Snowden v. Northwest Missouri State University, KCD
| Decision Date | 29 September 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. KCD,KCD |
| Citation | 624 S.W.2d 161 |
| Parties | 1 Ed. Law Rep. 730 Wendell C. SNOWDEN, Appellant, v. NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY and William F. Phares, Jr., President of the Board of Regents of Northwest Missouri State University, and E. D. Geyer; Mary Linn; Alfred McKerny; J. Raymond Speckman; James S. Stubbs; and John M. Yeaman; Members of said Board of Regents, all individually and in their official capacities, and Robert P. Foster, President of said University; Charles Thate, Provost and Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs thereof, John Mees, Assistant Provost and Acting Dean of the College thereof, and Leon F. Miller, Dean of Graduate Studies, all individually and in their official capacities, and Morton R. Kenner, Chairman of the Department of Mathematical Sciences of Northwest Missouri State College, both in his individual and official capacity, Respondents. 30431. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Irving Achtenberg and Irvin V. Belzer, Kansas City, for appellant.
Max W. Foust and E. Wayne Taff, Kansas City, for respondents.
Before SHANGLER, P. J., and SWOFFORD and CLARK, JJ.
This case, on recent reassignment to the writer, is an action for compensatory and punitive damages by Wendell C. Snowden, formerly employed as an assistant professor at Northwest Missouri State University. In the trial court, the defendants prevailed on summary judgment and Snowden appeals.
In a laboriously detailed two-count petition subsequently enhanced by a third count added by amendment, Snowden claimed aggrievement because his teaching contract was not renewed after the 1975-1976 school year and because he failed to achieve tenure status. The first count was premised on contract, procedural and substantive due process violations and sought relief against the school and its board of regents. The second count was against defendant Kenner alone and was based on alleged interference by Kenner with the business relationship between Snowden and the university intentionally and maliciously pursued. The third count, essentially repeating the claims of the first, alleged violations of Snowden's rights to property and process protected under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and asked attorney fees.
Defendant Kenner answered and counterclaimed asking damages of Snowden on the ground that the personal action brought against Kenner was an abuse of civil process. The other defendants answered and all moved for summary judgment based on the pleadings and admitted facts developed in pre-trial discovery. Collectively, the defendants asserted that no material facts were in dispute and that Snowden presented no cause of action and no justiciable controversy. Snowden reciprocated with a motion for partial summary judgment on his claim that his employment contract had been terminated with less than the required advance notice.
The judgment from which this appeal is taken sustained defendants' summary judgment motions, overruled Snowden's motion for partial summary judgment and entered final judgment in favor of defendants and against Snowden as to all counts of his petition. The counterclaim of Kenner was dismissed without prejudice.
Shorn of their prolixity, Snowden's points on appeal assert trial court error (1) in denying Snowden's motion for partial summary judgment because uncontroverted facts establish that the university breached the employment contract by terminating Snowden without requisite notice, and (2) in entering summary judgment for defendants on the issue of considering Snowden for tenure status because the relevant facts were in dispute. Snowden also argues that a viable personal claim remained against Kenner.
In this aspect of the case, Snowden based a claim for breach of contract on his entitlement to twelve months advance notice of termination of his teaching employment. Although acknowledging that notice was given and received, he contends that notification was untimely and that the university was therefore obligated to continue his employment for an additional year. With counteropposing motions for summary judgment, all parties asserted below and they do not contend otherwise here, that the relevant facts were not in dispute. The record confirms this assumption, the facts appearing in the pleadings, interrogatory answers and exhibits of record. If the facts were indeed sufficient to postulate the issue, it must follow that either Snowden was or the defendants were entitled to judgment on this phase of the case. We conclude that the judgment was correct as entered.
Snowden was first employed by the university in August 1970 and, by the fall school term in 1974 when the events relevant to this case occurred, he was entering upon his fifth year of employment. The formal terms of employment for all faculty at the university appear in the Faculty Handbook. That document, Revision August 28, 1972, was attached to Snowden's petition and forms the basis for his claim that he was contractually entitled to notice that his teaching employment would not be renewed. The parties here agree that the handbook formed a part of the agreement for Snowden's employment but they dispute interpretation of the notice provision.
The handbook designates several classifications of teacher employment, among which and relevant here are faculty on "Regular Appointment" and on "Tenure Appointment." Although, according to the handbook, all teachers are employed for the academic year, the significance of the improved status of tenure, when attained, is that annual contract renewal is assured, absent termination for cause after notice and hearing. A teacher on regular appointment, however, has no assurance of re-employment for succeeding years, there being no requirement that cause be shown for non-renewal of a teaching contract for faculty serving on regular appointment. This uncertainty is ameliorated to some extent by the notice provision on which the dispute here centers.
It is agreed that Snowden was a teacher on regular appointment subject to non-renewal of his employment as indicated above. Under the provisions of the Faculty Handbook, however, inaction by the university results in contract renewal for faculty on regular appointment to a maximum of seven successive years. In the language of the handbook, an instructor hired by the university on regular appointment "can assume re-employment unless he is notified otherwise." Assuming the entitlement of the university to end Snowden's employment by notice to this effect, the issue is when notification was required to be given. 1
On June 21, 1975, Snowden received a letter dated the previous day from the university president informing Snowden that he would not be re-employed beyond the 1975-1976 academic year. The notice also made reference to paragraph 3a(3) of the handbook hereafter quoted. On July 1, 1975, a second letter, of apparently formal content, confirmed Snowden's salary for the 1975-1976 year, set the dates of the academic calendar as August 25, 1975 to May 13, 1976 and stated that the salary as established would be paid in ten equal installments. There is here no dispute as to the amount of Snowden's salary for the 1975-1976 period or that the salary was fully paid.
According to the handbook, all members of the faculty are employed for the academic year and are paid their salary in ten payments-"September through June." Summer employment is not assumed or guaranteed. A summer school session is contingent on availability of funds and a need for instruction services. If a teacher is hired for the summer session, he is paid an increment of "20% of the salary for the academic year." Snowden was not employed for a summer session in 1976 and he was paid his 1975-1976 salary in monthly installments from September 1975 through June 1976. The last actual services he rendered were on May 13, 1976 when the spring 1976 semester ended.
Pertinent portions of the Faculty Handbook relevant to re-employment or termination of faculty on regular appointment are as follows:
"3. The following policies apply to a faculty member on regular appointment in terms of re-employment or termination of employment.
a. A regular appointment faculty member may be notified of termination of employment without embarrassment to either party under the following conditions:
(3) After the second year of employment, notification is to be presented in writing at least twelve calendar months prior to termination of contract.
c. A faculty member on regular appointment will receive a notification for re-employment by March 15 along with any special conditions that may apply. If appropriations have been approved, the salary arrangements will also be indicated on March 15. If not approved by March 15, salary specifications will be released to the faculty member as soon as possible after the budget has been established."
In their respective contentions, as well as in the letter of July 1, 1975, the parties have assumed that contract non-renewal and termination of employment are synonymous for application of a notice provision specified in the handbook. In fact, there is little warrant for this assumption, the handbook being, at best, ambiguous as to when notification is to be given if the contract of a teacher on regular appointment is not to be renewed. Snowden, however, makes no contention on this appeal that latent or patent ambiguity in the handbook could be resolved in his favor by extrinsic evidence, thus requiring trial on the merits. His only claim on this phase of the case is that undisputed facts entitle him to summary judgment.
We therefore indulge the assumption that handbook paragraph 3a(3) requires twelve months advance notice if the contract of a teacher on regular appointment is not to be renewed. This...
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