University of Texas Medical School at Houston v. Than

• Decision Date: 22 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-0465,94-0465
• Citation: 901 S.W.2d 926
• Parties: 101 Ed. Law Rep. 1251, 38 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 910 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL SCHOOL AT HOUSTON, John C. Ribble, M.D., and M. David Low, M.D., Petitioners, v. Allan THAN, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 926

901 S.W.2d 926

101 Ed. Law Rep. 1251, 38 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 910

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL SCHOOL AT HOUSTON, John C Ribble, M.D., and M. David Low, M.D., Petitioners, v. Allan THAN, Respondent.

No. 94-0465.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued Jan. 3, 1995.

Decided June 22, 1995.

James C. Todd, Dan Morales, Leo L. Barnes, Austin, for petitioners.

Bruce A. Coane, Joyce A. Keating, Houston, for respondents.

ENOCH, Justice, delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all Justices join.

This case concerns the procedural due process, if any, that must be afforded to a graduate student who is dismissed from a state university. The trial court found that the student's due course of law rights had been violated and granted the student a permanent injunction. The court of appeals affirmed. 874 S.W.2d 839. For the reasons expressed below, we affirm the permanent injunction as modified.

Allan Than, a medical student at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, was dismissed for academic dishonesty. As a third year student, Than took the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) exam in surgery on February 22, 1991. During the exam, two proctors observed Than repeatedly looking at the answer sheet of another student. The proctors were instructed by Dr. Margaret McNeese, an associate dean of UT, to either pull Than's test or to move one of the students. Before the proctors could do either, however, the student from whom Than was allegedly cheating finished the exam and left the room. Perceiving that the threat of cheating had dissipated, and rather than disrupt the remaining students who were still taking the test, the proctors opted not to pull Than's exam and allowed him to complete the exam.

Shortly after the exam, UT requested the NBME to prepare a statistical analysis of Than and the other student's exam. The NBME compared joint wrong answers, that is, the common questions that both students answered incorrectly. Of these wrong answers, the students gave the same wrong answer on 88% of the questions.

Upon receiving the NBME's statistical analysis, UT instituted disciplinary proceedings against Than for academic dishonesty. UT gave Than oral and written notice of the charges against him, including notice of some of the evidence to be used against him at the hearing. At the hearing, Than opted to represent himself. UT was represented by Dr. McNeese. Both made opening and closing statements. UT called the two proctors as witnesses and Than extensively cross-examined them. Than called two students who had taken the same exam to testify on his behalf. After the conclusion of the hearing, the hearing officer viewed the testing room with Dr. McNeese. Although Than asked, he was not permitted to accompany them to the testing room. On the hearing officer's recommendation, Than was expelled for academic dishonesty.

Than retained legal counsel and appealed his dismissal to Dr. David Low, the president of the medical school. Dr. Low upheld Than's dismissal. Than filed this action alleging that UT had violated his right to procedural due process under the due course of law guarantee of the Texas Constitution. TEX. CONST. art. I, § 19. Than obtained a temporary injunction requiring UT to permit him to complete his medical education; the court of appeals affirmed. University of Texas Medical School v. Than, 834 S.W.2d 425, 432 (Tex.App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1992, no writ). When UT refused to provide Than a certificate necessary for him to participate in a residency program, the trial court found UT in contempt of the temporary injunction. UT sought mandamus relief and a stay of the trial court's contempt order. This Court granted the stay on July 1, 1992. University of Texas Medical School v. O'Neill, 35 Tex.Sup.Ct.J. 990 (July 1, 1992). We denied UT leave to file the petition for writ of mandamus and lifted the stay on December 31, 1992. 36 Tex.Sup.Ct.J. 386 (December 31, 1992).

In January 1993, the trial court granted Than a permanent injunction ordering UT to: (1) change Than's failing grade on the surgery exam to a "B"; (2) remove from Than's school records all references to his expulsion and all documents concerning the charges against him, the investigation, recommendation, hearing and appeal; (3) treat Than as a student who graduated in good standing; and (4) issue Than a diploma and all certificates necessary for his participation in any post-graduate residency program. We agree that Than was not afforded adequate procedural due process before his expulsion and is entitled to a new hearing on the charge of academic dishonesty. We affirm the permanent injunction, but as modified.

