Vega v. University of New York Bd. of Trustees
| Decision Date | 28 September 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 97 Civ. 5767 DLC.,97 Civ. 5767 DLC. |
| Citation | 67 F.Supp.2d 324 |
| Parties | Edward VEGA, Plaintiff, v. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK BOARD OF TRUSTEES; State University of New York Maritime College, Faculty Student Association of SUNY Maritime College, Inc.; Floyd H. Miller; James Desimone; Howard L. English; Carolyn D. Jones; and G. Peter Cooney, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Julia Tarver, Laura A. Menninger, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, New York City, for plaintiff.
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, Martin Bienstock, Assistant Attorney General, New York City, for defendants State University of New York Board of Trustees, State University of New York Maritime College, Floyd H. Miller, James Desimone, Howard L. English, Carolyn D. Jones, and G. Peter Cooney.
Herbert Posner, Harrison, NY, for defendant Faculty Student Association.
After being fired from a teaching position at the State University of New York ("SUNY"), Edward Vega ("Vega") with the assistance of counsel filed an action in state court for violations of his rights under New York law ("State Action"). Thereafter, Vega filed this action pro se alleging violations of his federal statutory and constitutional rights. The defendants in this action moved to dismiss the federal complaint and that motion was referred to Magistrate Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald for a Report and Recommendation ("Report"). Since that Report was issued, the State Action has been concluded and counsel has now filed an appearance on Vega's behalf in this litigation. This Opinion addresses both the objections of the parties to the Report as well as an additional argument sounding in res judicata as a result of the conclusion of the State Action.
The facts are set forth below as alleged by the plaintiff. Beginning in August 1993, Vega was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Humanities Department of the SUNY Maritime College ("Maritime") and was a Professional Writing Tutor at Maritime's Learning Assistance Center. Beginning in January 1994, Vega was also hired to be an instructor of English at Maritime's Royal Saudi Language Program, and in the summer of 1994, he became the Assistant Dean of Freshman.
In June 1994, Vega was an English Instructor in Maritime's Summer Institute, teaching a basic composition course ("the Course"). All of the students in the Course "were of the age and sophistication to do college level work." On July 21, 1994, Vega conducted a lesson aimed at reducing the students' repetitive use of words and ideas in their essay writing ("the Lesson"). The Lesson used a brainstorming exercise called "clustering." Vega asked the students to choose a topic "on a matter of public concern," and by an overwhelming margin the students voted to discuss "sex," which Vega modified to "relationships/sex." Vega then wrote the students' ideas on the blackboard "in a graph representing clusters of related ideas." A "small minority" of students used sexually explicit language to express their ideas. Vega did not write any sexually explicit terms on the blackboard but instead used initials to represent the ideas. When the brainstorming exercise ended, Vega crossed out the initials meant to represent sexually explicit terms, and cautioned his students that "such terms would alienate their readers and should not be used at all or rarely and then only where it was essential to enlighten and persuade the reader."
In the final exam for the Course Vega instructed the students to write an essay taking a position on a controversial subject. Vega provided suggested topics, but allowed students to choose a topic of their own as an alternative.
Shortly after the Lesson, Carolyn Jones ("Jones"), the Maritime Director of Student Support Services and Director of the Summer Institute, and James DeSimone ("DeSimone"), Maritime's Commandant of Cadets, "ordered" a student resident assistant "to collect all of the notebooks and private journals" of Vega's students, and in particular the students' notes of the Lesson. More than forty notebooks and private journals from Vega's students were collected and given to DeSimone. On August 13, 1994, DeSimone told both Floyd Miller ("Miller"), the President and Chief Executive Officer of Maritime, and Howard English ("English"), the Vice President of Academic Affairs, that Vega was using sexually explicit language to teach English composition in violation of Maritime's sexual harassment policy.
