Talbot v. Balt. City Bd. of Sch. Comm'rs
| Decision Date | 03 May 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 0308,0308 |
| Parties | DENNIS TALBOT v. BALTIMORE CITY BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS, et al. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
UNREPORTED
Opinion by Leahy, J.
*This is an unreported opinion, and it may not be cited in any paper, brief, motion, or other document filed in this Court or any other Maryland Court as either precedent within the rule of stare decisis or as persuasive authority. Md. Rule 1-104.
Appellant Dennis Talbot was hired as a school bus driver by Barber Transportation in August 2011. Through Barber Transportation's contract with the Baltimore City Public Schools ("BCPS"), Mr. Talbot transported special needs students in the BCPS system to and from school. On June 1, 2012, Mr. Talbot received a parking ticket on his personal vehicle which he had parked in one of the bus parking spaces while he was at work. Mr. Talbot subsequently wrote a letter, which included racial epithets and very specific threats to mutilate the meter maid, and mailed the letter along with his parking ticket to the Baltimore City Parking Fines Section.
On June 22, 2012, Mr. Talbot was notified by his employer that Steven James of the Transportation Department for the BCPS had sent Barber Transportation a letter informing them that Mr. Talbot was disqualified from driving school buses for BCPS because of the letter he wrote. Mr. Talbot claimed not to have any knowledge of the letter, explaining that at the time he wrote it, he was under the influence of prescribed Dilaudid and Ambien for his sciatic nerve pain and sleeping difficulties.
Immediately after receiving notice of his disqualification, Mr. Talbot attempted to contact Mr. James to request a reconsideration. Mr. James refused to reconsider Mr. Talbot's disqualification and told him he could file an appeal. Mr. Talbot sent two letters requesting an appeal: the first to the Director of Pupil Transportation for BCPS and the second to the Executive Director of Operations for BCPS.
Receiving no response to his letters, Mr. Talbot, pro se, filed a complaint against the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners ("Appellee" or the "City Board") inthe Circuit Court for Baltimore City,1 asserting claims for wrongful discharge, wrongful disqualification, and retaliation. In his complaint, Mr. Talbot alleged that he was permanently disqualified from driving school buses in Maryland, that the endorsements on his commercial driver's license ("CDL") had been revoked, and that he had not been able to appeal his disqualification.
After a hearing on January 8, 2014, the circuit court dismissed Mr. Talbot's wrongful discharge claim, finding that he was not an employee of the City Board, and dismissed Mr. Talbot's wrongful disqualification and retaliation claims for failure to exhaust his administrative remedies.
On April 25, 2014, after the circuit court denied his motion to alter or amend the judgment, Mr. Talbot, still pro se, filed an appeal to this Court. Mr. Talbot presented four issues for this Court's review.
Mr. Talbot presented the following questions to this Court:
We affirm the circuit court's grant of the City Board's motion to dismiss on the ground that Mr. Talbot's complaint failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted. Because Mr. Talbot is not an employee of the City Board, his claims for wrongful discharge and retaliation both fail. Additionally, even construing Mr. Talbot's pro se complaint liberally, Mr. Talbot failed to plead a legally cognizable cause of action based on his disqualification from driving school buses for Baltimore City Public Schools. The circuit court did not abuse its discretion in striking Mr. Talbot's second amended complaint for prejudicing the City Board because the complaint completely abandoned all prior claims, raised entirely new claims based on tortious interference, and was filed after discovery had closed.
Dennis Talbot was employed as a part-time school bus driver with Barber Transportation and drove school buses for special needs children for BCPS under its contract with Barber Transportation. Mr. Talbot wrote the letter at issue to the City of Baltimore Department of Transportation on June 1, 2012 after receiving a parking ticket. In the letter Mr. Talbot detailed his displeasure with the police and residents of Baltimore City, using racial epithets and distasteful analogies to describe the measure of his hatred for Baltimore City. He concluded the letter by stating,
Mr. Talbot testified later in his deposition2 that he received a call from his supervisor, Pat Barber, on June 22, 2012, informing him that Steven James, Safety and Training Manager for BCPS, had sent Barber Transportation a letter addressed to Mr. Talbot. The letter, addressed to Mr. Talbot, advised that, based on the contents of the letter that Mr. Talbot sent in response to getting a parking ticket, "effective immediately [he was] disqualified as a school bus driver or attendant."
Mr. Talbot testified that, until Ms. Barber called him, he was completely unaware that he sent the letter to the Parking Fines Section, stating specifically that he "did not know nothing about that letter." He determined that he must have written the letter after he had taken a high dose of Dilaudid, prescribed to him for sciatic nerve pain, which he claimed, " Mr. Talbot immediately called Mr. James and tried to explain to Mr. James the circumstances surrounding the letter.
On the following Monday, June 25, 2012, Mr. Talbot went down to the district office of BCPS, in an attempt to meet Mr. James in person to explain his story. However, according to Mr. Talbot, Mr. James "did not want to have nothing to do with [him]." Atthat time, Mr. Talbot said he inquired as to whether he had to file an appeal and Mr. James told him "yes," after which Mr. Talbot started his appeal process.
Mr. Talbot sent letters of apology to the Parking Authority and to Mr. James. Both letters were received on June 27, 2012. In his letter to the Parking Authority, Mr. Talbot expressed his remorse for the "offensive, disrespectful and disgraceful letter," and extended an apology specifically to the employee who issued him the ticket. In the letter to Mr. James, Mr. Talbot apologized and explained that his behavior was out of character.
A week after speaking to Mr. James, Mr. Talbot first attempted to appeal his disqualification by sending a letter, via certified mail, to Mike Dodson, Director of Pupil Transportation for the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Mr. Talbot received no response to this letter. Mr. Talbot stated in his deposition that this appeal was handwritten; therefore, there was no copy. However, the record contains a signed return receipt addressed to Mike Dodson, received by Francis Aning, an employee in the BCPS Office of Pupil Transporation, on June 27, 2012. When Mr. Talbot did not receive a response from Mr. Dodson, he went down to the BCPS Department of Human Resources, where he was informed that, because he was not a city employee, he would have to file an appeal with the Maryland State Department of Education. He sent another letter requesting an appeal to the Superintendent's Office for the State Department of Education, which wasreceived on July 13, 2012.3 But then, on July 24, 2012, Mr. Leon Langley from the State Department of Education called Mr. Talbot and instructed him that he would have to first file an administrative appeal with BCPS before filing with the State, and told him to direct his filing to John Land, Executive Director of Operations for BCPS.
Mr. Talbot testified that, on July 26, 2012, he faxed a letter requesting an appeal of his disqualification to John Land. He also sent the letter via certified mail, which, according to the signed return receipt, was received on July 31, 2012, by a Mr. John Gibson. Mr. Talbot testified that he did not receive any response at this time, and thereafter, he pursued a remedy through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), but the EEOC informed him that they did not handle this kind of situation because it was not a discriminatory action.4
On October 3, 2012, after his failed pursuit of a remedy with the EEOC, Mr. Talbot, pro se, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. He brought claims for "Wrongful Discharge, Wrongful Disqualification Deliberate and Unjust Retaliation . . ." against the BCPS Department of Transportation. In his complaint, Mr. Talbot alleged thatthe actions of Mr. James, Mr. Dodson, and Mr. Land resulted in the removal of the endorsements on his license, which he "earned and paid for," and his "permanent disqualification" from driving school buses in Maryland. Mr. Talbot detailed his fruitless efforts to appeal his disqualification and...
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