Verney v. Pennsylvania Turnpike Com'n, Civ. A. No. 1:CV-95-15.

• Decision Date: 27 March 1995
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 1:CV-95-15.
• Citation: 881 F. Supp. 145
• Parties: Jacqueline M. VERNEY, Plaintiff, v. PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE COMMISSION, James J. Dodaro, Howard Yerusalim, Robert A. Brady, James F. Malone, III, John L. Sokol, Jr., S. Michael Palermo, Joseph L. Dirienzo, Samuel L. Carnabucci, Melvin M. Shelton, Walter J. Lawson, Louis R. Martin, Kevin F. Longenbach, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

881 F. Supp. 145

Jacqueline M. VERNEY, Plaintiff, v. PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE COMMISSION, James J. Dodaro, Howard Yerusalim, Robert A. Brady, James F. Malone, III, John L. Sokol, Jr., S. Michael Palermo, Joseph L. Dirienzo, Samuel L. Carnabucci, Melvin M. Shelton, Walter J. Lawson, Louis R. Martin, Kevin F. Longenbach, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 1:CV-95-15.

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania.

March 27, 1995.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thomas J. Dempsey, Pittsburgh, PA, for plaintiff Jacqueline M. Verney.

Gabriel L.I. Bevilacqua, Stephen M. Donweber, Cathleen M. Devlin, Saul, Ewing, Remick & Saul, Philadelphia, PA, for defendants Pennsylvania Turnpike Com'n, James J. Dodaro, Howard Yerusalim, Robert A. Brady, James F. Malone, III, John L. Sokol, Jr., S. Michael Palermo, Joseph L. Dirienzo, Samuel L. Carnabucci, Melvin M. Shelton, Walter J. Lawson, Louis R. Martin, Kevin F. Longenbach.

MEMORANDUM

CALDWELL, District Judge.

We are considering the Defendants' motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).

I. BACKGROUND

This action arises from the Plaintiff's employment with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission ("Commission"). Beginning in August, 1978, Plaintiff was employed by the Commission as Assistant Chief Counsel. On September 14, 1992, Plaintiff filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), charging the Commission with unlawful sexual discrimination. She was terminated from her position on July 1, 1994.

Plaintiff instituted this action against the Commission (Count I) and various of its present and former employees (Count II)¹. In Count I, she alleges that the Commission discharged her in retaliation for filing her EEOC complaint, in violation Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Count II, Plaintiff contends that the individual Defendants violated her due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

II. LAW AND DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

When considering a motion to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) "all facts alleged in the complaint and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from them must be accepted as true." Malia v. General Electric Co., 23 F.3d 828, 830 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 377, 130 L.Ed.2d 328 (1994). The motion must be denied unless plaintiff cannot prove any facts in support of the claim which would entitle her to relief. Rocks v. Philadelphia, 868 F.2d 644, 645 (3d Cir.1989).

B. Title VII Claim

In Count I, the Plaintiff contends that she was fired because she filed a complaint with the EEOC charging the Commission with sexual discrimination. The Commission contends that Plaintiff failed to plead a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge, which requires Plaintiff to allege that: 1) she engaged in a protected activity; 2) she was subsequently or contemporaneously discharged; and 3) there was a causal link between the protected activity and her discharge. Charlton v. Paramus Bd. of Educ., 25 F.3d 194, 201 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 590, 130 L.Ed.2d 503 (1994) (citations omitted). If there is no direct evidence of a causal link, the Plaintiff "may use circumstantial evidence, including the length of time between when the employer received noticed of the protected activities and the employee's termination." Walker v. IMS America, Ltd., No. 94-4084, 1994 WL 719611, *8 (E.D.Pa. Dec. 22, 1994) (citing Jalil v. Avdel Corp., 873 F.2d 701, 708 (3d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1023, 110 S.Ct. 725, 107 L.Ed.2d 745 (1990)).

It is undisputed that Plaintiff properly pled elements one and two of her prima facie case since she filed an EEOC complaint on September 14, 1992, Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 20, and was terminated on July 1, 1994. Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 25. The dispute concerns whether she has alleged that there was a causal link between the filing of her EEOC complaint and the Commission's decision to terminate her. The Defendants advance the novel argument that, as a matter of law, there is no causal link between a protected activity and an adverse employment decision that occur 21½ months apart.

