Ramos v. Dep't of Educ.
| Decision Date | 02 October 2014 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 11–1653 (CVR). |
| Citation | 52 F.Supp.3d 387 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
| Parties | Luis Rodriguez RAMOS, et al., Plaintiff, v. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants. |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Eduardo A. Vera–Ramirez, Luis A. Rodriguez–Munoz, Eileen Landron–Guardiola, Landron & Vera LLC, San Juan, PR, Leila S. Castro–Moya, Coto Laurel, PR, for Plaintiff.
Wandymar Burgos–Vargas, P.R. Department of Justice–Federal Litigation, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.
The present case is yet another in a long line of cases that swamp the federal docket every four (4) years following gubernatorial elections held in Puerto Rico, where the incumbent party is defeated. Plaintiffs are four (4) career employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Josefina Arroyo Saurí (“Arroyo”), Luis Rodríguez Ramos (“Rodríguez”) 1, Juan Del Valle Meléndez(“Del Valle”) and Carmen Rosa García 2 (“Rosa”). They claim violations to the First Amendment, to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as a sprinkling of state law violations. At this stage, the remaining Defendants in the case are Jesús Rivera Sánchez (“Rivera”), former Secretary of Education, and Sonia Dalila Román (“Román”), one of his aides 3. Plaintiffs claim these Defendants, members of the New Progressive Party (“NPP”), subjected them to short of dismissal demotions and inferior working conditions, all on the basis of their political affiliation to the Popular Democratic Party (“PDP”).
In November of 2008, Gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño of the NPP won the election over incumbent Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the PDP. Due to the dire financial situation the island's economy was in, Governor Fortuño implemented a series of measures, as applied to this case, Law 7, which was geared at reducing government spending and stabilizing finances. Law 7 was passed on March 9, 2009 and amongst its cost-reducing measures, it contained an island-wide layoff plan. Pursuant to the directives of Law 7, the Fiscal Restructuring and Stabilization (“JREF”) was created, which was entrusted, among others, with ensuring agency compliance with Law 7 regarding the layoff plan.
At that time, the Department of Education had a budget deficit, yet there were over three (300) hundred available school directors positions, and the government was not going to assign any additional budget to the Department of Education to fill these positions with transitory employees. Since the Secretary of Education had the authority to appoint/transfer/relocate employees due to service needs, a decision was made to send employees on administrative leave (“destaque administrativo”) as school directors for one year with the same salary they held for their previous positions, which would thus solve the problem of the vacancies and also avoid any budgetary impact on the department's payroll.
In the meantime, the JREF determined that, effective November 6, 2009, public employees that as of April 17, 2009, had thirteen (13) years six (6) months and zero (0) days of service or less would be affected by the layoffs. Since they would still have the problem of school director vacancies for the upcoming year, the Department of Education then carried out an internal analysis of what staff within the Department of Education complied with the requirements to become school directors and finally identified some thirty-eight (38) employees who did not have the required time and would be affected by Law 7. Two (2) of the Plaintiffs in the present case, Rodríguez and Del Valle, fell into this category. In order not to be affected by the layoffs, they would have to “accept” a demotion to that position voluntarily, which would ensure their continued employment after the detail ended. Those who accepted the proposal had to submit a letter requesting the demotion to the JREF. Both Rodríguez and Del Valle submitted their letters in October, 2009.
By the following June, 2010, the administrative detail had ended, and an agreement had been reached with the Federal Department of Education to establish a new structure that consolidated the school districts and reduced them from eighty-nine (89) to twenty-eight (28), with the objective of strengthening the student's academic achievements. By that time, Carlos Chardón was no longer Secretary of Education and co-Defendant Rivera had already been appointed Acting Secretary of Education 4. Rivera began the implementation of the Department's restructuring, which resulted in the consolidation of several districts, the elimination of some, and the consolidation of other positions. The reorganization was implemented across the island. As a result of this, the employees who had been on administrative leave were now reinstated to their previous positions or a similar position. In the case at bar, Plaintiffs Rosa and Arroyo were reinstated to their previous positions as Auxiliary Superintendents. Plaintiffs Rodríguez and Del Valle were reinstated as School Directors, per the “demotion” letter they had signed in October, 2009. Plaintiffs take issue with the administrative detail, as well as to their reinstatements and other actions, alleging they were charged with political animus as they were members of the PDP.
