Morales–cruz v. Univ. of P.R.

• Decision Date: 31 March 2011
• Docket Number: Civil No. 09–1898CCC.
• Parties: Myrta B. MORALES–CRUZ, Plaintiffv.UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO; Roberto Aponte–Toro and his legal conjugal partnership; Carlos Diaz–Olivo and his legal conjugal partnership; Gladys Escalona and her legal conjugal partnership; Ivonne Moreno and her legal conjugal partnership; Sonia Balet and her legal conjugal partnership; Ana Guadalupe and her legal conjugal partnership; Jose Juan Estrada and his legal conjugal partnership; Angeles Molina and her legal conjugal partnership; Brad Weiner and his legal conjugal partnership; Paul Latortue and his legal conjugal partnership; Jane Doe and John Doe, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

792 F.Supp.2d 205
273 Ed. Law Rep. 202

Myrta B. MORALES–CRUZ, Plaintiff
v.
UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO; Roberto Aponte–Toro and his legal conjugal partnership; Carlos Diaz–Olivo and his legal conjugal partnership; Gladys Escalona and her legal conjugal partnership; Ivonne Moreno and her legal conjugal partnership; Sonia Balet and her legal conjugal partnership; Ana Guadalupe and her legal conjugal partnership; Jose Juan Estrada and his legal conjugal partnership; Angeles Molina and her legal conjugal partnership; Brad Weiner and his legal conjugal partnership; Paul Latortue and his legal conjugal partnership; Jane Doe and John Doe, Defendants.

Civil No. 09–1898CCC.

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

March 31, 2011.

[792 F.Supp.2d 207]

Daliah Lugo–Auffant, Perez Vargas & Lugo–Auffant Law Offices, Hato Rey, PR, for Plaintiff.Jorge E. Perez–Diaz, Maria Dolores Trelles–Hernandez, Pietrantoni Mendez & Alvarez, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.OPINION AND ORDER CARMEN CONSUELO CEREZO, District Judge.

Plaintiff Myrta Morales–Cruz (Morales), a former law professor at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, has brought this action under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that she was a victim of gender-based discrimination and deprived of various constitutional rights by the named defendants, which include the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and several of its administrative and academic officials. Before the Court now is the Motion to Dismiss filed by all defendants on April 13, 2010 (docket entry 53), plaintiff's opposition filed on May 17, 2010 (docket entry 59), and defendants' Reply to the Opposition filed on June 1, 2010 (docket entry 62).¹

The facts, as taken from the complaint, follow: Morales was hired as an Adjunct Professor by the UPR School of Law (School) in 2002. In 2003, she was offered the position of Assistant Professor, which placed her on track for tenure but subject to a 5–year probationary period. In 2008, when her probationary period was about to expire, Morales requested a one-year extension to it before being considered for tenure. Said request had to be reviewed by the School's personnel committee, composed by three of its professors, one of whom was defendant Carlos Díaz–Olivo (Díaz).

It appears that shortly before Morales' requested extension was considered by the School's personnel committee, she was called into the office of the School's Dean, defendant Roberto Aponte–Toro (Aponte), who interrogated her about an incident involving a male professor with whom she jointly taught a Legal Aid Clinic course and who was romantically involved with a student that became pregnant as a result. Aponte chastised Morales for not informing him of the relationship, and insisted that it was her duty to do so. On May 7, 2008, the personnel committee recommended favorably to Aponte that Morales probationary period be extended for one year. Díaz dissented from said recommendation, however, and bemoaned Morales' personality flaws, lack of judgment and inability to handle complex and sensitive situations based on the male professor/pregnant-student incident.

