Upadhya v. Langenberg
| Citation | 671 F. Supp. 521 |
| Decision Date | 31 August 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 87 C 0086.,87 C 0086. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
| Parties | UPADHYA, Plaintiff, v. LANGENBERG, et al., Defendants. |
Martin J. Oberman, Edward H. Salomon, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.
Carla J. Rozycki, James T. Otis, Donald J. McNeil, Keck, Mahin & Cate, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.
Kamleshwar Upadhya was born in India in 1949. After attending an English school in Japala, India he went to Banaras University in India where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering Degree. Then he went to the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland from which he obtained a Ph.D. in Metallurgy in 1977. In 1978 he returned to Banaras University in India as a research officer. From 1979 to 1981 he was at the Newcastle Polytechnic Institute and in 1981 he spent one year in the field of metallurgy in Australia with an emphasis in the specialized area of liquification. He came to the United States in January 1982 to attend a conference of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers at Dallas, Texas where he received an award as the co-author of a paper on metallurgy. While there he met a number of people who were interested in hiring him. He then went to work in research at Penn State during the summer of 1982, following which he went to the University of Missouri at Rolla as a research assistant professor. In the meantime he worked in research at Penn State for one month in the summer of 1982 before going to Rolla. From Missouri he went the next year to a position at the University of Minnesota supervising the research of graduate students. He was a research associate on a grant fellowship from the school. During the several years in his career in America he published a number of learned treatises on areas of research in metallurgy, and he received several awards in the field.
It is important to note that it was Upadhya's studies and research that brought him to the University of Minnesota where he was employed as a research associate. This was a special position resulting from his having received a fellowship grant from the university.
In March of 1984, while still on the Minnesota fellowship, Upadhya read an advertisement that appeared in the Journal of Metals, the top publication in the field. This ad indicated that currently the University of Illinois was soliciting applications for a "tenure track" position in its Department of Civil Engineering, Mechanics and Metallurgy (CEMM) located in Chicago. The ad specified that the professorship would be in the "general area" of "metallurgy", that the initial appointment would be that of an associate professor, and that it would be for a period of four years. According to the ad, the position also required that the candidate perform teaching duties, in addition to "developing for the University funded research projects."
Upadhya responded to the ad. He telephoned the University and spoke with a Dr. Michael McNallen, as associate professor and the Chairman of CEMM's Curriculum Committee. Upadhya previously had met Dr. McNallen at one of the annual national education conferences of academics in the mining and metals science field. McNallen informally explained to Upadhya what the position entailed and encouraged him to apply for it and to forward to him, Dr. McNallen, his resume. Upadhya promptly did this. His resume showed that he had received his Ph.D. in Metallurgy and it included a list of his prior teaching and research positions. Although Upadhya had taught briefly in several places, he had not yet taught as a tenured or full-time professor. His resume concluded with a listing of his publications, his research proposals, and his references.
Near the beginning of June of 1984, McNallen telephoned Upadhya seeking to arrange for him an on campus interview to take place on June 12, 1984. Upadhya agreed. He arrived in Chicago the evening before the scheduled interview. He was provided hotel accommodations and was taken to dinner by Dr. McNallen and several of his colleagues. The next morning he was escorted around the University's campus and introduced to several other members of the CEMM department, and at the invitation of the department he conducted a mock seminar on some topic in his field. In the course of his discussions with members of the faculty, Upadhya became aware that because of his extensive educational background he would be eligible to begin as either an associate professor or a lower ranking assistant professor. The faculty, and in particular McNallen, Chien-Heng Wu, the Department Head of CEMM, and a tenured professor named Stephan Danyluk, took Upadhya aside and explained to him the differences and respective advantages of the two positions. Wu, McNallen, and Danyluk all told Upadhya that if he elected to become an associate professor he would be given a higher starting salary, but would receive only a two year track during which to gather sufficient research grants and establish a sufficiently favorable teaching record necessary to obtain a tenured position. Conversely, as an assistant professor, Upadhya would have to begin at a lower salary, but he would be given five years to pursue his research projects before being considered for a tenured position. Wu, McNallen, and Danyluk advised Upadhya as an experimentalist he would find it safer to take the assistant professorship in order to have more time in which to build a favorable record.
