Noel v. Andrus
| Decision Date | 03 March 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-4163,86-4163 |
| Parties | 37 Ed. Law Rep. 494 Anthony Allen NOEL, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Colleen ANDRUS, et al., Defendants, Lafayette Parish School Board, Defendant-Appellant Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
L. Lane Roy, Roy & Hattan, Lafayette, La., for Lafayette Parish school bd.
Connie Welcome-Sadler, Lafayette, La., for Anthony Allen Noel.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before VAN GRAAFEILAND, * HIGGINBOTHAM, and JONES, Circuit Judges.
Anthony Noel, a probationary school teacher, seeks reinstatement and damages from the Lafayette Parish School Board and its members for not renewing his contract on grounds of dishonesty. Noel argues that the School Board denied his federal constitutional rights to a pre-termination hearing. Pendent to his 42 U.S.C Sec. 1983 claim, Noel argues that the School Board did not comply with La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442 in deciding not to renew his contract and that its reasons for doing so were false and defamatory. The district court, sitting without a jury, found that at least two of the charges against Noel were true, justifying nonrenewal.
But the district court also ruled that the School Board denied Noel's right to a pre-termination hearing under state law. First, the district court interpreted the Louisiana Teacher Tenure Act, La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:441-:446, to require a hearing before a probationary school teacher may be dismissed on grounds of unreasonable conduct, such as dishonesty. Second, the district court found that the School Board did not provide Noel with sufficient notice before his pre-termination meeting with Superintendent Vasher. The district court went further to hold that Noel had an implied property right in continued employment and was entitled to a pre-termination hearing under the fourteenth amendment as well. The district court awarded Noel $500.00 in damages for the deprivation of his due process rights and ordered the School Board to give him a hearing on his suitability for tenure. 1 Both parties appeal. Because we find that Noel's liberty interests were not violated, that Noel had no property interest in his job, and that the district court's construction of La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442 was erroneous, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand. 2
The Lafayette Parish School Board hired Noel as a non-tenured public school teacher on August 24, 1981. Under Louisiana law, Noel could not acquire tenure until he satisfactorily completed three full years of probationary employment. La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442. Noel taught special education at Yountville Elementary School during the 1981-82 school year, followed by health and physical education at Paul Breaux Junior High School during the 1982-1983 and 1983-1984 school years. On April 12, 1984, Vasher sent a form letter to all teachers, including Noel, informing them that they would be hired again for the 1984-1985 school year absent unforeseen circumstances.
During the summer of 1984, while still on probationary status, Noel volunteered and was assigned to teach driver's education to sixty students at Carencro High School. Under School Board policy, Noel was paid on an hourly basis and was limited to nine hours of driving time a day. Because more time was required to teach all sixty students if he was to have a vacation before the fall semester, Noel wanted to work longer hours. He testified that Larry O'Quinn, the driver's education coordinator at Carencro High School, gave him permission to drive more than nine hours a day. According to Noel, O'Quinn instructed him to record his excess hours and claim them for days he did not work; that he did so, but never claimed credit for time not worked.
Noel, however, admitted that on July 26 he traveled to New Orleans with Joseph Glaude, taking two days of vacation without authorization. Noel testified that after attempting to find his supervisors--Chester Baudoin and Frank Foreman--he informed Valerie Brouchet, a secretary in the transportation department, of his trip and told her that he would leave the training car at Paul Breaux Junior High School.
While Noel was in New Orleans, a representative of Louisiana Motors, which had loaned the car to the School Board for the purposes of the driver's education program, called Baudoin to tell him that the representative had been unable to find the car. Baudoin and Foreman then searched for the car, also without success. According to the report later filed with the School Board by Vasher, Baudoin and Foreman called Noel's home and spoke to his wife, who said that Noel was in New Orleans and had received permission to use the car for the trip.