In support of this contention, the Commission cites a surfeit of cases which held that, absent other compelling evidence, there was no causal link between actions which occurred within time periods much shorter than 21½ months. See, e.g., Rivadeneira v. City of Philadelphia, No. 90-4979, 1994 WL 594122, at *10 (E.D.Pa. Oct. 31, 1994) (lapse of four months is too long for causal link absent other evidence); Nixon v. Runyon, 856 F.Supp. 977, 988 (E.D.Pa.1994) (same). Walker, 1994 WL 719611, at *8 (nine months). However, there is a crucial distinction between the cases cited by the Commission and the present action: those cases were decided on a motion for summary judgment, after a bench trial, or on a post-trial motion for judgment.² In each case, the plaintiff failed to introduce sufficient circumstantial evidence to establish a causal link between the protected activity and adverse employment decision.

In the present case, the Commission's argument relating to the lapse in time would, undoubtedly, be relevant on a motion for summary judgment. To withstand such a motion, Plaintiff would be required to establish a causal link between the EEOC filing and her termination with direct or circumstantial evidence. However, because of the procedural posture of this case, Plaintiff need only allege a causal connection between the protected activity and adverse decision. Her complaint asserts that she was terminated "because she made, and was prosecuting, a charge of unlawful employment practice against the Commission." Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 26. This sufficiently asserts a causal link between the filing of the EEOC complaint and Plaintiff's termination. Accordingly, Defendants' motion to dismiss Count I will be denied.

C. Section 1983 Claim

In Count II, Plaintiff claims that she was denied procedural due process when she was terminated without cause and without a hearing. In order to prevail on a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Plaintiff must prove that she was deprived of a federal right (here a deprivation of liberty or property without due process of law) by someone acting under color of state law. Gomez v. Toledo, 446 U.S. 635, 640, 100 S.Ct. 1920, 1923, 64 L.Ed.2d 572, 577 (1980). Plaintiff alleges that the individual Defendants each participated in the decision to discharge her Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 54, and that they acted intentionally and in concert with each other to deprive her of her liberty and/or property interest in continued employment with the Commission. Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 57, 58.

The individual Defendants contend that they enjoyed qualified immunity with respect to the decision to terminate Plaintiff and that Plaintiff possessed no liberty or property interest in her employment with the Commission, and therefore, was not deprived of a federal right. The test for qualified immunity was set forth by the Supreme Court in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), where it held that "government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Id. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d at 410. Thus, we must engage in a two-part analysis: whether Plaintiff had a clearly established constitutional right and whether that right was violated. Giuffre v. Bissell, 31 F.3d 1241, 1255 (3d Cir.1994).

Qualified immunity applies when "reasonable officials in the defendants' position at the relevant time could have believed, in light of what was in the decided case law, that their conduct would be lawful." Good v. Dauphin County Social Servs. for Children and Youth, 891 F.2d 1087, 1092 (3d Cir. 1989).³ It is an affirmative defense, and, as such, must be raised and proved by the Defendants. See Ryan v. Burlington County, 860 F.2d 1199, 1204 n. 9 (3d Cir.1988). It can be raised at any time, including prior to the commencement of discovery on a motion to dismiss. See, e.g., Acierno v. Cloutier, 40 F.3d 597, 622 (3d Cir.1994). "However, a motion to dismiss based on the defense of qualified immunity will prevail only if the actor's immunity is clear from the face of the complaint." Roberts v. County of Delaware, No. 94-608, 1995 WL 51679, *2 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 8, 1995) (citing Gilbert v. Feld, 788 F.Supp. 854, 861 (E.D.Pa.1992); Schrob v. Catterson, 948 F.2d 1402, 1408 (3d Cir.1991)).

The first issue that we must address is whether the Third Circuit requires a heightened pleading standard for cases against individual government officials. Prior to 1993, many courts, including the Third Circuit, required a heightened pleading standard in all civil rights actions. See, e.g., Colburn v. Upper Darby Township, 838 F.2d 663, 668 (3d Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1065, 109 S.Ct. 1338, 103 L.Ed.2d 808 (1989). However, in Leatherman v. Tarrant County, ___ U.S. ___, 113 S.Ct. 1160, 122 L.Ed.2d 517 (1993), the Court held that

it is impossible to square the "heightened pleading standard" applied by the Fifth Circuit in this case with the liberal system of "notice pleading" set up by the Federal Rules. Rule 8(a)(2) requires that a complaint include only a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief."

Id. at ___, 113 S.Ct. at 1163, 122 L.Ed.2d at 524. In addition, the Court opined that "if Rules 8 and 9 were rewritten today, claims against municipalities under § 1983 might be subjected to the added specificity requirement of Rule 9(b)." Id. However, the Court concluded that such a result would have to be attained through amendment of the Federal Rules, not by judicial interpretation. Id. Thus, the rule is clear: there can be no heightened pleading standard in section 1983 claims against municipalities.

In Leatherman, the Court also stated that it had "no...