Torres Rivera v. Calderon Serra

• Decision Date: 14 June 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-2352.,04-2352.
• Citation: 412 F.3d 205
• Parties: Basilio TORRES-RIVERA et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Sila Maria CALDERON-SERRA et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

412 F.3d 205

Basilio TORRES-RIVERA et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Sila Maria CALDERON-SERRA et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 04-2352.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard May 5, 2005.

Decided June 14, 2005.

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Fernando L. Gallardo and Antonio Borres-Otero, with whom Woods & Woods LLP was on brief, for appellants.

Luis Sanchez-Betances, with whom Gerardo De Jesus Annoni and Sanchez-Betances & Sifre, P.S.C. were on brief, for appellees.

Before LYNCH, Circuit Judge, BALDOCK,^* Senior Circuit Judge, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

The basic question posed by this action is whether political association rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States act as a check on a legislature enacting a statute reorganizing an administrative agency and a check on the executive who signed and then implemented the law. Here, the legislature of Puerto Rico reorganized the Industrial Commission by reducing the number of Commissioners who hear workers' compensation claims from twenty-five to five, and the governor signed the bill and then implemented it. There is no claim that the governor, in implementing the new legislation, did not apply the same interpretation of the statute regardless of political affiliation of the former Commissioners. Under that uniform interpretation, she concluded that the new statute eliminated all of their positions. Some of the Commissioners, terminated from employment, sued in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court dismissed the action. See Torres-Rivera v. Calderon-Serra, 328 F.Supp.2d 237 (D.P.R.2004). We affirm the judgment of dismissal against the plaintiffs on all claims.

I.

Within the past decade, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has used three different organizational structures for the Industrial Commission, the administrative agency which handles workers' compensation claims. In the years before 1996 (indeed, since 1935) the Commonwealth had long structured the Industrial Commission as having a maximum of five Commissioners. To assist the Commissioners, there was also a system, put in place since 1969, of hearing examiners who would make recommendations to the five Commissioners, who would then make a final adjudication of the claims by majority vote.

However, on July 1, 1996, Governor Pedro Rossello, whose New Progressive Party (NPP) had recently gained the governorship, signed Law 63, codified at 11 P.R. Laws Ann. § 8. Law 63 increased the number of Commissioners from five to twenty-five and provided each Commissioner with a definite term of ten years in office. Each Commissioner was appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Each Commissioner was given authority to make a final adjudication of the claims before him or her independently. Law 63 also stated that Commissioners appointed prior to its effective date would remain in office until their original terms expired. Law 63 did not explicitly state what would happen to the hearing examiners.

There was another change in control of the executive branch of the Commonwealth in November 2000, when the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) took over the governor's office. On March 25, 2003, Governor Sila Maria Calderon-Serra ("Governor Calderon") signed Law 94, which amended 11 P.R. Laws Ann. § 8 by establishing a new structure for the Industrial Commission. The preamble to Law 94 cited problems of great inefficiency with the functioning of the Industrial Commission and recounted a large number of complaints from the citizenry about long delays in the handling of cases in that office. By contrast with Law 63, Law 94 returned the number of Commissioners to five, to be appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate for fixed terms of six years (except the Chairman¹ of the Commission, whose term ends on December 31 of the year in which general elections are held). The law specified that of the five Commissioners, three should be lawyers, one should be a doctor with "acclaimed knowledge and interest in the field of occupational medicine" and one should be "a person of known sympathy for and identification with Puerto Rico's organized workers' movement."

Despite requests from the minority parties, and unlike its predecessor statute, Law 63, the legislature put no provisions in Law 94 as to the fate of the positions of the twenty-five previous Commissioners who had been appointed before its enactment. See Torres-Rivera, 328 F.Supp.2d at 240. Law 94 simply did not address the status of the incumbent Commissioners. Still, Law 94 employs prospective language to describe the structure of the Industrial Commission. For example, it states that "[a] commission to be called `Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico' is created, which will have five (5) Commissioners" (emphasis added). The statute also created career positions for a group of hearing examiners, designated by the Industrial Commission's Chairman.² Those hearing examiners make recommendations to the Commissioners rather than make final determinations on their own. On April 11, 2003, the Senate approved the Governor's nomination of Gilberto M. Charriez-Rosario ("Charriez") as Chairman of the Industrial Commission. Three other new Commissioners assumed office that day. The fifth Commissioner was not appointed at the time when the plaintiffs filed this suit.

