Pucci v. Nineteenth Dist. Court

Decision Date10 July 2008
Docket NumberNo. 07-10631.,07-10631.
Citation565 F.Supp.2d 792
PartiesJulie A. PUCCI, Plaintiff, v. NINETEENTH DISTRICT COURT, and Chief Judge Mark W. Somers, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan

Joel B. Sklar, Sanford Plotkin, Sanford Plotkin Assoc., Detroit, MI, for Plaintiff.

Karen K. Kuchek, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Lansing, MI, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

DAVID M. LAWSON, District Judge.

The plaintiff, Julie Pucci, has filed a second amended complaint alleging that she was wrongfully terminated from her job as an administrator in Michigan's Nineteenth District Court when defendant Mark W. Somers became that court's chief judge. She has pleaded four causes of action, but the foundation of her complaint is her belief that she lost her job when defendant Somers manipulated a court reorganization with the intention of eliminating her because her domestic relationship with Somers's rival, Judge William C. Hultgren, without benefit of marriage, clashed with Somers's religious beliefs. The defendants have filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that they are entitled to immunity under the Eleventh Amendment and the plaintiff has not produced evidence supporting the four remaining counts in her amended complaint. The plaintiff filed an answer and brief in opposition. The Court has reviewed the submissions of the parties and finds that the relevant law and facts have been set forth in the motion papers and that oral argument will not aid in the disposition of the motion. Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the motion be decided on the papers submitted. See E.D. Mich. LR 7.1(e)(2). The Court finds that the defendants are local units of government to which the Eleventh Amendment bar does not apply, and fact questions preclude summary judgment on all but the plaintiffs religious discrimination count and parts of the plaintiffs retaliation count. Therefore, the Court will grant the motion for summary judgment in part and dismiss count III and part of count II of the second amended complaint, and deny the motion in all other respects.

I.

Plaintiff Julie Pucci began her career with the Nineteenth District Court in March 1991 when she was hired as a court typist. The Nineteenth District Court serves the City of Dearborn. In December 1992, she took a position as a probation officer and judicial aide to Judge William Runco. In 1994, she became clerk of the court, and one year later she was promoted and became the assistant court administrator. In 1998, the plaintiffs position was reclassified to that of Deputy Court Administrator, and she reported to Court Administrator Doyne Jackson. This reclassification was approved by the Dearborn Civil Service Commission.

While the plaintiff was the deputy court administrator, she entered into a live-in relationship with William C. Hultgren, one of the court's judges. This relationship, which began in 2001, apparently caused no problems for the operation of the court until January 2003, when defendant Mark W. Somers was elected to replace a retiring judge of the court, who had been the chief judge.

The Nineteenth District Court is designated by statute as a "third class" district court, Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.8121(4), which means that the City of Dearborn "is responsible for maintaining, financing and operating the district court," Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.8103(3). The district court is an administrative unit unto itself, although it is subject to superintending control by the state supreme court. Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.8101(1). The administrative duties of the court, including the authority to hire and fire court employees, fall to the chief district court judge. Mich. Ct. R. 8.110(C)(3) (2008).

At one time, multi-judge Michigan courts selected their chief judges by the vote of their members. See Mich. Ct. R. 8.110 (1985). In 1995, the Michigan Supreme Court changed the rule so that chief judges would be selected by the state supreme court to serve two-year terms. See Mich. Ct. R. 8.110(B) (1995). With the election of Judge Somers, the Nineteenth District Court bench consisted of Judges Hultgren, Wygonik, and Somers. Apparently, the supreme court could not find one of their number to serve as chief judge, so the court appointed Judge Leo K. Foran, a judge of a neighboring district court, to serve as the chief judge of the Nineteenth District Court. His tenure as chief judge began in March 2005 and concluded in January 2006, when defendant Somers was appointed chief judge.

The parties agree that the relationship between Judges Hultgren and Somers was acrimonious, although it is unclear when that bitterness developed. Perhaps that was one reason Judge Foran was selected to be chief of a court of which he was not a member. In any event, Judge Foran testified that the tension between the two was obvious from the first time he sat in a room with both of them.

