Sanchez v. City of Santa Ana
| Decision Date | 24 May 1991 |
| Docket Number | 87-5614 and 88-5853,Nos. 85-6504,86-6226,s. 85-6504 |
| Citation | 936 F.2d 1027 |
| Parties | 59 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1854, 57 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 40,984, 18 Fed.R.Serv.3d 322 Jesse J. SANCHEZ; Victor Torres; Robert Caro, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF SANTA ANA; City of Santa Ana Police Department; Don Botts; Raymond C. Davis; E.B. Hansen; Robert Stebbens; Norwood Williams; Lee Drummond; Lawrence Pitzer; Michael Lewellen; Dale Sterzer; Gary Dixon; John Collins; John McDaniels; Michael Lanners; William Bruns; John Dittus; Richard Faust; John McClain, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Meir J. Westreich, Glendale, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Charles Matheis, Jr., Santa Ana, Cal., Larry J. Roberts, Gregory G. Petersen, Petersen & Trott, Orange, Cal., Daniel F. Fears, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Costa Mesa, Cal., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Before GOODWIN, Chief Judge, SCHROEDER and O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judges.
Jesse J. Sanchez, Victor Torres, and Robert Caro, former police officers of the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD), appeal district court judgments in their action against the City of Santa Ana, and various Police Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants, for alleged deprivation of rights secured by the first and fourteenth amendments, in violation of 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986, and alleged employment discrimination by the City of Santa Ana in violation of 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1983, 2000e-2(a). The City of Santa Ana also appeals. That appeal is addressed in Sanchez v. City of Santa Ana, 915 F.2d 424 (9th Cir.1990).
Between 1975 and 1978, the number of Hispanic police officers at the SAPD greatly increased as a result of a Bilingual Lateral Transfer Program designed to encourage Spanish-speaking officers from other California police departments to transfer to the SAPD. See generally League of United Latin Am. Citizens (LULAC) v. City of Santa Ana, 410 F.Supp. 873 (C.D.Cal.1976) ().
In November 1977, 100 of 225 SAPD officers took a written examination to become Sergeant. Following the examination, the City Personnel Department proposed that the passing score be adjusted to enable more Hispanic officers to pass the written examination and become eligible to compete in the oral examination for the position of Sergeant. The chief of police In December 1978, Sanchez, who was hired pursuant to the Bilingual Lateral Transfer Program, observed on the roll call board a cartoon he considered to be racially offensive. Sanchez took a copy of the cartoon to the City Personnel Department. The police chief punished those involved in disseminating the cartoon. Sanchez also received an official reprimand for violating the chain of command by bringing the cartoon to the attention of the City Personnel Department, rather than the proper SAPD officials.
did not support the proposal. It was not implemented.
On January 9, 1978, Sanchez, Caro and Torres, together with other members of the SAPD, chartered an Orange County chapter of the Latino Peace Officers Association (LPOA), with Caro as president and Torres as vice-president. At a January 13, 1978 meeting between Chief Davis and minority officers, Caro, on behalf of the LPOA, presented Chief Davis with a packet of materials detailing racial problems with the SAPD (the "LPOA packet"). Pursuant to Chief of Police Davis's instructions, Lieutenant Salazar and Lieutenant Lewellen were assigned to investigate the allegations as well as the cartoon incident. The lieutenants prepared a report for Chief Davis. The report found no racial problems, noted some isolated incidents of offensive language, and characterized some minority officers as "super-sensitive."
According to the plaintiffs, during the next few months, LPOA members became targets of selective enforcement of SAPD rules and of peer ostracism. They also claim that various defendants made racially offensive slurs. The complaints alleged that LPOA members resigned from the organization because of their fears of ostracism and discrimination by defendants. Plaintiffs also alleged that unsafe vehicles were assigned to LPOA members and that they did not receive adequate police back-ups during certain operations. Sanchez and Torres claim that secret and illegal personnel files were kept on them by various defendant-supervisors.
