Murphy v. McClendon
| Decision Date | 08 April 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:86-CV-364-HTW.,1:86-CV-364-HTW. |
| Citation | 712 F. Supp. 921 |
| Parties | Darryl MURPHY and Gary Murray, Plaintiffs, v. John McCLENDON, Chief of Police of the City of East Point; John Marriner, Personnel Director of the City of East Point; Joseph Johnson, Jr., Manager/Treasurer of the City of East Point, and the City of East Point, a municipal corporation, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia |
Frank L. Derrickson, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiffs.
James A. Eidson, East Point, Ga., for defendants.
ORDER OF COURT
Before the court in this matter are the Report and Recommendation of the Magistrate and the motions by the plaintiff to amend the complaint and to consolidate. Oral argument was held concerning these motions on February 23, 1988.
The plaintiffs argue that the magistrate erred in finding that defendants were entitled to summary judgment on their procedural due process claim. They say that the post-termination hearing they received did not satisfy due process standards because the hearings' decision makers did not announce the reasons for their determination and indicate the evidence upon which they had relied. The defendants argue that no such written statement of reasons or evidence is required and that, even if it is, a sufficient written statement was made in this case.
The East Point Personnel Board of Appeals held hearings concerning the termination of the plaintiffs and these hearings were transcribed. At the end of the hearings, the plaintiffs' counsel argued that the Board should make specific factual findings about each plaintiff. The Board recessed to consider the evidence and then announced its decisions on plaintiffs, saying about each: "The employee having been recommended for disciplinary action for cause as determined by the city manager, the same is found to be appropriate under the circumstances of this case, and the punishment as recommended is hereby imposed." The city manager had informed each plaintiff that he was terminated "for conduct unbecoming your position."
The Supreme Court held in Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970), that due process requires that when a government agency seeks to terminate welfare benefits it must give the welfare recipients involved an administrative "fair hearing." It stated that one of the requisite components of this "fair hearing" was that "the decision maker should state the reasons for his determination and indicate the evidence he relied on." Id., 397 U.S. at 271; 90 S.Ct. at 1022. This statement "need not amount to a full opinion or even formal findings of fact and conclusions of law," the court said. Id. It explained that it required a statement of reasons in order to insure that the decision-maker based the decision "solely on the legal rules and evidence adduced at the hearing." Id.
The Supreme Court has applied the Goldberg reasoning to a variety of other situations, holding that due process requires an explanation of the reasons for decisions to revoke parole or probation, to take away good-time credits from inmates, or to transfer an inmate to a mental institution. Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480, 100 S.Ct. 1254, 63 L.Ed.2d 552 (1980); Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 563, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2978, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973); Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 489, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2604, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). It has also held, however, that due process does not require decisionmakers to explain why an inmate is denied parole, why an inmate is placed in administrative confinement, or why alternatives to incarceration were rejected at a probation revocation hearing. Black v. Romano, 471 U.S. 606, 105 S.Ct. 2254, 2260, 2261, 85 L.Ed.2d 636 (1985); Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 477, 494-95, 103 S.Ct. 864, 874, 883-84, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983); Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458, 467, 472, 101 S.Ct. 2460, 2465, 2468, 69 L.Ed.2d 158 (1981).
The Supreme Court has not yet determined whether persons responsible for making a final decision concerning the termination of an individual's public employment are required by due process to state the reasons for their decision and explain the evidence upon which they relied. The Eleventh Circuit has held that when a public employee who has a property interest in continuing employment is facing possible discharge he or she has the due process rights to be advised of the cause for his termination in sufficient detail, to be advised of the evidence against him or her, to be accorded a meaningful opportunity to be heard in his or her own defense, and to be afforded a hearing before an apparently impartial tribunal. Harris v. Birmingham Board of Education, 817 F.2d 1525, 1527 (11th Cir.1987); Kelly v. Smith, 764 F.2d 1412, 1415-16 (11th Cir.1985); Campbell v. Pierce County, Georgia, 741 F.2d 1342, 1345-46 (11th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1052, 105 S.Ct. 1754, 84 L.Ed.2d 818 (1985). There is no binding precedent, however, which indicates whether this decisionmaking tribunal must explain the reasons for its decision or the evidence upon which it relied.