Charriez lost little time in carrying out the legislature's reforms. He sent written notices to all of the former Commissioners informing them that he was the new Chairman of the Industrial Commission. There was some scuffling with the former Chairman of the Commission, Basilio Torres-Rivera ("Torres"), who took the position that he was the legal Chairman until his term expired on June 30, 2006. The details of this dispute are not pertinent to our present discussion.

On April 14, 2003, the Secretary of State for the Commonwealth at the time, Ferdinand Mercado,³ sent letters to all persons who had occupied the twenty-five Commissioners' positions, terminating their positions at the Industrial Commission effective that day.

As frequently happens with such disputes in Puerto Rico, the matter was brought to federal court.⁴ Fourteen of the former Commissioners, including Torres as lead plaintiff, sued.⁵ The complaint, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Puerto Rico law asserted a variety of claims in furtherance of their argument that they could not be removed from their jobs as Commissioners, despite the restructuring of the Industrial Commission. The first count alleged that Law 94 was unconstitutional both on its face and as applied to the plaintiffs because it was void for vagueness and because it permitted interference with a fundamental First Amendment right of the plaintiffs by allowing for political discrimination. The count also alleged that the acts of the Governor in designating the new Commissioners were illegal in that they deprived the old Commissioners of their rights of free speech and freedom of association.

The second count purported to sound in federal law but actually was based on Puerto Rico law. It argued that Law 94, properly interpreted, did not provide for the discharge of the plaintiffs. The third claim for relief was a federal procedural due process claim. It was also based on interpretation of Puerto Rico law, particularly that Law 94 did not revoke those provisions of Law 63 which provided the plaintiff former Commissioners with fixed terms. The fourth count was one for deprivation of substantive due process; it also denied that there was a legitimate efficiency problem with the operation of the Industrial Commission which had justified a change in its structure. The fifth claim for relief purported to be based on the plaintiffs'"protected liberty interests" and seemed to assert that the plaintiffs' reputations had been damaged by this action. The sixth cause of action was a Puerto Rico law claim for damages, under the supplemental jurisdiction of the federal court, based on Article 1802 of the Puerto Rico Civil Code.

The plaintiffs sought a declaration that Law 94 was unconstitutional, compensatory damages for lost pay and emotional distress, punitive damages, and reinstatement to their positions.

The defendants named were Governor Calderon, Cesar R. Miranda-Rodriguez, Governor Calderon's Chief of Staff, and Charriez, the new Chairman of the Industrial Commission. The defendants promptly moved to dismiss on grounds of legislative and qualified immunity and argued that certain claims failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.

The district court allowed the motion and entered judgment dismissing the federal claims with prejudice and the state claims without prejudice on August 5, 2004. See Torres-Rivera, 328 F.Supp.2d at 244-45. The plaintiffs timely appealed.

II.

Our review of the judgment on the motion to dismiss is de novo. Arroyo-Melecio v. P.R. Am. Ins. Co., 398 F.3d 56, 65 (1st Cir.2005). The plaintiffs have abandoned all arguments on appeal, save three: (1) that the statute is unconstitutional and that the district court's (2) legislative immunity and (3) qualified immunity findings were in error.

A. Constitutionality of the Statute

We address first the plaintiffs' appeal from the denial of declaratory relief that Law 94 is unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs bring Due Process and First Amendment claims against the statute. They argue that the statute is void for vagueness because it does not clearly address what is to happen to their jobs; as well, they argue that it embodied the legislature's intention to engage in and permitted political discrimination against the former Commissioners based on their political affiliation with the NPP, the party of the former governor.

We reject these arguments. There are no actionable claims that the enactment of this statute, Law 94, violates either the plaintiffs' First Amendment or Due Process...