On May 12, 2008, Aponte recommended to the Administrative Committee of the UPR Río Piedras campus (Committee) that Morales' probationary period be extended for one year. Nonetheless, Aponte noted in his report the situation involving the male professor and the student and concurred with Díaz' opinion on the matter, stating that to grant tenure to Morales would result in “sentencing the Law School and the University to thirty years with an intelligent, albeit immature ... and fragile ... resource.” Amended Complaint (docket entry 49), at ¶ 13. He also labeled Morales as insecure and lacking in judgment. In response to those comments, on June 9, 2008 Morales wrote to the then Chancellor of the UPR Rio Piedras

[792 F.Supp.2d 208]

campus and President of its Administrative Committee as well, defendant Gladys Escalona (Escalona), to denounce what she considered were discriminatory and inflammatory comments made and actions taken by Aponte and Díaz during their handling of her request for extension of the probationary period. Aponte reacted to Morales' letter on June 25, 2008, by reversing his decision to recommend the extension of her probationary period. Aponte did not notify Morales of his new decision. Escalona then appointed an ad-hoc committee to review Morales' case, allegedly in contravention of UPR's regulations. Morales claims that in the weeks that followed, Aponte, Díaz and “others” which she does not identify continued to malign her, in writing and orally, within and outside the academic community, attacking her character, professional capacity and integrity and allegedly relating her to the professor-student situation and referring to her in official meetings as “that girl”. On July 2, 2008, the Committee, composed by defendants Escalona, Ivonne Moreno (Moreno), Sonia Balet (Balet), Ana Guadalupe (Guadalupe), José Juan Estrada (Estrada), Angeles Molina (Molina), Brad Weiner (Weiner) and Paul Latortue (Latortue) decided by majority vote against the one-year extension requested by Morales to her probationary period.

Against this factual backdrop, Morales has raised six causes of actions: (1) a Title VII sex discrimination claim against the UPR based on defendants having stated on multiple occasions that the decision to deny the extension of her probationary period resulted from her failure to alert Aponte of the relationship between the male professor and the student as well as on defendants having also stated that her handling of the situation characterized her as immature, fragile, unable to handle complex issues and lacking judgment, all of which she attributes to defendants having stereotyped her expected behavior and attitudes toward the professor-student incident on how a female would act; (2) a Title VII retaliation claim against the UPR based on Aponte's reversal of his original recommendation to the Committee that Morales' probationary term be extended after she complained to Escalona that Aponte and Díaz had handled her request for extension in a “discriminatory nature,” (3) a § 1983 claim against defendants Aponte, Díaz, Escalona, Moreno, Balet, Guadalupe, Latortue, Estrada, Molina and Weiner and their conjugal partnerships averring that her rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment were violated when she was discharged without due process of law and not provided an opportunity to clear her name of the “false and malicious” charges leveled against her, (4) a defamation claim against defendants Aponte and Díaz under the Constitution and laws of Puerto Rico, and (5) a tort claim against all defendants under the laws of Puerto Rico.

Defendants have moved to dismiss all claims (docket entry 53). The UPR, in support of its request that the Title VII claims be dismissed, invokes the deference traditionally afforded to higher education institutions on tenure decisions. It also avers that plaintiff has failed to plead enough facts to state prima facie claims for discrimination and retaliation under Title VII and that, as to the discrimination claim in particular, she failed to exhaust administrative remedies. The individual defendants, in turn, similarly allege that the § 1983 claims brought against them under the Due Process Clause fail as plaintiff neither had a property interest in her position nor was a liberty interest implicated in her termination. They also raise qualified immunity. As to the claims under Puerto Rico law, while also claiming that they lack merit, defendants seek dismissal,

[792 F.Supp.2d 209]

without prejudice, if all federal claims are ultimately dismissed.

Plaintiff has opposed the dismissal requested (docket entry 59). Predictably, she contends having pled enough facts to state claims for discrimination and retaliation under Title VII. She also posits that pursuant to UPR regulations she had a property interest in her position, insists that her liberty rights were infringed by the “false” and “defamatory” comments made by defendants described in the complaint, affirms that defendants are not entitled to be afforded qualified immunity on the constitutional causes of action, and argues that all claims under Puerto Rico law have been properly pleaded.

We now address each of the grounds for dismissal in the order in which they were raised. Before doing so, however, we briefly reiterate the standard applicable when reviewing motions to dismiss. To survive such a motion, a complaint must comport with the minimal requirements set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). Although Rule...