On January 13, 1978, Caro complained to Lieutenant Williams, his supervisor, that Bannon, an Anglo officer, used unnecessary force during an arrest. The allegations prompted an investigation by Bannon's supervisor, Lieutenant Dixon, but no charges resulted. Caro complained to Lieutenants Williams and Jordan, Sergeants Dittus, and Garza (the Affirmative Action Officer), that Dixon was biased.
Following the investigation, Chief Davis terminated Caro's employment on the ground that his allegation against Bannon was unfounded and made with evil intent. The termination statement also said that Caro was untruthful during the subsequent investigation. Despite Caro's contention that the investigation was biased and hostile to him, due to his involvement with the LPOA, the termination was upheld by the Santa Ana Personnel Board, the California Superior Court, and the California Court of Appeals.
Following Caro's discharge, Torres made a public statement regarding continued discrimination at the SAPD. Although he was not formally reprimanded, Torres was reminded of his duty to present discrimination claims within the SAPD before airing his grievances to the public.
In January of 1978, Torres applied for the position of Assistant Team Leader (ATL) for the patrol division, and, based on his 1977 test scores, he was next in line for the position. The list expired, however, and in March of 1978, Torres submitted his application to an ATL oral board (Lieutenants Lewellen and Sterzer and Sergeant Bruns). Torres testified that he was questioned about and orally reprimanded for his involvement with the LPOA and the LPOA packet. Torres never became an ATL.
In September of 1978, Torres requested a leave of absence to attend to his ill parents. His request was denied. Torres then appealed and was granted a one-week leave. At the end of the week he voluntarily resigned from the SAPD. In an April, 1979 letter to Personnel Director Botts, Torres stated that he resigned to assist his parents. Torres now claims, however, that he In March of 1979, Sanchez also resigned from the SAPD. He claims that he was constructively discharged following the removal of his merit pay. See Sanchez, at 427.
was constructively discharged as a result of racial discrimination.
On May 18, 1979, Sanchez, Torres and Caro filed a complaint seeking damages and injunctive relief for violations of their civil rights. 1 Plaintiffs moved for full discovery of SAPD personnel files and the defendants sought a protective order to limit plaintiffs' discovery. The court granted the protective order in part, limiting plaintiffs' discovery to (1) statistical data, compiled by the SAPD, regarding the number of full-time, permanent members of the SAPD who were discharged or who resigned while under investigation, between February 1973 and July 1979 and (2) comparative data regarding the compensation of members of the SAPD between May 1975 and July 1979, with no identification of individual members beyond ethnic and sex classifications. The court's grant of the protective order was without prejudice to the plaintiffs' moving for production of the protected material if the action were certified as a class action. The plaintiffs thereafter moved for class certification on behalf of all Hispanic officers, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(1), (b)(2), which the district court denied on February 26, 1980.
Defendants moved to dismiss or in the alternative for summary judgment or partial summary judgment. Partial summary judgment was granted to defendants as to (1) all issues concerning defendants' hiring practices; (2) Sanchez's complaints based on his failure to get Crime Scene Investigator pay; (3) Torres's claim of discrimination for failure to promote him to Sergeant; and (4) all generalized claims of a disparate impact from disciplinary proceedings being more frequent towards Hispanics than others. Defendants were also granted partial summary judgment as to all of Caro's pre-termination claims. Caro's pre-termination claims were precluded by his state proceedings, but Caro's post-termination claims were preserved.
Sanchez was granted summary judgment against the City of Santa Ana on his claim of denial of due process in removal of his merit pay, but was denied summary judgment on his first amendment discriminatory retaliation claim. Following thirty-nine days of trial, a verdict was directed in favor of the defendants on all remaining claims. The court, as noted in the companion appeal, referred Sanchez's claims for damages to the jury.
The City moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial and both motions were denied. The defendants' motions for attorney's fees were granted and defendants were awarded $471,558.71. Sanchez's motion for determination of prevailing party status was granted on his due process claim but denied on his other claims; he was denied attorney's fees and costs.
All but five of the defendants 2 contend that this court lacks jurisdiction over this appeal because the district court improperly vacated Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b) certification of the final directed verdict judgments, and the plaintiffs did not timely appeal from the certified judgment. We reject this contention. 3
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