Santana v. Calderon

• Decision Date: 26 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-1438.,No. 02-1436.,No. 02-1437.,02-1436.,02-1437.,02-1438.
• Citation: 342 F.3d 18
• Parties: Janet SANTANA; Esteban Pérez; Conjugal Partnership Pérez-Santana, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Sila M. CALDERÓN, individually and as Governor of Puerto Rico; Xavier Gonzáles-Calderón; Victor Rivera, individually and as Secretary of Labor & Human Resources of Puerto Rico, Defendants, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

342 F.3d 18

Janet SANTANA; Esteban Pérez; Conjugal Partnership Pérez-Santana, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Sila M. CALDERÓN, individually and as Governor of Puerto Rico; Xavier Gonzáles-Calderón; Victor Rivera, individually and as Secretary of Labor & Human Resources of Puerto Rico, Defendants, Appellants.

No. 02-1436.

No. 02-1437.

No. 02-1438.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard May 6, 2003.

Decided August 26, 2003.

Irene S. Soroeta-Kodesh, Assistant Solicitor General, Puerto Rico Department of Justice, with whom Roberto J. Sánches Ramos, Solicitor General, and Vanessa Lugo Flores, Deputy Solicitor General, were on brief, for appellants Calderón and González-Calderón.

Celina Romany, with whom Juan M. Frontera Suau was on brief, for appellant Rivera.

Joan Schlump Peters, with whom Andrés Guillemard-Noble and Monique Guillemard-Noble were on brief, for appellees.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

This case comes to us on an interlocutory appeal and requires us to determine whether the defendants, Sila M. Calderón ("Calderón"), Governor of Puerto Rico, Xavier González-Calderón, current Executive Director of the Human Resources and Occupational Development Council, and Víctor Rivera, Secretary of Labor and Human Resources of Puerto Rico, (collectively "defendants"),¹ are entitled to qualified immunity in a case brought by Plaintiffs Janet Santana ("Santana"), former Executive Director of the HRODC, and her husband, Esteban Pérez.² Santana sued the defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the corresponding laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, seeking injunctive relief and compensatory and punitive damages. The complaint alleged (1) that defendants violated Santana's First Amendment rights by politically discriminating against her and creating a hostile work environment which culminated in her dismissal from her position as Executive Director of the Human Resources and Occupational Development Council ("HRODC"); (2) that the defendants conspired to remove her from her position as Executive Director of the HRODC based solely on her political affiliation; and (3) that her dismissal violated her Fourteenth Amendment due process rights because she had a property interest in her position. On defendants' motion to dismiss, the district court granted the defendants qualified immunity on the political discrimination claim, but denied qualified immunity on the Fourteenth Amendment due process claim. The defendants appealed this denial of qualified immunity. We conclude that the district court erred in rejecting the claim of defendants to qualified immunity on the due process claim of plaintiffs.

I.

In 1998, the United States Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 2801-2945 (2003), to

provide workforce investment activities, through statewide and local workforce investment systems, that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by participants, and, as a result, improve the quality of the workforce, reduce welfare dependency, and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the Nation.

29 U.S.C. § 2811. To be eligible to receive federal funds under the WIA, a state must submit a State Plan outlining a five-year strategy for the statewide workforce investment system. The WIA requires the Governor of each state to establish a state Workforce Investment Board (WIB) to assist in the development of the State Plan. The WIB consists of the Governor, two members of each chamber of the State legislature, and representatives appointed by the Governor, including representatives of business, chief elected officials of municipal and county governments, representatives of labor unions, individuals or representatives of organizations that have experience with youth activities and education, and State agency officials with responsibility for related programs and activities. 29 U.S.C. §§ 2821-2822.

