Ring v. Crisp County Hosp. Authority

• Citation: 652 F. Supp. 477
• Decision Date: 26 January 1987
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 85-266-ALB-AMER.
• Parties: Charles W. RING, Plaintiff, v. CRISP COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, by and through its Board of Directors, Individually and in their official capacity, Neil Copelan, Randy Sauls, Roderick McCrory, John Mace, John Hill Harris, Roe J. Davis, Wesley Odom, Fred Cown, Dr. Robert E. Barr, Eddie Daniels, Randy Folsom, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

652 F. Supp. 477

Charles W. RING, Plaintiff, v. CRISP COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, by and through its Board of Directors, Individually and in their official capacity, Neil Copelan, Randy Sauls, Roderick McCrory, John Mace, John Hill Harris, Roe J. Davis, Wesley Odom, Fred Cown, Dr. Robert E. Barr, Eddie Daniels, Randy Folsom, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 85-266-ALB-AMER.

United States District Court, M.D. Georgia, Albany-Americus Division.

January 26, 1987.

David R. Sweat, Athens, Ga., for plaintiff.

Guy V. Roberts, Jr., Cordele, Ga., Jefferson D. Kirby, III, and Paula A. Hilburn, Atlanta, Ga., Dawn G. Benson, Albany, Ga., for defendants.

FITZPATRICK, District Judge.

This case is before the court on defendants' Motion to Dismiss and defendant Dr. Roderick McCrory's Motion for Summary Judgment. Also pending is plaintiff's Motion to Amend the Complaint. Plaintiff brought suit against the Crisp County Hospital Authority (the Hospital), the Hospital Administrator, the Assistant Administrator, the members of the Board of Directors of the Crisp County Hospital Authority, and Roderick McCrory alleging that he was discriminated against on the basis of age.

Mr. Charles W. Ring, the plaintiff, was employed by the Hospital as the Director of the X-Ray Department for approximately twenty-five years. On January 18, 1984, the plaintiff was placed on thirty days probation. At the end of this probationary period, the plaintiff was demoted from his job as Director of the X-Ray Department and made a staff technologist. Plaintiff then filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C.) alleging that his demotion was made on the basis of age. Following the filing of this charge with the E.E.O.C., the Hospital terminated his employment on June 28, 1985.

Plaintiff filed his complaint on December 23, 1985. At that time plaintiff was fifty-one years old. Plaintiff alleges that defendants terminated his employment and retaliated against him in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 621-634 (ADEA) and in violation of his equal protection, due process and first amendment rights. Plaintiff asserts his constitutional claims through 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. Plaintiff also alleges that defendant McCrory maliciously interfered with plaintiff's contract of employment with Crisp County Hospital.¹

Defendant McCrory is a radiologist who works at the Hospital. He charges a professional fee for his services rendered at the Hospital, and the fee is billed by Dr. McCrory through a billing office in Americus, Georgia. Dr. McCrory pays the fees for such billings, and the Hospital neither guarantees their collection nor shares in the billings. Dr. McCrory does not share in the bills sent out by the Hospital for the use of the Hospital's radiology equipment and personnel.

Dr. McCrory has stated in his affidavit that he does not perform periodic evaluations of Hospital employees and he does not participate in Hospital decisions concerning promotions, demotions, and raises. He has no authority to hire or fire anyone. He stated that on rare occasions he will be asked by the Hospital administrator for his professional opinion concerning the technical proficiency or performance of Hospital employees, such as radiology technicians. The use and weight given to these comments is solely in the discretion of the Hospital administration (McCrory Affidavit, ¶ 3).

On occasion Dr. McCrory has gone beyond giving his professional opinion of the technical proficiency of Mr. Ring, but that was at the request of the Assistant Administrator, Jack Randall Sauls. In one memorandum, Dr. McCrory stated that "I strongly feel he will take a marginal posture of not really agreeing with the policies/procedures he is directed to work under...." (McCrory Deposition, Exhibit 6). Dr. McCrory also repeatedly came to Sauls, the Assistant Administrator, in an attempt to resolve problems in the working relationship between Ring and McCrory. Sauls stated, however, that Dr. McCrory never came to him without first trying to resolve the problem with Ring. (Sauls Deposition, p. 108).

Defendants' motions raise three issues that this court must address: (1) whether the ADEA provides the exclusive remedy for age discrimination in employment thus prohibiting an action under § 1983 grounded on a violation of the fourteenth amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws for that same age discrimination; (2) whether Dr. McCrory is a state actor such that he may be liable on a § 1983 claim; and (3), whether this court should exercise its pendent jurisdiction over plaintiff's state law claim for intentional interference with contract.