Before the Court now is Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket No. 121), Plaintiff's opposition thereto (Docket No. 130), and Defendants' Reply to Plaintiff's opposition (Docket No. 144). Defendants urge dismissal of all claims brought against them on the following grounds: 1) time bar; 2) lack of a causal connection between Defendants' acts and Plaintiffs' circumstances; 3) failure to show political affiliation as a substantial or motivating factor in the decision-making process; 4) the equal protection and due process claims cannot lie; and 6) Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.
Plaintiffs in turn posit their claims are not time-barred because the continuing violation doctrine applies; they have established a prima facie case of political discrimination; their due process rights were violated, as no pre-termination hearing was held for two (2) Plaintiffs and Defendants' actions shock the conscience; and qualified immunity should be denied.
For the reasons explained herein, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED.
Summary judgment is appropriate when “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, 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). Pursuant to the language of the rule, the moving party bears the two-fold burden of showing that there is “no genuine issue as to any material facts,” and that he is “entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Vega–Rodríguez v. Puerto Rico Tel. Co., 110 F.3d 174, 178 (1st Cir.1997).
After the moving party has satisfied this burden, the onus shifts to the resisting party to show that there still exists “a trial worthy issue as to some material fact.” Cortés–Irizarry v. Corporación Insular, 111 F.3d 184, 187 (1st Cir.1997). A fact is deemed “material” if it potentially could affect the outcome of the suit. Id. Moreover, there will only be a “genuine” or “trial worthy” issue as to such a “material fact,” “if a reasonable fact-finder, examining the evidence and drawing all reasonable inferences helpful to the party resisting summary judgment, could resolve the dispute in that party's favor.” Id.
At all times during the consideration of a motion for summary judgment, the Court must examine the entire record “in the light most flattering to the non-movant and indulge all reasonable inferences in the party's favor.” Maldonado–Denis v. Castillo–Rodríguez, 23 F.3d 576, 581 (1st Cir.1994). There is “no room for credibility determinations, no room for the measured weighing of conflicting evidence such as the trial process entails, [and] no room for the judge to superimpose his own ideas of probability and likelihood....” Greenburg v. Puerto Rico Mar. Shipping Auth., 835 F.2d 932, 936 (1st Cir.1987). In fact, “[o]nly if the record, viewed in [this] manner and without regard to credibility determinations, reveals no genuine issue as to any material fact may the court enter summary judgment.” Cadle Co. v. Hayes, 116 F.3d 957, 960 (1st Cir.1997).
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has “emphasized the importance of local rules similar to Local Rule 56 [of the District of Puerto Rico].” Hernández v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 486 F.3d 1, 7 (1st Cir.2007); see also, Colón v. Infotech Aerospace Services, Inc., 869 F.Supp.2d 220, 225–226 (D.Puerto Rico 2012). Rules such as Local Rule 56 “are designed to function as a means of ‘focusing a district court's attention on what is—and what is not—genuinely controverted.’ ” Hernández, 486 F.3d at 7 ( quoting Calvi v. Knox County, 470 F.3d 422, 427 (1st Cir.2006)). Local Rule 56 imposes guidelines for both the movant and the party opposing summary judgment. A party moving for summary judgment must submit factual assertions in “a separate, short, and concise statement of material facts, set forth in numbered paragraphs.” Loc. Rule 56(b). A party opposing a motion for summary judgment must “admit, deny, or qualify the facts supporting the motion for summary judgment by reference to each numbered paragraph of the moving party's statement of facts.” Loc. Rule 56(c). If they so wish, they may submit a separate statement of facts which they believe are in controversy. Facts which are properly supported “shall be deemed admitted unless properly controverted.” Loc. Rule 56(e); P.R. Am. Ins. Co. v. Rivera–Vázquez, 603 F.3d 125, 130 (1st Cir.2010) and Colón, 869 F.Supp.2d at 226. Due to the importance of this function to the summary judgment process, “litigants ignore [those...
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