Ray v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 30 September 1982
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. C81-2129A.
• Citation: 557 F. Supp. 664
• Parties: David RAY, Plaintiff, v. Joseph EDWARDS, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

557 F. Supp. 664

David RAY, Plaintiff, v. Joseph EDWARDS, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. C81-2129A.

United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

September 30, 1982.

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A. Lee Parks, Jr., Robert N. Meals, Meals & Parks, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff.

Vivian Egan, Asst. Atty. Gen., State of Ga., Jonathan A. Zimring, Ga. Legal Services, Atlanta, Ga., for defendants.

ORDER

SHOOB, District Judge.

This action is brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by a former Georgia state employee seeking to redress alleged deprivations of constitutional rights arising out of his termination from state employment. Plaintiff also has appended state law tort claims alleging defamation of character and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Finally, plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment as to the constitutionality of Ga.Code Ann. § 99-3502. Presently pending before the Court are (1) summary judgment motions filed by each of the defendants; (2) plaintiff's motion to amend Count Six of his complaint; (3) defendants Edwards, Ermutlu and Georgia Association of Retarded Citizens' ("GARC") motion for leave to file motion in limine; and (4) defendants Edwards and Ermutlu's motion to strike portions of plaintiff's affidavit and exhibits. The latter three motions will be addressed in the context of the Court's consideration of the motions for summary judgment.

FACTS

Unless otherwise noted the facts listed below are undisputed by the parties.

1. Plaintiff David Ray is an educator and administrator specializing in the care of the mentally retarded and handicapped.

2. In June 1979 Ray was appointed to the position of superintendent of the Georgia Retardation Center ("GRC") in Chamblee, Georgia.

3. The GRC is a state supported institution operating within the Division of Mental Health and Mental Retardation of the Georgia Department of Human Resources ("DHR") and providing residential care and treatment to mentally retarded citizens.

4. In March 1980 defendant Joseph Edwards was appointed Commissioner of DHR.

5. In August 1981 Edwards named defendant Ilhan Ermutlu as Director of DHR's Division of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, making him plaintiff's immediate superior.

6. On August 19, 1981, defendant Edwards informed plaintiff by memorandum that an in-house review of the treatment and operational programs at GRC would be conducted by a committee headed by Dr. James Craig. Edwards indicated that this review, which was to include all aspects of student care and treatment programming and an evaluation of the working relationship existing between direct care staff and supervisory staff at GRC, was prompted by varying statements he had received in recent months with regard to student care and other operational matters at GRC.

7. During the first week of September 1981, defendant Ermutlu informed plaintiff that the Craig committee would not be investigating GRC, and that defendant Edwards had decided instead to ask the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ("GBI") to conduct the investigation.

8. Beginning in October 1981 a series of reports appeared in local newspapers and on local television stations detailing allegations of student abuse at GRC.

9. Defendant Georgia Association of Retarded Citizens ("GARC") is a private, nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of Georgia, which views its basic purpose as achieving adequate and appropriate services for mentally retarded persons.

10. On November 9, 1981, GARC issued a report entitled "Recommendations for Action in Response to Charges of Abuse at the Georgia Retardation Center." Based upon their own investigation, GARC recommended, inter alia, the "immediate suspension of all administrative personnel at the Georgia Retardation Center in Chamblee who had prior knowledge or who, by virtue of their position of responsibility, should have had knowledge of abuse incidents at the Center."

