Renfroe v. Kirkpatrick
| Decision Date | 12 January 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 82-7394,82-7394 |
| Citation | 722 F.2d 714 |
| Parties | 15 Ed. Law Rep. 66 Cheryl Anne RENFROE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dr. John KIRKPATRICK, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Jack S. Wallach, Anniston, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.
John R. Phillips, Anniston, Ala., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Before GODBOLD, Chief Judge, RONEY and SMITH, * Circuit Judges.
Cheryl Anne Renfroe [Wade], a non-tenured teacher, was not rehired to teach with the Piedmont City Board of Education. She brought this 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1983 action contending she was not rehired because she filed a grievance, and that this violated her First Amendment rights. The jury awarded Renfroe $6,400 in compensatory damages and $12,500 in punitive damages. The district court, Renfoe v. Kirkpatrick, 549 F.Supp. 1368, (N.D.Ala.1982), entered judgment n.o.v. for the defendant. We affirm in light of the principles set forth in Connick v. Myers, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983).
In responding to budgetary problems, the Superintendent of Education had offered Renfroe a job sharing a full-time position with another teacher. Renfroe expressed her unwillingness to job share at that time, and subsequently filed a grievance asserting her interest in keeping a full-time job, and claiming that she had seniority and more teaching experience than the other teacher. The other teacher was later hired for the position on a full-time basis pursuant to the Superintendent's recommendation.
Although defendants contend, as the district court held, that the grievance was not a substantial or motivating factor in the decision not to rehire Renfroe, it is not necessary to resolve that issue on appeal in view of the recent Connick decision, rendered after the district court decision. It is now clear that plaintiff's grievance is protected under the First Amendment only if it related to a matter of public concern. In Connick the Supreme Court explicitly held that "when a public employee speaks not as a citizen upon matters of public concern, but instead as an employee upon matters only of personal interest, absent the most unusual circumstances, a federal court is not the appropriate forum in which to review the wisdom of a personnel decision taken by a public agency allegedly in reaction to the employee's behavior." --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1690, 75...
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