Upon returning from New Orleans on July 27, Noel attended a professional improvement seminar. At this seminar, Baudoin asked Noel to come to his office on the morning of July 30. He did so, and in a meeting lasting approximately two hours, Baudoin and Foreman told Noel that they suspected that he had filed claims for days he did not teach and had made untruthful statements regarding the use of the training car. Noel replied that he had driven to New Orleans in Glaude's car, that he had told Brouchet about his trip, and that O'Quinn had authorized his "billing" practice.
While investigating these charges, Baudoin and Foreman learned that Noel had asked two students, Valerie Baptiste and Lucretia Francois, to lie for him. Baudoin and Foreman completed their investigation and filed a report with Vasher on August 3, 1984. On that same date, at Noel's request, Vasher and Foreman met with Noel who responded to the charges. Although given the opportunity to do so, Noel presented no evidence other than his own statement. 3
After the August 3 meeting, Vasher submitted a written report to the School Board in a closed executive session, recommending that Noel's contract not be renewed because he had lied about the training car, he had claimed pay for days not worked, and he had asked Baptiste and Francois to lie for him. The School Board decided not to renew Noel's employment and on August 16, 1984, Vasher gave Noel written notice of the School Board's decision.
Noel sued in federal court under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, asserting that the School Board's actions deprived him of his liberty and property rights under the fourteenth amendment. Noel also asserted pendent claims for a violation of his state procedural rights under La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442 and for defamation under La.Civ.Code Ann. art. 2315 (West 1979). The district court found that Noel had lied about the location of the training car and had asked Baptiste and Francois to lie for him, but found there was insufficient evidence that Noel had claimed pay for work not done. The district court also denied Noel's state law claim of defamation finding the School Board had not published information about the incident.
The district court then held that procedural rights secured by state statute had been denied. The district court read La.Rev.Stat. 17:442 to require a hearing before a probationary teacher may be dismissed on grounds of dishonesty and found that the August 3 meeting with Vasher was an inadequate hearing, for lack of sufficient notice of Noel's right to present evidence. Finally, "for the appellate court" it found that Noel had an implied property right in his continued employment, protectible under the fourteenth amendment. The district court then awarded Noel $500.00 in general damages and ordered the School Board to provide a hearing on Noel's suitability for tenure.
Noel argues that the School Board did not comply with the statutory requirements of La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442 in that it: (1) failed to provide Noel a pre-termination hearing, (2) failed to provide valid grounds on which to base his nonrenewal, and (3) failed to specify the grounds sufficient for review by the School Board. We treat each contention in turn.
The Lafayette Parish School Board hired Noel as a non-tenured public school teacher pursuant to La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442, which provides:
Each teacher shall serve a probationary term of three (3) years to be reckoned from the date of his first appointment in the parish or city in which the teacher is serving his probation. During the probationary term, the parish or city school board, as the case may be, may dismiss or discharge any probationary teacher upon the written recommendation of the parish or city superintendent of schools, as the case may be, accompanied by valid reasons therefor.
It is undisputed that Noel was a probationary teacher at the time of his termination and that as a general rule, school boards may decline to renew the contract of a probationary teacher without notice or hearing. See Foreman v. Vermilion Parish School Board, 353 So.2d 471, 473 (La.Ct.App.1977), cert. denied, 355 So.2d 257 (La.1978); Castille v. Evangeline Parish School Board, 304 So.2d 701, 703 (La.Ct.App.1975), cert. denied, 309 So.2d 342 (La.1975). Section 17:442 requires only that the decision not to renew occur "upon the written recommendation of the parish or city superintendent of schools, as the case may be, accompanied by valid reasons therefor." La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442. The probationary teacher found to be "unsatisfactory ... shall be notified in writing by the board that he has been discharged or dismissed." Id. (emphasis added). We are persuaded that the School Board met the statutory requirements for not renewing Noel's contract.
Nevertheless, Noel argues, and the district court found, that La.Rev.Stat. Sec. 17:442 requires a hearing before a non-tenured teacher can be dismissed on grounds of dishonesty. The district court reasoned that "[v]alid is a judgment word; it must therefore contemplate some opportunity for the plaintiff to be heard by the board" and distinguished a long line of Louisiana cases which...
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