Rodríguez–Ramos v. Hernández–Gregorat

• Citation: 685 F.3d 34
• Decision Date: 12 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. 09–2531.,09–2531.
• Parties: Gil A. RODRÍGUEZ–RAMOS, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Rubén A. HERNÁNDEZ–GREGORAT; Santos M. Delgado–Marrero; Gladys Fuentes–Cruz; Judith Morales–Morales, Defendants, Appellees, Insurance Company A, B, C, Defendant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

685 F.3d 34

Gil A. RODRÍGUEZ–RAMOS, Plaintiff, Appellant,

v. Rubén A. HERNÁNDEZ–GREGORAT; Santos M. Delgado–Marrero; Gladys Fuentes–Cruz; Judith Morales–Morales, Defendants, Appellees,Insurance Company A, B, C, Defendant.

No. 09–2531.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Dec. 7, 2012.

Decided July 12, 2012.

Carlos A. Del Valle Cruz, with whom Eileen Landrón Guardiola, Eduardo Vera Ramirez and Landrón & Vera, L.L.P. were on brief, for appellant.

Susana I. Peñagarícano–Brown, Assistant Solicitor General, Department of Justice, with whom Irene S. Soroeta–Kodesh, Solicitor General, Leticia Casalduc–Rabell, Deputy Solicitor General and Zaira Z. Girón–Anadón, Deputy Solicitor General were on brief, for appellee Rubén A. Hernández–Gregorat and for appellees Santos M. Delgado–Marrero, Gladys Fuentes–Cruz and Judith Morales–Morales in their individual capacities.

Francisco J. Amundaray, with whom Eric R. Ronda and Mercado & Soto, PSC, were on brief, for appellees Santos M. Delgado–Marrero, Gladys Fuentes–Cruz and Judith Morales–Morales in their official capacities.

Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, LIPEZ and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Gil A. Rodríguez–Ramos, a former trust employee of the Metropolitan Bus Authority of Puerto Rico (“MBA”), sued various public officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that a decision not to install him in a career attorney position in the MBA was politically motivated and was effected without due process of law, in violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss all claims. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm in part and reverse in part. We affirm the dismissal of the due process claim as to all defendants, and as well, dismissal of the First Amendment claim as to all defendants, save for defendant Delgado. As to the First Amendment claim against Delgado, we vacate the dismissal and remand with instructions to grant plaintiff leave to amend the complaint.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On review of this motion to dismiss, we recount the relevant facts based upon the well-pleaded allegations in the complaint. See S.E.C. v. Tambone, 597 F.3d 436, 438 (1st Cir.2010) (en banc). We supplement that account with reference to Puerto Rico statutes and facts susceptible to judicial notice, as necessary to place the allegations in context. See Haley v. Boston, 657 F.3d 39, 44 (1st Cir.2011).

In asserting an entitlement to a position as an “Attorney I within the MBA,” the complaint alleges that Rodríguez is a long-standing and active member of the Popular Democratic Party (“PDP”). He began his public employment with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1991 and for the next decade he held career positions in various government agencies.¹ He maintained his career status while attending law school, and he was admitted to practice law in early 2000.

That spring, after taking the pertinent competitive exam, Rodríguez was appointed to the career position of “Attorney I” in the Administration of Corrections (“AOC”), where he had previously worked in non-lawyer capacities. Approximately nine months later, in January 2001, he was appointed to the trust position of Director of the Office of Legal Affairs of the AOC. According to the plaintiff's translation, his appointment letter stated:

This designation [to the Director of the Office of Legal Affairs] does not excuse you from complying with all the duties and responsibilities of the position you presently occupy as Attorney I in the Office of Legal Affairs, position in the career service to which you were promoted last March 1, 2000. Your probationary period shall not be interrupted while you prevail in this designation.

On May 1, 2001, the AOC Secretary favorably evaluated Rodríguez and approved his completion of the one-year probationary period for the Attorney I position, effective April 1.²

Two months later Rodríguez was appointed to the trust position of Deputy Administrator of Management and Administration in the AOC. He was subsequently appointed to a number of other trust positions in various agencies, including Assistant Secretary of Investigations of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Sub–Administrator of the AOC, Deputy Chief of Administration and later Chief of the Medical Emergency Corps, and Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA). With the exception of a brief two-week interlude in September 2005 during which he was reassigned to a career position as Attorney I, Rodríguez held trust positions continuously from July 2001 until December 2008.

