Qvyjt v. Lin, 94 C 50398.

• Citation: 932 F. Supp. 1100
• Decision Date: 23 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94 C 50398.,94 C 50398.
• Parties: Fernando QVYJT, Plaintiff, v. Dr. Chhiu-Tsu LIN, Dr. Joe W. Vaughn and Dr. Morley Russell, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

932 F. Supp. 1100

Fernando QVYJT, Plaintiff, v. Dr. Chhiu-Tsu LIN, Dr. Joe W. Vaughn and Dr. Morley Russell, Defendants.

No. 94 C 50398.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Western Division.

July 23, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Robert P. Nolan, Nolan & Herrmann, DeKalb, IL, for plaintiff.

Iain D. Johnston, Illinois Attorney General's Office, Chicago, IL, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

REINHARD, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff, Fernando Qvyjt, filed an amended three-count complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against defendants, Dr. Chhiu-Tsu Lin ("Dr. Lin"), Dr. Joe W. Vaughn ("Dr. Vaughn") and Dr. Morley Russell ("Dr. Russell"). At the time the basis for this action arose, plaintiff was a graduate student at Northern Illinois University ("NIU"), and defendants were faculty members of NIU's chemistry department. Count I alleges that defendants deprived plaintiff of his property right and liberty interest in obtaining an education at NIU without due process of law. Counts II and III allege that defendants retaliated against plaintiff for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. This court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343, and venue is proper as all the alleged events occurred in this district and division. Defendants move for summary judgment on all counts.

FACTS

Defendants note that all facts contained in their statement of facts filed pursuant to Local General Rule 12M are deemed admitted due to plaintiff's failure to comply with Local General Rule 12N. Local General Rule 12N provides the only acceptable means of disputing the moving parties' facts and of presenting additional facts to the court. Midwest Imports, Ltd. v. Coval, 71 F.3d 1311, 1317 (7th Cir.1995). Plaintiff did not file a statement of facts consisting of short, numbered paragraphs pursuant to Local General Rule 12N(3)(a) in order to contest any fact contained in defendants' 12M statement, nor did he file a similar statement pursuant to Local General Rule 12N(3)(b) to offer any additional facts. Instead, plaintiff begins his response brief by stating that although he has "few quarrels" with defendants' statement of facts, he would make some "corrections and additions." Plaintiff then proceeds to offer the corrections and additions in the form of a narrative factual discussion, leaving this court to divine what portions of defendants' 12M statement he seeks to contest and discover the additional facts he seeks to offer. This task does not rest on the district court; rather, the task rests on the litigants, Northwestern Nat'l Ins. Co. v. Baltes, 15 F.3d 660, 662-63 (7th Cir.1994), and instead of scouring the record in search of factual disputes, a court may deem the facts in the 12M statement admitted, Flaherty v. Gas Research Inst., 31 F.3d 451, 453 (7th Cir.1994), and may disregard the additional facts improperly submitted by the non-moving party, Midwest Imports, Ltd., 71 F.3d at 1317. Accordingly, all facts contained in defendants' 12M statement are deemed admitted to the extent they are properly supported by the record, Stewart v. McGinnis, 5 F.3d 1031, 1034 (7th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1121, 114 S.Ct. 1075, 127 L.Ed.2d 393 (1994), and the additional facts set forth in plaintiffs response brief are stricken. What follows, therefore, is a summary of the facts considered for purposes of this motion. The court views these facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the nonmoving party. Henry v. Daytop Village, Inc., 42 F.3d 89, 92 (7th Cir.1994).

In 1990, plaintiff applied to NIU's graduate program in chemistry, at which time it was his desire to work with Dr. Lin. In November 1991, Dr. Lin informally became plaintiffs dissertation director and formally became his research advisor. Dr. Lin informed plaintiff about a project he was directing which involved coatings. In particular, Dr. Lin was adding phosphoric acid to paint to improve the adhesion the paint would have on metal surfaces. Plaintiff agreed to work on this project. In the spring and summer of 1992, Dr. Lin told Ping Lin, another graduate student in the chemistry department, to continue her work on the use of phenyl phosphoric acid and amines with respect to the project. In the fall of 1992, plaintiff was nominated for a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship, a fellowship provided by the United States Department of Education designed to support minorities and women in certain fields of study. The fellowship carried a yearly stipend of $14,000. Plaintiff received the fellowship from October 1, 1993 to September 30, 1994 and from October 1, 1994 to May 31, 1995.