I.

The due course of law guarantee of the Texas Constitution provides:

No citizen of this State shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, privileges or immunities, or in any manner disfranchised, except by the due course of the law of the land.

TEX. CONST. art. I, § 19. The Texas due course clause is nearly identical to the federal due process clause, which provides:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; ...

U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 1. While the Texas Constitution is textually different in that it refers to "due course" rather than "due process," we regard these terms as without meaningful distinction. Mellinger v. City of Houston, 68 Tex. 37, 3 S.W. 249, 252-53 (1887). As a result, in matters of procedural due process, we have traditionally followed contemporary federal due process interpretations of procedural due process issues. Mellinger, 3 S.W. at 252-53; see also Spring Branch Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Stamos, 695 S.W.2d 556, 560-61 (Tex.1985); Tarrant County v. Ashmore, 635 S.W.2d 417, 422-23 (Tex.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1038, 103 S.Ct. 452, 74 L.Ed.2d 606 (1982); House of Tobacco, Inc. v. Calvert, 394 S.W.2d 654, 657-58 (Tex.1965); Great Oaks Util. v. City of Houston, 161 Tex. 417, 340 S.W.2d 783, 784 (1960). Although not bound by federal due process jurisprudence in this case, we consider federal interpretations of procedural due process to be persuasive authority in applying our due course of law guarantee.

Our review of Than's due course claim requires a two-part analysis: (1) we must determine whether Than has a liberty or property interest that is entitled to procedural due process protection; and (2) if so, we must determine what process is due. Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 428, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 1153-54, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982); Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569-70, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972).

II.

The requirements of procedural due process apply only to the deprivation of interests protected under Article I, Section 19. Both UT and Than assume that Than has a protected liberty or property interest in continued graduate education at a state-supported university. However, UT invites this Court to conclude otherwise.

In defining the scope of protected liberty interests under the Fourteenth Amendment, the United States Supreme Court has stated that a liberty interest:

[D]enotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized ... as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.

Roth, 408 U.S. at 572, 92 S.Ct. at 2706-07 (quoting Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399, 43 S.Ct. 625, 626, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923)). Moreover, where a person's good name, reputation, honor, or integrity is at stake because of what the government is doing to him, the minimal requirements of due process must be satisfied. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 574, 95 S.Ct. 729, 736, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975); Roth, 408 U.S. at 573, 92 S.Ct. at 2707. Thus, where high school students were suspended from school for 10 days based on charges of misconduct, the school's unilateral suspension was found to deprive the students of a liberty interest in their standing with fellow students and their teachers and for later opportunities for higher education and employment. Id. at 575, 92 S.Ct. at 2708.

A medical student charged with academic dishonesty faces not only serious damage to his reputation but also the loss of his chosen profession as a physician. See Seavey, Dismissal of Students: "Due Process." 70 HARV.L.REV. 1406, 1407 (1957). The stigma is likely to follow the student and preclude him from completing his education at other institutions. We hold that Than has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in his graduate education that must be afforded procedural due process. Accord, Goss, 419 U.S. at 574-75, 95 S.Ct. at 736-37; see also Dixon v. Alabama State Bd. of Educ. 294 F.2d 150, 157 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 930, 82 S.Ct. 368, 7 L.Ed.2d 193 (1961) (students expelled from state university for misconduct have interest in continuing education in good standing that is entitled to due process). ¹

III.

Having concluded that the due course guarantee applies, we must next determine what process is due. Due process at a minimum requires notice and an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 333, 96 S.Ct. 893, 902, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976); Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950); Calvert, 394 S.W.2d at 657. What process is due is measured by a flexible standard that depends on the practical requirements of the circumstances. Mathews, 424 U.S. at 334, 96 S.Ct. at 902; Goss, 419 U.S. at 578, 95 S.Ct. at 738-39. This flexible standard includes three factors: (1) the private interest...