11. On November 12, 1981, defendant Edwards terminated plaintiff from his position as superintendent of GRC. Edwards' termination letter did not state any reasons for the termination, and plaintiff was not afforded any hearing before being terminated.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff filed his complaint in this action on November 16, 1981, just four days after he was terminated by defendant Edwards. In his complaint, plaintiff asserted the following causes of action: (1) defendants Edwards, Ermutlu and GARC, acting both individually and in concert and conspiracy with one another, wilfully and maliciously caused his termination from GRC in violation of property and liberty rights protected under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Counts One and Two); defendants Edwards and Ermutlu acted arbitrarily, capriciously and unreasonably in terminating plaintiff, in violation of his right under the Fourteenth Amendment to substantive due process (Count Three); (3) Georgia Code Ann. § 99-3502 is unconstitutional in that it requires the Governor to appoint to the defendant Board of Human Resources ("BHR") only those doctors who are nominated by a nominating commission, half of whose members are selected by the Medical Association of Georgia, a private organization (Count Four); (4) defendant GARC libeled plaintiff in its report issued November 9, 1981 (Count Five); (5) defendant Edwards slandered plaintiff by innuendo (Count Six); defendants Edwards, Ermutlu and GARC, acting individually and in concert and conspiracy with one another, have intentionally inflicted emotional distress on plaintiff (Count Seven). Defendants have moved for summary judgment with respect to all of these claims. The Court will consider the motions with respect to each claim in turn.

I. The § 1983 Claims

A. Property Interest

In Count One of his complaint plaintiff contends that he possesses a property interest in his "right to follow one's chosen profession, business occupation or to labor in one's chosen field of endeavor...." However, plaintiff does not argue that he has any entitlement to continued employment at GRC. Nor, on the undisputed facts, could plaintiff prevail on such an argument.¹ Rather, plaintiff contends that he has a property interest in his ability to pursue his chosen profession, quoting the following language from the case of Muse v. Connell, 62 Ga.App. 296, 303, 8 S.E.2d 100 (1940):

The right to follow one's profession, business, or occupation, or to labor, is a valuable property right, protected by the constitution and laws of this State, subject only to such restrictions as the government may impose for the welfare and safety of society. Hughes v. State Board of Examiners, 162 Ga. 246, 256 134 S.E. 42.

Plaintiff contends that defendants' actions stigmatized him, as a result of which his ability to pursue his profession has been impaired and his protected property interest thereby infringed.

Plaintiff, however, misconstrues the import of Muse. That case involved an employee's contractual right to a particular job, and the court held that the wrongful deprivation of that right was an infringement of a property interest and not merely a personal injury. That the court was not recognizing a generalized property interest in employability is further supported by reference to the Hughes case, supra, upon which the Muse court relied. Hughes addressed the constitutionality of licensing requirements for physicians and held only that the right of qualified individuals to obtain such a license was a property right subject to due process protections. 162 Ga. at 257-58, 134 S.E. 42.

Neither Hughes nor Muse held that individuals have a property right in their professional reputations. Plaintiff's effort to assert such a property right here merely conflates his property interest claim with his liberty interest claim, where such damage to reputation is cognizable. However, plaintiff's effort cannot disguise the undisputed fact that under Georgia law he had no claim of entitlement to continued employment with the state. Accordingly, in the absence of any protectible property right in his job, defendants are entitled to summary judgment on Count One of plaintiff's complaint.

B. Liberty Interest

In Count Two of his complaint plaintiff contends that his summary discharge constituted an unconstitutional infringement of his liberty, because the resulting stigma to his reputation has foreclosed employment opportunities. There is no question that an alleged stigma to reputation in connection with a discharge may state a claim under § 1983 for deprivation of a Fourteenth Amendment liberty interest without due process. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 572, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2707, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 348, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2079, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976). However, defendants contend that to make out his claim, plaintiff must demonstrate that defendants have caused him to suffer a stigma by disclosing false, derogatory information about him, and that plaintiff has failed to come forward with any admissible evidence of such disclosures. Plaintiff, on the other hand, argues that his claim is sufficiently made out on a showing that defendants knew or should have known that his discharge amidst the GBI's ongoing investigation of alleged student abuse and mismanagement at GRC would result in his being stigmatized in the public mind.

In Bishop, supra, the Supreme Court held that a nontenured employee is not entitled to due process when his termination is based upon false, stigmatizing allegations which have not been publicly aired. 426 U.S. at 398, 96 S.Ct. at 2079. Subsequent cases have reiterated the requirement that the employer must create and disseminate a false and defamatory impression about the employee in connection with his termination before a constitutionally protected liberty interest is implicated. Codd v. Velger, 429 U.S. 624, 628, 97 S.Ct. 882, 884, 51 L.Ed.2d 92 (1977); White v. Thomas, 660 F.2d 680, 684 (...