On November 8, 1993, plaintiff wrote a letter to Larry R. Sill, director of the technology commercialization center at NIU, claiming that Dr. Lin misappropriated his work and engaged in other acts of research misconduct. On November 10, 1993, Dean Jerrold H. Zar ("Dean Zar"), Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and dean of NIU's graduate school, met with Dr. Vaughn, chairman of NIU's chemistry department, regarding plaintiffs allegations. The following day, Dr. Vaughn told plaintiff that he would inform Dr. Lin of the charges, after which he spoke with Dr. Lin and gave him a copy of plaintiffs charges. Pursuant to the procedures outlined in a NIU document entitled "Research Integrity at Northern Illinois University" ("Research Integrity Procedures") an informal review committee ("Review Committee") was formed, consisting of faculty members of the chemistry department, to reconcile or conciliate the dispute between the parties involved in the allegations of research misconduct. Dr. Vaughn appointed Dr. Russell, Dr. Dennis Kevil and Dr. James Erman to the Review Committee on November 15, 1993. These particular faculty members were chosen because they had not published or collaborated with Dr. Lin in his research. Dr. Vaughn was responsible for overseeing the Review Committee.

Plaintiff acknowledged receipt of the Research Integrity Procedures on November 16, 1993, and he met with the Review Committee the following day. During this meeting, Dr. Vaughn informed plaintiff that he may have to surrender his research notebooks. (To date, plaintiff has not surrendered his research notebooks in their entirety to Dr. Vaughn.) In December 1993, Dr. Lin responded to plaintiffs allegations by letter. On January 3, 1994, plaintiff informed Dr. Vaughn that he would not submit any material to the Review Committee regarding "P69," the formulation plaintiff claims Dr. Lin misappropriated. The Review Committee was unable to reconcile or conciliate plaintiff's allegations of misconduct, and on February 1, 1994, the committee notified both plaintiff and Dr. Lin of their inability to do so and informed plaintiff that he could refer his complaint to Dean Zar pursuant to the Research Integrity Procedures.

Plaintiff requested Dean Zar to further investigate this matter on February 7, 1994, after which a research standards inquiry committee ("Inquiry Committee") was formed. Vice President and Provost J. Carroll Moody appointed Professor Jon W. Carnahan, Professor Robin Rogers and Professor Charles W. Spangler, all faculty members of the chemistry department, to the Inquiry Committee. Pursuant to the Research Integrity Procedures, Dean Zar was a nonvoting member of the committee. In addition, both plaintiff and Dr. Lin could challenge the appointment of these individuals to the Inquiry Committee. On May 18, 1994, Dean Zar provided the members of the Inquiry Committee with a memorandum describing the allegations, a copy of plaintiffs letter of November 8, 1993 and Dr. Lin's written response to the allegations. On June 6, 1994, Dean Zar informed plaintiff and Dr. Lin in separate letters that the Inquiry Committee needed more information from each of them. Dean Zar requested that the materials be provided by June 20, 1994. Dr. Lin provided all the information requested of him by that date. Plaintiff, however, did not provide the requested information by that date. On July 6, 1994, Dean Zar sent plaintiff a letter by certified mail, return receipt, informing him that the Inquiry Committee had not yet received the materials. Because plaintiff had not yet provided the materials, Dean Zar cancelled the Inquiry Committee's scheduled meeting.

Also on July 6, 1994, plaintiffs dissertation committee sent him a letter stating that his research report was insufficient to qualify as a dissertation. The dissertation committee suggested that plaintiff sever his relationship with Dr. Lin and select a new thesis advisor as well as a new, mutually acceptable, doctoral project or that plaintiff rewrite the work previously submitted and upon approval, the dissertation committee would accept the work as satisfying the requirement for a master's degree. On July 28, 1994, plaintiff informed Dr. Vaughn that he was not interested in either option suggested by the dissertation committee.

On August 2, 1994, Dean Zar received the requested materials from plaintiff. The materials were forwarded to the Inquiry Committee. The Inquiry Committee divided plaintiffs allegations into two categories — research misconduct with respect to the patent Dr. Lin was applying for and research misconduct with respect to a paper published by Dr. Lin and co-authored by plaintiff. On September 26, 1994, Dr. Vaughn wrote plaintiff a letter informing plaintiff, as he had earlier, that due to safety and liability reasons, plaintiff would not be permitted to use the laboratory for research until he selected a new dissertation advisor. On November 3, 1994, Dean Zar informed plaintiff that the Inquiry Committee had concluded that a formal investigation was warranted to review the allegations against Dr. Lin. Plaintiff was informed that the Inquiry Committee needed his research notebooks and that he should provide them within the next two weeks. To conduct a formal investigation, a separate...