Murphy v. Board of Educ. of Rochester City School

• Citation: 273 F.Supp.2d 292
• Decision Date: 10 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. 00-CV-6038L.,00-CV-6038L.
• Parties: Donald MURPHY, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of New York

273 F.Supp.2d 292

Donald MURPHY, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE ROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants.

No. 00-CV-6038L.

United States District Court, W.D. New York.

July 10, 2003.

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Emmelyn Logan-Baldwin, Rochester, NY, for Plaintiff.

Maureen T. Alston, Harter, Secrest and Emery LLP, Jules L. Smith, Blitman & King, Rochester, NY, for Defendants.

DECISION AND ORDER

LARIMER, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

"Parvis e glandibus quercus": "tall oaks from little acorns grow." Like the proverbial oak tree, this case has grown from a simple employment dispute over one teacher's interschool transfer, into a gargantuan, broad-based campaign against an entire school system. Although an oak tree, as a provider of shade and a symbol of strength, might seem an inapt simile for this torturous case, it is fitting in another sense as well, for the mountains of paper that have been expended in this litigation probably amount to a good-sized tree's worth. It is more than unfortunate that what should have been a straightforward case involving a discrete set of facts and a few individuals has been transformed into a vehicle by which plaintiff Donald Murphy ("Murphy") and his attorney have sought to launch a virtual crusade, involving nearly every aspect of plaintiff's employment (and a good many things that have nothing at all to do with plaintiff or his employment), against his employer, the Rochester City School District ("RCSD" or "the District"), plaintiff's labor union, and over two dozen individuals, thereby necessitating the expenditure of untold resources by the parties, their attorneys, and this Court.

This action is part of a group of cases against the Rochester City School District and other defendants, filed by the same attorney, alleging a host of civil rights violations and other unlawful acts of every stripe against the plaintiffs, all of whom are or were teachers employed by the RCSD. Several of those actions have been dismissed after the Court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. See Seils v. RCSD, 192 F.Supp.2d 100 (W.D.N.Y.2002), and Bliss v. RCSD, 196 F.Supp.2d 314 (W.D.N.Y.2002) (dismissing three consolidated cases).¹ Defendants have moved for summary judgment in this action as well, and plaintiff has moved for "partial" summary judgment on the issue of liability, and for injunctive relief. Defendants' motions are granted and the complaint is dismissed.

BACKGROUND

This action in some ways relates to another action, Murphy v. Board of Educ. of RCSD, 93-CV-6158L, filed a decade ago by plaintiff in 1993.² In that action, plaintiff, a teacher in the RCSD, sued the District, the Rochester Teachers Association ("RTA"), and six individuals, alleging various violations of his civil rights, as well as a number of claims under New York law, in connection with certain events that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s.³ The Court dismissed that action in December 1997 after being informed by the parties that the case had settled.

In October 1999, however, plaintiff filed a motion seeking to vacate the Court's dismissal order and to compel defendants to comply with the settlement agreement. In addition, plaintiff sought to file a "supplemental" complaint, and add additional parties. The Court denied that motion for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on December 16, 1999, on the grounds that the action was a contract dispute between two residents of New York and, therefore, there was no diversity or other basis for federal jurisdiction, stating that "[i]f plaintiff wishes to file a new action in federal court, he may do so assuming that he has the requisite federal jurisdiction and assuming such a complaint does not breach the terms of the settlement agreement between the parties." Murphy v. Board of Educ. of RCSD, 79 F.Supp.2d 239, 242 (W.D.N.Y.1999).

Plaintiff then filed this action on January 24, 2000. In addition to the RCSD and the RTA, plaintiff has also sued the Board of Education of the RCSD ("the Board"), the individual members of the Board (nine of whom are named in the complaint), and nineteen other individuals who either are or were employed by the RCSD or the RTA. The amended complaint, which was filed on January 27, 2000, asserts twelve causes of action, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985(3); § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794; the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.; the New York State Human Rights Law ("HRL"), Exec. L. § 796; the New York Civil Rights Law ("CRL"); and several other theories under New York common law and the New York Constitution. Plaintiff seeks a sweeping array of various forms of relief, including: a declaratory judgment; injunctive relief, together with a "mechanism for the enforcement of the injunctions" based upon a detailed plan to be drafted by defendants showing precisely how they will cease their alleged discrimination against plaintiff; back pay, front pay, and benefits; a whopping $1.75 million in "compensatory" damages; punitive damages; pre- and post-judgment interest; and attorney's fees and costs.