This period of the plaintiff's employment in trust positions coincided with PDP control of the governorship. In November 2008, however, the candidate of the New Progressive Party (“NPP”) was elected governor. With the resulting transfer of power impending, the outgoing administration moved Rodríguez on December 15, 2008 from his trust position as Chief of the Medical Emergency Corps to a career attorney position within the GSA.³ Two days later, on December 17, 2008, Rodríguez was appointed to the trust position of Special Assistant to the President in the Metropolitan Bus Authority, an agency of roughly 1,000 employees in which he had never previously worked. This was the position that Rodríguez held when the NPP government was installed two weeks later.

The political shift in the executive branch brought with it changes in trust position personnel throughout the government. The president of the NPP and new governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño–Burset, appointed Ruben Hernández–Gregorat as Secretary of Transportation and Public Works. Hernández, in turn, named Santos M. Delgado–Marrero as President and General Manager of the MBA.

Upon Delgado's appointment, and allegedly at Delgado's request, Rodríguez submitted a letter of resignation from his trust position as Special Assistant on January 7, 2009. In his letter, citing a provision of the Puerto Rico civil service law that entitles a departing trust employee to reclaim a career position equivalent to the last career position that the employee had held, Rodríguez also requested that he be reinstated to an Attorney I career position. SeeP.R. Laws Ann. tit. 3, § 1465a. Contemporaneously with submitting this letter, Rodríguez requested a meeting with Delgado to discuss the matter. Not having received a reply, three weeks later Rodríguez submitted a second written reinstatement request to Delgado. This request also went unanswered.

Over the next few months, although remaining in his trust position, Rodríguez was gradually relieved of the duties and functions that he had performed as Special Assistant. The complaint alleges that Delgado ordered Rodríguez's internet access removed, excluded him from meetings, and severed his workload. The complaint lists numerous days between January and the end of June on which Rodríguez neither performed nor was assigned any job function whatsoever. Although he occasionally was given assignments to do legal work, in May when a union attorney referred to the plaintiff a sexual harassment dispute that had arisen in the MBA, Delgado issued orders preventing Rodríguez from handling the matter. Instead, it is alleged, throughout this period Delgado engaged outside counsel to handle this and most other legal matters at a cost of approximately $30,000 per month.

Rodríguez's request to be placed in a career position remained pending for most of the first half of 2009, although the complaint alleges that in April Delgado did attempt to have Rodríguez transferred to another agency. In early March, Delgado's executive secretary had told Rodríguez “not to worry” because his request had been approved, but he remained in the Special Assistant position into June. On June 15, Rodríguez inquired about his status with Gladys Fuentes–Cruz, the MBA's Vice President of Management and Human Capital, in the presence of Judith Morales–Morales, Special Aide to Delgado in personnel matters. Fuentes explained that she was not working on the matter, which was being handled directly by Delgado with no involvement of Human Resources personnel.

On June 22, Rodríguez received a letter from Delgado appointing him to a career position as a Bus Terminal Administrator within the MBA, effective the first day of July. Rodríguez describes this appointment as a “demotion” to an “inferior working position to that which he is entitled to” with a salary of “$3,000/ monthly below to that which he should have been entitled.” Prior to the effective date of this assignment, neither the President of the MBA nor any member of the human resources staff met with Rodríguez to discuss the assignment. Additionally, when on June 25 Rodríguez used the standard form to request a review of his personnel file, he was told, allegedly contrary to standard procedures, that he must write a letter making the request. The complaint states that Rodríguez complied and made such a written request on June 30.

The next day, July 1, when his new duties were set to begin, Rodríguez filed this action in federal court. Invoking 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he alleged that he was denied placement in an Attorney I position in the MBA as a result of his political affiliation and without due process of law, in violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The complaint named as defendants Hernández, Delgado, Morales and Fuentes, each in his or her individual and official capacities.

The district court dismissed the federal claims pursuant to the defendants' motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and this timely appeal followed.⁴

II. ANALYSIS

We review de novo an order of dismissal for failure to state a claim. Tambone, 597 F.3d at 438. In conducting this review, “we disregard statements in the complaint that merely offer ‘legal conclusion[s] couched as ... fact[ ]’ or ‘threadbare recitals of the elements of a...