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs service as deputy court administrator proceeded apparently without incident, and she received good reviews about her work. In 2004, however, she raised a complaint about Judge Somers's practice of interjecting his personal religious beliefs into judicial proceedings and the business of the court. The record indicates that Judge Somers used official court stationery on three separate occasions to send official correspondence affixing a quote from a biblical passage. Judge Foran stated that for the ten months that he served as chief judge, he received ten or fifteen complaints from lawyers "about Judge Somers interjecting his religious beliefs from the bench or imposing sentences based on religion." Def.s' Mot., Ex. F, Foran Dep. 62. One example was when a "Muslim boy got a stiffer sentence by the judge because of the fact that whatever offense he had, it happened during Ramadan." Ibid. Others complained that Judge Somers lectured defendants about marijuana, declaring that it was the devil's weed or Satan's surge, and that he would ask litigants in court if they go to church. The plaintiff reported these incidents to Mr. Jackson, her supervisor, and regional court administrator Jan Hunt-Kost. Another court employee, Nancy Siwik, actually filed a complaint against Judge Somers with the state judicial tenure commission. There is no evidence in the record of the outcome of the tenure commission complaint, but the regional court administrator instructed Judge Somers to desist from using court stationery to send religious messages.

On March 30, 2005, Judge Foran announced his intention to reorganize the court's administrative structure. He planned to have "Sharon Langen remain as clerk of the court," move the plaintiff to court administrator, and not fill the position of deputy court administrator. Def.s' Mot., Ex. F, Foran Dep. 14-15. Judge Foran testified that the plaintiff was the natural successor for retiring court administrator Jackson. He said:

[S]he was doing the job as the court administrator anyway. She was accepted, highly regarded, and respected by any attorney that ever talked to me about her and highly respected and regarded in the community at large.

Def.s' Mot., Ex. F, Foran Dep. 10. While Mr. Jackson was the court administrator, he had delegated a large number of his duties to the plaintiff. Pl.'s Resp., Ex. 8, Somers Dep. 121.

Judge Somers vigorously opposed the plaintiff's elevation to court administrator because of her relationship with Judge Hultgren. He believed that there was "an inherent conflict," Pl.'s Resp., Ex. 8, Somers Dep. 133, and eventually he embarked upon a campaign to have the plaintiff removed as a court employee.

On March 31, 2005, Judge Somers sent a memo to Judge Foran complaining about the plaintiffs promotion. It states:

Judge Hultgren and myself have had some rather candid and, one might say, pointed conversations regarding the effect of his engagement to and live-in relationship with a court employee. I believe I can fairly characterize his position by stating he does not believe that relationship should prevent him from being chief judge and that he also believes it should not prevent Ms. Pucci from being promoted to court administrator upon the retirement of Mr. Jackson this summer, although he has said he would gladly relinquish any claim to the chief judge position if Ms. Pucci gets the administrator position. Moreover, he believes that Ms. Pucci should automatically get the job without any competition and that anything to the contrary would be "an insult". Judge Hultgren has gone so far as to tell me that this is "personal" to him, that he will never support me for the chief judge position if I oppose Ms. Pucci's appointment to court administrator and that he will do everything he can to get Judge Wygonik on his side of this issue. I wholeheartedly and completely disagree with Judge Hultgren's position in every respect. Although the present anti-nepotism rule technically applies only to married couples in this situation, I see no ethical or moral ground for standing upon technicalities. We are judges elected to serve our community and should willingly hold ourselves to the highest of standards. I am not the first to say that Judge Hultgren cannot serve as chief judge under these circumstancesthe Supreme Court has already done that. If need be, I will be the first to say that for the very same reasons Ms. Pucci cannot serve as court administrator.

I implore you to prevail upon my colleague and explain the impossibility of his position in this matter. As I have said to him directly, I am happy for them both to have found each other and to be in a loving relationship but their relationship comes with limitations for the workplace. The position I have been blessed with here is alike a dream come true. There is nothing I desire more than harmony in this court that for far too...

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13 cases
  • Pucci v. Somers
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan
    • 16 Diciembre 2011
    ...Court and the Sixth Circuit. See Pucci v. Nineteenth Dist. Court, 628 F.3d 752, 755–60 (6th Cir.2010); Pucci v. Nineteenth Dist. Court, 565 F.Supp.2d 792, 796–802 (E.D.Mich.2008). After the case was remanded to this Court by the court of appeals, it was tried to a jury beginning June 22, 20......
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