Counsel have presented extensive briefs to the court concerning the exclusivity of the ADEA. There is a dearth of cases that address the issue whether the A.D.E.A. is the exclusive remedy for age discrimination. A number of cases, however, discuss the exclusivity of Title VII as a remedy for discrimination in employment, and these cases are instructive. Paterson v. Weinberger, 644 F.2d 521, 525 (5th Cir.1981) (relying on Brown v. General Services Administration, 425 U.S. 820, 96 S.Ct. 1961, 48 L.Ed.2d 402 (1976)).

The general rule is that a precisely drawn, detailed statute preempts more general remedies. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973). The Supreme Court followed this rule in Brown v. General Services Administration, 425 U.S. 820, 96 S.Ct. 1961, 48 L.Ed.2d 402 (1976) when it concluded that § 717 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided the exclusive judicial remedy for claims of discrimination in federal employment. Brown, 425 U.S. at 836, 96 S.Ct. at 1969. The Court reasoned that the comprehensive statutory scheme, Id. at 829-34, 96 S.Ct. at 1966-68, as well as the lack of any legislative history indicating a contrary Congressional intent, Id. at 833-34, 96 S.Ct. at 1968, compelled its conclusion.

For similar reasons, the federal courts have concluded that the ADEA is the exclusive remedy for age discrimination in federal employment. Ray v. Nimmo, 704 F.2d 1480, 1485 (11th Cir.1983) (citing Paterson v. Weinberger, 644 F.2d 521, 524-25 (5th Cir.1981)). The plaintiff in Ray also claimed a violation of the fifth amendment right to due process.² The court concluded that the fifth amendment claim was a claim of unconstitutional deprivation separate and distinct from any claim based on age discrimination; therefore, plaintiff's fifth amendment claim was not preempted by the ADEA. Ray, 704 F.2d at 1485.

The critical issue in determining the exclusivity of the ADEA is that of Congressional intent. See Smith v. Robinson, 468 U.S. 992, 104 S.Ct. 3457, 3469-70, 82 L.Ed.2d 746 (1984). In Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U.S. 454, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975), the court held that, in the context of private employment, Title VII did not preempt an independent action under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. In reaching that decision, the court relied upon the legislative history of the act which "'manifests a congressional intent to allow an individual to pursue independently his rights under both Title VII and other applicable state and federal statutes.'" Johnson, 421 U.S. at 459, 95 S.Ct. at 1719 (quoting Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36, 48, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 1019, 39 L.Ed.2d 147 (1974)). The court in Alexander stated that "legislative enactments in this area have long evinced a general intent to accord parallel or overlapping remedies against discrimination." Alexander, 415 U.S. at 48, 94 S.Ct. at 1019.

The legislative history of Title VII reveals a clear intent to leave untouched preexisting avenues of relief for private as well as state and local employees.

In establishing the applicability of Title VII to State and local employees, the Committee wishes to emphasize that the individual's right to file a civil action in his own behalf, pursuant to the Civil Rights Act of 1870 and 1871, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, is in no way affected. During the floor debate surrounding the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was made clear that the Act was not intended to preempt existing rights under the National Labor Relations Act or the Railway Labor Act. Title VII was envisioned as an independent statutory authority meant to provide an aggrieved individual with an additional remedy to redress employment discrimination. ... The remedies available to the individual under Title VII are co-extensive with the individual's right to sue under the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and that the two procedures augment each other and are not mutually exclusive. The bill, therefore, by extending jurisdiction to State and local government employees does not affect existing rights that such individuals have already been granted by previous legislation....

...

Inclusion of State and local employees among those enjoying the protection of Title VII provides an alternate administrative remedy to the existing prohibition against discrimination perpetuated "under color of state law" as embodied in the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

H.R.Rep. No. 238, 912d Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in 1972 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 2137, 2154 (emphasis added). It is clear to this court that Title VII was not intended to be the exclusive remedy for race and sex discrimination for private or State and local employees, Johnson v. Ballard, 644 F.Supp. 333, 335-37 (N.D.Ga. 1986); however, this does not answer the question of whether the ADEA is the exclusive remedy for age discrimination.

The court rejects the plaintiff's argument that the legislative history of Title VII is applicable to the ADEA. Plaintiff argues that the two statutes should be construed in pari materia in determining the exclusivity of the ADEA. In Christie v. Marston, 451 F.Supp. 1142 (E.D.Ill.1978), the court construed Title VII and the ADEA in pari materia to bolster its...