Renaud v. Wyoming Dep't of Family Serv.

Decision Date08 February 2000
Docket NumberNo. 98-8046,98-8046
Citation203 F.3d 723
Parties(10th Cir. 2000) DAVID G. RENAUD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY SERVICES; SHIRLEY R. CARSON, individually, Defendants-Appellees
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF WYOMING. D.C. Civil Action No. 97-CV-143

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Bruce T. Moats (Jane A. Villemez with him on the briefs) of Villemez Law Office, Cheyenne, Wyoming, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Terry L. Armitage, Cheyenne, Wyoming, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before EBEL, McKAY, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

McKAY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff David G. Renaud brought this action in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming for wrongful termination of his employment as superintendent of the Wyoming Boys' School. He asserted seven claims for relief. His first claim was that Defendant Wyoming Department of Family Services violated the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA], 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213. His second claim was that the Department violated the Family and Medical Leave Act [FMLA], 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601-2654. His third, fourth, and fifth claims, asserted under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, were against Defendant Shirley R. Carson, in her individual capacity. He alleged that Ms. Carson, then director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services, deprived him of his property and liberty interests without due process and violated his First Amendment rights of expression and association. His sixth and seventh claims, based on state law, were against both defendants for breach of an implied contract of employment created by Wyoming government personnel rules and policies and for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The district court entered an order granting Defendants' motion for summary judgment in part and denying it in part. The court granted summary judgment to Ms. Carson on all claims against her and granted summary judgment to the Department on the state law claims. The case went to trial only on the claims under the ADA and the FMLA. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the Department on both claims, and judgment was entered in favor of the Department.

On appeal, Plaintiff challenges the grant of summary judgment on his claims for deprivation of a liberty interest and breach of contract. He also challenges the court's jury instructions regarding the ADA claim, and he asserts a lack of evidence to support the jury finding on his FMLA claim.

I.

Plaintiff was superintendent of the Wyoming Boys' School from December 1985 through April 30, 1996. On Friday afternoon, March 29, 1996, following meetings in Casper, Wyoming, Plaintiff returned to his office on the Boys' School campus, where he had contact with six employees. On April 4, one of those employees, Tracy Norris, the education director at the school, reported to Les Pozsgi, administrator for the Division of Juvenile Services and Plaintiff's direct supervisor, that he believed that Plaintiff had been drunk when he returned to school on March 29. Mr. Pozsgi reported these allegations to Ms. Carson. On April 15, Ms. Carson placed Plaintiff on administrative suspension with pay to allow the Department of Family Services to investigate his alleged violation of Wyoming's substance abuse policy. On April 16, Plaintiff submitted a request for thirty days' sick leave and checked himself into a voluntary alcohol treatment program in a Wyoming hospital. Mr. Pozsgi granted the leave request. On April 18, Ms. Carson and Mr. Pozsgi attempted to meet with Plaintiff for the purpose of terminating his employment, but Plaintiff's doctor did not allow the visit. On April 22, Ms. Carson sent a certified letter to Plaintiff at the hospital stating that she was dismissing him from his employment as an "at-will" employee effective April 30, 1996. She later testified that she fired him because he had come to work drunk in violation of the Wyoming substance abuse policy. On April 26, Ms. Carson allegedly contacted the Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Division broadcast a statewide bulletin indicating that Plaintiff had checked himself out of rehabilitation and might be suicidal and dangerous to others. Plaintiff, in fact, remained in an inpatient treatment program at that time.

II.

We begin with the summary judgment issues. We review de novo a district court's grant or denial of summary judgment, and we apply the same legal standard employed by the district court pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c). See Kaul v. Stephan, 83 F.3d 1208, 1212 (10th Cir. 1996). In reviewing such dispositions, we must draw all inferences in favor of the party opposing summary judgment. See Trujillo v. University of Colo. Health Sciences Ctr., 157 F.3d 1211, 1213 (10th Cir. 1998); Curtis v. Oklahoma City Pub. Sch. Bd. of Educ., 147 F.3d 1200, 1214 (10th Cir. 1998).

