. Kroger was the Attorney General at the time of the investigation.

During the pendency of that investigation, Niswender, the Lottery's then director, placed plaintiffs on administrative leave with pay. After being placed on leave, Meyer filed a complaint with the Lottery's human resources department alleging that Niswender had previously sexually harassed her and other women and that the investigation and her placement on administrative leave were in retaliation for her resistance to his sexual advances. A concurrent investigation into Meyer's allegations was also held. Goldsmith also conducted that investigation.

At the conclusion of both investigations, Durbin, the Lottery's Assistant Director for Security, issued plaintiffs disciplinary letters and allowed plaintiffs to return to work subject to increased supervision. Plaintiffs obtained Goldsmith's report regarding plaintiffs' department, but were never given a copy of Goldsmith's report regarding the investigation of Meyer's allegations against Niswender. Plaintiffs were given the opportunity to have a "name-clearing" hearing before the Lottery board in a public meeting; however, plaintiffs never took advantage of that opportunity. Sometime later, a copy of Goldsmith's report regarding plaintiffs' department was released to the media in response to a public records request.

Plaintiffs subsequently filed the current action against defendants, asserting seven claims for relief. Three of those claims are relevant on appeal. They are (1) a claim that the Lottery unlawfully retaliated against plaintiffs because they engaged in protected conduct; (2) claims under section 1983 alleging that (a) Niswender and Sugahara violated plaintiffs' right to equal protection, (b) Kroger failed to adequately train Sugahara, (c) Niswender, Sugahara, and Kroger violated plaintiffs' right to substantive and procedural due process, and (d) Niswender and Sugahara violated plaintiffs' right to freedom of association; and (3) a claim that Niswender intentionally interfered with plaintiffs' economic relationship with the Lottery.

Defendants responded with a motion to dismiss the section 1983 claims and the intentional interference with an economic relationship claim for failure to state a claim. Defendants also moved to dismiss Niswender, Sugahara, Kroger, and Durbin from the complaint. The trial court agreed and dismissed those claims and those defendants. Discovery proceeded on plaintiffs' remaining claims, during which plaintiffs sought Goldsmith's report regarding her investigation of Meyer's complaint against Niswender, as well as the notes and documents that Goldsmith collected during both investigations. The remaining defendants refused to turn over those documents, and the trial court denied plaintiffs' multiple motions to compel production of those documents.

At the conclusion of discovery, the remaining defendants sought summary judgment on plaintiffs' remaining sexual discrimination and retaliation claims. After a hearing, the trial court granted summary judgment to defendants.

II. ANALYSIS

As noted, we discuss four of the plaintiffs' assignments of error. Because those assignments involve different facts and law and are also subject to varying standards of review, we address each of them in turn below.

A. 42 USC section 1983 Claims

In their first assignment, plaintiffs argue that the trial court erred when it dismissed, under ORCP 21 A(8), the section 1983 claims for failure to state ultimate facts that constitute a claim.

Plaintiffs explicitly alleged three claims for relief against defendants under section 1983 : equal protection, substantive due process, and failure to train. Plaintiffs also argued before the trial court and us that they intended to plead (and their complaint contains at least some text alleging) claims for violations of their right to procedural due process and their right to freedom of association. Before the trial court, defendants also treated plaintiffs' complaint as containing claims for violations of their right to procedural due process and freedom of association.

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the section 1983 claims under ORCP 21 A(8), arguing that none of the claims alleged by plaintiffs assert a federal constitutional or statutory right that was violated and that, even if they did, defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on those claims, because none of those rights were clearly established. In response, plaintiffs argued that they did allege violations of clearly established constitutional rights. The trial court agreed with defendants and dismissed all of plaintiffs' section 1983 claims.³

When reviewing a trial court's decision to dismiss a claim under ORCP 21 A(8), we must determine if the "complaint * * * contain[s] factual allegations that, if proved, establish the right to the relief sought." Moser v. Mark , 223 Or. App. 52, 57, 195 P.3d 424 (2008). When undertaking that task, we assume "all well-pleaded facts" in the complaint "are true and give plaintiff[s] the benefit of all favorable inferences that reasonably may be drawn from those factual allegations." Skille v. Martinez , 288 Or. App. 207, 209-10, 406 P.3d 126, adh'd to as modified on recons , 289 Or. App. 637, 407 P.3d 998 (2017) (internal quotation marks omitted).

As noted, the claims at issue were brought under section 1983, which provides:

"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress."

"To state a claim for relief in an action brought under [ section] 1983, [plaintiffs] must establish that they were deprived of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and that the alleged deprivation was committed under color of state law." American Mfrs. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Sullivan , 526 U.S. 40, 49-50, 119 S.Ct. 977, 143 L.Ed. 2d 130 (1999).

In this case, the trial court concluded that plaintiffs did not allege any constitutional or statutory violations and, thus, they failed to allege ultimate facts that, if proved, established a claim for relief. For the reasons stated below, we conclude that the trial court only erred in dismissing plaintiffs' freedom of association claim. Accordingly, we reverse and remand as to that claim and otherwise affirm.

1. Equal protection

In their section 1983 claim against Niswender and Sugahara, plaintiffs alleged that their right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been violated.

The Fourteenth Amendment provides, in part, that "[n...