Vega was fired at a meeting with English and G. Peter Cooney ("Cooney"), the Director of Admissions, on August 17, 1994 (the "August 17 Meeting"). Among other things, they accused Vega of sexually harassing students, using sexually explicit language in class that was pornographic and contemptuous of men and women, writing obscenities on the classroom blackboard, creating a liability for the College, and posing a physical danger to students. Vega denied the charges, but acknowledged that "he had given the students the freedom to express themselves during a writing exercise and that some students had used sexual terms." Before the August 17 Meeting Vega had received no notice of any charges against him nor had he been "informed in any way that there was any concern about him or his teaching."
On August 24, 1994, Vega met with Miller to complain about the way he had been treated and requested a hearing to rebut the allegations against him. Miller "berated" Vega for violating Maritime's sexual harassment policy and for teaching pornography. Miller did not allow Vega to defend himself. In September 1994, DeSimone and James met with members of Maritime's staff and told them that Vega had been fired for teaching pornography. On October 3, 1994, Joan Api1 ("Api"), an administrative assistant, Hope Becker ("Becker"), a Maritime counselor, and others told seventy or so of Vega's students that he had been fired for violating Maritime's sexual harassment policy.
On February 10, 1995, Vega's counsel filed an action in New York Supreme Court alleging defamation, "false light," breach of contract, and violations of New York's Constitution, specifically, deprivation of due process and violations of the right to free speech and free association. Vega named Maritime, DeSimone and Miller as defendants.2 After the defendants moved to dismiss, Vega cross-moved for discovery and to amend the complaint to set forth separate causes of action. A motion for a second amended complaint was also submitted with demands for reinstatement, back pay, and the removal from Vega's personnel file of all negative statements and letters relating to the termination of his employment. On January 22, 1996, Justice Wilk dismissed all of Vega's claims other than the defamation claim, and granted the motion to amend the complaint and for discovery addressing the defamation claim.
On August 4, 1997, Vega filed this action pro se, and filed an amended complaint on October 23, 1997. Vega asserts pursuant to Sections 1983 and 1985 of Title 42 the following five violations of the United States Constitution: (1) that Maritime's sexual harassment policy violates the First Amendment by being a vague and overbroad restriction on free speech and not providing notice of prohibited conduct; that his termination violated his First Amendment rights (2) to speak out on matters of public concern and (3) to academic freedom; that the defendants' statements and actions, including the failure to provide him with a hearing before terminating his employment, deprived him without due process of his liberty interest (4) in his good name and reputation and (5) in academic freedom. Vega's sole federal statutory claim is that the defendants violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 ("Title IX"), and its implementing regulations. Finally, Vega makes one state law claim, that is, that the defendants breached his employment contract.
The SUNY Board of Trustees, SUNY Maritime College, Miller, DeSimone, English, Jones, Cooney, Becker, and Api (collectively "the SUNY Defendants") moved to dismiss the amended complaint on the grounds that the action is barred by the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel, and alternatively that they are protected by the doctrines of sovereign and qualified immunity. On February 3, 1998, Vega moved for leave to file a second amended complaint.
On February 24, 1998, the two motions were referred to Judge Buchwald. On June 19, 1998, the Magistrate Judge granted Vega leave to file his second amended complaint, which added the breach of contract claim and the Faculty Student Association of SUNY Maritime College ("FSA") as a defendant.3 Most of the individual defendants named in the second amended complaint are alleged to be agents of FSA. FSA then sought leave to join the SUNY Defendants' motion to dismiss.
On August 4, 1998, the Report was issued. It recommended that the motion to dismiss be granted in part and denied in part, granted FSA's request to join the SUNY Defendants' motion only with respect to the collateral estoppel argument, and recommended that this action be stayed pending the outcome of the State Action.
The Court granted all parties until October 16, 1998, to file objections to the Report and each party objected to part of the Report. While the objections were pending, the parties informed the Court that on or about November 4, 1998, they had executed a stipulation discontinuing the State Action with prejudice. The plaintiff had executed the stipulation pro se, because his attorney had been granted leave to withdraw on June 5, 1998. On December 1, 1998, the Court granted a request from Vega for the appointment of counsel. On April 8, 1999, counsel filed a Notice of Appearance on behalf of Vega. The Court set a schedule for...
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