To assist him in fulfilling his duties under the WIA, the former Governor, Pedro Rosselló, designated the HRODC by executive order as the depository and administrator of the funds that Puerto Rico received pursuant to the WIA. The HRODC is an agency attached to the Department of Labor and Human Resources of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, created pursuant to 18 P.R. Laws Ann. § 1584 (2002) to be the governing body of the Occupational and Human Resources Development System: a "conglomerate of agencies, programs or operating units that, directly or indirectly, offer services related to non-university technological-occupational education." 18 P.R. Laws Ann. § 1581 (2002). The HRODC "shall retain the counseling, coordination, and establishment of public policy functions and shall be the regulatory and supervisory entity of the [ ] system." 18 P.R. Laws Ann. § 1584. The HRODC is composed of the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of the Department of Family, the Secretary of Economic Development, the Secretary of Labor, three representatives from the private sector, and three representatives of the public interest. 18 P.R. Laws Ann. § 1584. The HRODC is responsible for, inter alia, developing and implementing public policy with respect to occupational education, administering a $300 million dollar annual budget comprised of federal funds disbursed under the WIA, evaluating and approving requests for such funds, evaluating and auditing programs and services receiving such funds, and submitting periodic reports to the Governor and the legislature regarding the achievement of the objectives and purposes of the WIA. 18 P.R. Laws Ann. § 1585 (2002). The Executive Director of the HRODC "shall direct the administrative and operating functions of the Council," 18 P.R. Laws Ann. § 1584, and, according to the Governor's Executive Order, "shall be responsible and accountable to the [WIB] for the receipt, custody and disbursement of the federal funds received pursuant to the WIA."

A. Santana's Employment

Santana began working as a public servant in 1994 at the Puerto Rico Department of Education. From January 1997 until July 2000, she worked in the Office of the Governor as Advisor to the Governor on Federal Affairs. In May 2000, Santana was appointed as a member of the WIB, a position she still holds. In July 2000, Santana was appointed by then-Governor Rosselló as Executive Director of the HRODC and was confirmed by the Senate of Puerto Rico for a four-year term which was to expire in July 2004. In November 2000, defendant Calderón was elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and in January 2001, she took office.³ Calderón appointed co-defendant Rivera as the Secretary of Labor and Human Resources. Co-defendant González-Calderón had been the Regional Director of the Carolina-Trujillo Alto Consortium of the WIB. After Governor Calderón won the gubernatorial election, she appointed González-Calderón Auxiliary Secretary of Planning and Special Assistant of Federal Affairs for the WIB.

In her complaint Santana alleges that after the elections and Rivera's appointment as Secretary of Labor and Human Resources, she was subjected to "an intense persecution and harassment campaign for her political affiliation as member of the NPP."⁴ Santana v. Calderón, 188 F.Supp.2d 160, 165 (D.P.R.2002) (order on defendants' motion to dismiss). Among other things, she received anonymous insulting letters and harassing telephone calls, and career position employees at the HRODC made frequent remarks about Santana's imminent dismissal. The harassment reached its climax on February 26, 2001, when Santana received a voodoo doll covered in pins and a copy of her signature pinned to the doll's chest. On March 9, 2001, a group of six people consisting largely of employees of the Department of Labor and Human Resources went to Santana's office and gave Santana a letter dated March 7, 2001 signed by Governor Calderón, ordering the immediate termination of her employment as Executive Director of the HRODC. Santana was given fifteen minutes to vacate her office and one member of the group immediately began changing the locks. While Santana was clearing her office, a reporter from a radio station came to interview her. Although the employees from the Department of Labor tried to impede his access, Santana was able to speak to the reporter. Later the same day, defendant Rivera made several declarations to the press stating the alleged reasons for Santana's dismissal, which Santana claims are "untrue and defamatory." Santana, 188 F.Supp.2d at 167. Santana was not given prior notice of her termination or an opportunity to defend herself from the alleged grounds for her termination. Defendant González-Calderón was appointed Executive Director of the HRODC in place of Santana and currently holds the position.

B. Procedural Posture

On December 17, 2001, Santana filed a second amended complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico seeking injunctive relief⁵ as well as compensatory and punitive damages under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985(3), and corresponding laws of Puerto Rico, for assorted violations of her rights. On December 21, 2001, the defendants filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the amended complaint on the following grounds: (1) Santana's position as Executive Director of the HRODC is a trust position and therefore political affiliation is a justifiable ground for dismissal in the interest of public policy; (2) Santana did not have a property interest in her position and, thus, could not have been deprived of her right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment; and (3) defendants in their individual capacities are entitled to qualified immunity.⁶

The district court found that

there can be little doubt that the HRODC helps shape Commonwealth policy. However, the Court cannot see, at this point in the litigation, how the position of...