The Tenth Circuit has held that, under Goldberg and Morrissey, when a public employee with a property interest in continuing employment is discharged he or she has the due process right to be told the decisionmaker's reasons for its decision and the evidence upon which it relied. McGhee v. Draper, 564 F.2d 902, 912 (10th Cir. 1977). The court explained that the reason for this requirement was "to assure that ex parte proofs are not relied on and a reasoned decision was made." Id.; see also Staton v. Mayes, 552 F.2d 908, 915-16 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 907, 98 S.Ct. 309, 54 L.Ed.2d 195 (1977). Wisconsin, Connecticut, Idaho, and West Virginia have also adopted this due process requirement. Clarke v. West Virginia Bd. of Regents, 166 W.Va. 702, 279 S.E.2d 169, 178 (1981); Bowler v. Board of Trustees, 101 Idaho 537, 617 P.2d 841, 847-48 (1980); Lee v. Board of Education, 181 Conn. 69, 434 A.2d 333, 339 (1980); Edmonds v. Board of Fire & Police Comm'rs, 66 Wis. 2d 337, 224 N.W.2d 575, 580-81 (1975).
It thus appears that among courts which have considered this issue there is a consensus that due process requires the decisionmaker in cases such as this one to explain the reasons for its decision and the evidence upon which it is relying. The court therefore finds that when a public employee with a property interest in continuing employment is discharged, due process requires that the entity that has ultimate responsibility for his or her discharge state the reasons for its determination and indicate the evidence upon which it is relying. The City of East Point's Personnel Board of Appeals gave only general, conclusory reasons for its actions and did not indicate the evidence upon which it relied; it thus violated plaintiffs' procedural due process rights. The court therefore DECLINES to adopt the magistrates recommendation that defendants be granted summary judgment on plaintiffs' procedural due process claim. As the facts concerning this claim are not in dispute, plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on it is GRANTED.
The defendants argue, first, that the magistrate erred in recommending that summary judgment be granted to plaintiffs on their Fourth Amendment claims. They primarily contend that several federal courts have recently entered decisions which permitted urinalysis to be conducted without a showing of individualized reasonable suspicion and that the doctrine of administrative search permits random urinalysis testing. After giving due consideration to the arguments raised in defendants' pleadings and those made at oral argument, the court finds that the magistrate's report correctly stated the applicable law concerning plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment claim. The portion of the magistrate's report which discusses this claim is therefore ADOPTED.
The defendants also argue that the magistrate erred in recommending summary judgment for the plaintiffs on their substantive due process claims. They correctly note that Everett v. Napper, 833 F.2d 1507, 1512-13 (11th Cir.1987), the case relied upon by the magistrate, held that urinalysis testing of a firefighter who was reasonably suspected of drug use did not violate the firefighters substantive due process rights. The case held open the question of whether regular or random urinalysis testing of public safety employees constitutes a substantive due process violation. Although the court recognizes that municipal governments have a strong, legitimate interest in preventing its public safety employees from using illicit drugs, testing in the absence of individualized suspicion constitutes an arbitrary intrusion into the important privacy interests of those officers who are not individually suspected of drug use. The court therefore ADOPTS the portion of the magistrate's report which discusses plaintiffs' substantive due process claims.
Another objection raised by the defendants is that the magistrate erred in failing to recommend that defendants Johnson and McClendon be granted qualified immunity. The defendant correctly notes that individuals sued in their individual capacities under section 1983 are entitled to assert a defense of qualified immunity. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). However, when a section 1983 suit is filed against a government official in his or her official capacity, the official is not entitled to a good faith immunity defense. Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. 464, 471-73, 105 S.Ct. 873, 878, 83 L.Ed.2d 878 (1985).
The complaint in this matter did not specify whether the defendants were sued in their individual capacity, their official capacity or both. It did, however, give the office as...
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