A.

Plaintiff asserts that Ms. Carson deprived him of his liberty interest by making false and damaging statements about him "accompanying his dismissal" or "when terminating his employment." Appellant's Br. at 37. He alleges that on April 26, 1996, while he remained in treatment at the hospital, Ms. Carson "caused the Division of Criminal Investigation to broadcast[] statewide . . . false and malicious allegations that he had checked out of rehabilitation and was dangerous." Appellant's App., Vol. 3 at 697. The bulletin broadcast indicated that he might be suicidal and, having recently lost a state job, might "try to go after state employees." Id. at 698. Plaintiff contends that the loss of his job, the false bulletin "'assassinating his character and reputation,'" and the "'pending loss of his home and the devastating effect of these events on his family'" forced him to leave rehabilitation prematurely. Id. He also contends that he has not been able to obtain employment in juvenile corrections since Ms. Carson terminated him. See id. Plaintiff alleges that these actions deprived him of a liberty interest without due process of law.

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that no state "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 2. The Supreme Court has addressed the nature of the liberty interest protected under this provision, observing that "there can be no doubt that the meaning of 'liberty' must be broad indeed." Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 572 (1972).

"Without doubt, it denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized . . . as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."

Id. (quoting Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 (1923)). The Court observed in dicta that a state might abridge a liberty interest if, in declining to renew an employment contract, the state made charges of dishonesty or immorality or imposed "a stigma or other disability that foreclosed [an employee's] freedom to take advantage of other employment opportunities." Id. at 573.

The Court later clarified the scope of this interest. In Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 708-10 (1976), the Court held that defamation, standing alone, was not sufficient to establish a claim for deprivation of a liberty interest. "[T]he defamation had to occur in the course of the termination of employment." Id. at 710. The court has further stated that no constitutional claim can be stated even where a defendant acts with malice in defaming another. See Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 234 (1991).

Applying Supreme Court precedent, we delineated a four-part test in Workman v. Jordan, 32 F.3d 475 (10th Cir. 1994), that a plaintiff must satisfy to demonstrate a deprivation of liberty:

First, to be actionable, the statements must impugn the good name, reputation, honor, or integrity of the employee. Second, the statements must be false. Third, the statements must occur in the course of terminating the employee or must foreclose other employment opportunities. And fourth, the statements must be published.

Id. at 481 (citations omitted); see also Melton v. City of Oklahoma City, 928 F.2d 920, 926-27 (10th Cir. 1991) (en banc) (holding that elements are not disjunctive but must all be satisfied).

Plaintiff alleges that the Division of Criminal Investigation's defamatory broadcast that he might be suicidal and dangerous to others occurred in conjunction with the termination of his employment and therefore abridged his liberty interest. The district court held that "plaintiff's allegations do not show [that] the statements were made in the course of terminating him." Appellant's App., Vol. 3 at 702. Plaintiff, however, asserts that the defamatory statements imposing a stigma need not be exactly contemporaneous with a dismissal to occur in the course of the termination of employment. Plaintiff cites several cases for this proposition, including Miller v. City of Mission, Kansas, 705 F.2d 368, 373 (10th Cir. 1983) (affirming jury finding of deprivation of liberty interest based partly on evidence that reasons for termination were announced several days after dismissal), Campanelli v. Bockrath, 100 F.3d 1476, 1482-83 (9th Cir. 1996) (rejecting bright-line rule that post-termination statements cannot form basis of liberty deprivation and holding that statements made one week after termination were made in course of termination), and Mertek v. Blalock, 983 F.2d 1353, 1363 (6th Cir. 1993) (finding that plaintiff sufficiently alleged deprivation of liberty interest, in part by showing "roughly contemporaneous" publication of reasons for ban of plaintiff from city facilities).

Timing is certainly one consideration in determining...

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