Upadhya returned to Minnesota. Then in July of 1984, he received a phone call from Professor Wu offering him the position of assistant professor on a 5-year tenure track at the salary of $35,000 a year. Based upon the advice he had received in his earlier conversations with Wu and the other faculty members Upadhya elected to take the lower ranking assistant professorship, believing that he would have a better chance of obtaining tenure if he had the five years in which to build his record. A few days later he telephoned Professor Wu and verbally accepted the University's offer. During their phone conversation Wu indicated to him that the school's offer was subject to a final approval of the University's Board of Trustees and to the completion of the usual administrative formalities that accompanied the appointment of a new professor. Wu informed him that once these procedural formalities were completed a letter of confirmation of their agreement would be mailed to him.
Due to a mutual convenience in timing, Upadhya arranged with Wu to pick up the confirmation letter a few days later at a time when he was scheduled to be in Chicago for some other purpose. So, on July 30, 1984, Upadhya being in Chicago went to Wu's office and obtained the confirmation letter. The letter confirmed that Upadhya had been offered a "tenure-track assistant professorship" with a tenure code of "A2". The letter further explained that A2 meant that "a recommendation for promotion or termination must be submitted by the department no later than the beginning of his fifth year service on campus."
Based upon his understandings from his prior discussions with Wu and McNallen, Upadhya considered that the letter of confirmation to be in conformity with his belief that he had accepted a five year tenure track professorship. The confirmation letter conformed to his understanding of the statements made to him to the effect that he would be given the entire allotted five year probationary period before any determination would be made as to whether or not he would be granted tenure. Upadhya concluded his day in Chicago by discussing with McNallen the structure of the course he would be teaching come September.
As the fall semester hurriedly approached, Upadhya rushed to make preparations to facilitate his move to Chicago. He notified the University of Minnesota that he would be leaving. He made arrangements to move his belongings to Chicago, and made plans to have his wife join him here. In addition, he arranged to turn down two pending offers of teaching positions, one in Australia and one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having decided that the University of Illinois appointment would give him greater long term benefits.
Upadhya arrived on campus in Chicago on or about the 4th of September. Right away he began setting up his office and preparing his course curriculums. On September 7th, while sorting through his mail he found a letter enclosing a standardized "Notification of Appointment" form. This "Notification of Appointment" stated that Upadhya had been assigned "Tenure Code 2", and it requested Upadhya to indicate in writing, with his signature at a place provided for it, that he accepted the appointment. Believing the standardized form contained no deviations from the agreement letter of July 30, 1987, Upadhya signed the form. The evidence in the case discloses that it was the standard practice of the University to enclose with this "Confirmation of Appointment" a second document entitled "Certain Terms of Employment" which outlined in detail the terms and conditions of employment by the University. In his deposition and at the trial Upadhya denied that he received this document or that its contents were ever brought to his attention by anyone at the University. In May of 1986 he received his formal notice of termination.
On September 11, 1984, the copy of the Notice of Appointment form which Upadhya had signed was received by the Secretary of the Board of Trustees and copies of it were made and routinely circulated among appropriate school officials. Included in the language of the Notice of Appointment was a provision that stated, "This appointment is made subject to all applicable laws and to the University of Illinois Statutes." Also included was an explanation of the "A2" numerical code assigned to Upadhya, which meant that Upadhya's appointment was an "indefinite term appointment."
Later in September of...
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Upadhya v. Langenberg
...42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, contending that his discharge violated the Due Process Clause of the fourteenth amendment. The district court, 671 F.Supp. 521, held a trial and issued a permanent injunction compelling the University to "continue [Upadhya] in his present position in this employ until i......