DISCUSSION

I. Summary Judgment — General Standards In Discrimination Cases

The standard for deciding summary judgment motions is well established. Rule 56(c) provides that a motion for summary judgment shall be granted if the pleadings and supplemental evidentiary materials "show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Under the rule, the burden is on the moving party to inform the Court of the basis for its motion and to demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). After the moving party has carried its burden, the non-moving party "must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). "[T]he non-moving party must come forward with `specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.'" Id. at 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348 (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)).

"Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is no `genuine issue for trial.'" Id. When reviewing the record to determine whether a rational fact-finder could find for the non-moving party, however, all reasonable inferences must be drawn in favor of the non-moving party. Maguire v. Citicorp Retail Services, Inc., 147 F.3d 232, 235 (2d Cir.1998).

The general principles underlying a motion for summary judgment fully apply to discrimination actions. Weinstock v. Columbia Univ., 224 F.3d 33, 41 (2d Cir. 2000), petition for cert. filed, 71 U.S.L.W. 3680 (Apr. 17, 2003). Although courts are understandably cautious about granting summary judgment in cases where motive, intent or state of mind is at issue, Montana v. First Federal Savings and Loan Ass'n of Rochester, 869 F.2d 100, 103 (2d Cir.1989); Dister v. Continental Group, Inc., 859 F.2d 1108, 1114 (2d Cir.1988), "the salutary purposes of summary judgment-avoiding protracted, expensive and harassing trials-apply no less to discrimination cases than to ... other areas of litigation." Meiri v. Dacon, 759 F.2d 989, 998 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 829, 106 S.Ct. 91, 88 L.Ed.2d 74 (1985); see also Abdu-Brisson v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 239 F.3d 456, 466 (2d Cir.) ("It is now beyond cavil that summary judgment may be appropriate even in the fact-intensive context of discrimination cases"), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 993, 122 S.Ct. 460, 151 L.Ed.2d 378 (2001); Chambers v. TRM Copy Centers Corp., 43 F.3d 29, 40 (2d Cir.1994) ("summary judgment remains available to reject discrimination claims in cases lacking genuine issues of material fact"). Consequently, once the moving party has met its burden, the non-moving party in a discrimination action must come forward with evidence upon which a rational fact-finder could return a verdict in his favor. For a plaintiff in a discrimination case to survive a motion for summary judgment, he must do more than present "conclusory allegations of discrimination," Meiri, 759 F.2d at 998; he must offer "concrete particulars" to substantiate his claim. Id.

II. Plaintiff's Discrimination Claims Against the RCSD

A. Claims Based on Plaintiff's Transfers, Assignments, Etc.

Plaintiff, a white male born in 1956, alleges that defendants have discriminated against him on account of his "race, and/or sex, and/or age, and/or national origin, and/or disability ...." Amended Complaint ¶ 45. It is difficult to say precisely how he alleges that defendants have done so, however, because in setting forth his allegations of discrimination plaintiff has managed to be simultaneously prolix and vague. Plaintiff has essentially catalogued every employment-related grievance (of which there are many) from December 31, 1997 to the time of the filing of the complaint and beyond, and alleged in conclusory fashion that these resulted from defendants' "policy, pattern, practice, custom and usage" of discriminating against whites, males, older employees, etc. Since plaintiff's papers for the most part do not differentiate between these claims, they will be discussed collectively.

I also note that while plaintiff alleges all these various types of discrimination, some of them (such as age discrimination)⁴ receive scant, or no, mention in plaintiff's motion papers. This suggests that such claims are little more than boilerplate allegations that bear little or no relation to the facts of this case. This tack is also indicative of the scattershot approach taken by plaintiff. No...