Wagle v. Murray
| Decision Date | 02 September 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 122,B,No. 73-2066,122,73-2066 |
| Citation | 560 F.2d 401 |
| Parties | Lawrence S. WAGLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. H. Max MURRAY, as Principal of the R. A. Long High School, and H. Max Murray & Jane Doe Murray, husband and wife, Individually, Russell Esvelt & Jane Doe Esvelt, husband and wife, Milton H. Smith, as Superintendent of Longview School Districtetty Buck, Harold Freiberg, David Hallin, Raymond McDermott & Eunice Van Sickle, as Members of the Board of Directors of Longview School Districtetty Buck and Charles E. Buck, husband and wife, Raymond McDermott and Jane Doe McDermott, husband and wife, Eunice Van Sickle and R. V. Van Sickle, wife and husband, Longview School District, a Washington Municipal Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Frederick L. Noland, MacDonald, Hoague & Bayless, Seattle, Wash., Jerry D. Anker, Washington, D. C., argued, for plaintiff-appellant.
Alvin A. Anderson, Tacoma, Wash., argued, for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Before BROWNING and CHOY, Circuit Judges, and WEIGEL, * District Judge.
The jury returned a verdict of $50,000 for appellant in his action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against school officials and a school district, alleging termination of appellant's employment as a high school teacher for exercising rights under the First Amendment. The trial judge granted appellees' motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. On appeal we reversed. On petition for certiorari the Supreme Court vacated our judgment and remanded for further consideration in light of Mt. Healthy City School District v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). Murray v. Wagle, 431 U.S. 935, 97 S.Ct. 2645, 53 L.Ed.2d 252 (1977).
Mt. Healthy held that a teacher allegedly fired for exercising First Amendment rights has the burden of proving his conduct was constitutionally protected and was a "motivating factor" in the decision not to rehire him. The burden then shifts to the school district and officials to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the teacher would have been fired even in the absence of the protected conduct. Mt. Healthy City School District v. Doyle, supra, 429 U.S. at 287, 97 S.Ct. 568.
In the present case the jury was instructed that appellant contended his contract would have been renewed "but for" his exercise of constitutionally protected rights and had the burden of showing that his contract was not renewed "because of" his exercise of those rights. The jury was further instructed that in order to find against the school officials, as it did, it must find they did not renew appellant's contract "without having probable cause to believe that plaintiff was ineffective as a teacher."
These instructions considered as a whole required appellant to show by a preponderance of the evidence that his contract would have been renewed except for his exercise of constitutionally protected rights. This is a greater burden of proof than that imposed upon the teacher in Mt. Healthy.
Appellees argue that the comments of the district judge when he granted judgment n. o. v. establish that the judge applied the Mt. Healthy...
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Hildebrand v. Board of Trustees of Michigan State University
...v. Murray, 546 F.2d 1329 (9th Cir. 1976), Vacated and remanded, 431 U.S. 935, 97 S.Ct. 2645, 53 L.Ed.2d 252 (1977), On remand, 560 F.2d 401 (9th Cir. 1977), Cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1014, 98 S.Ct. 729, 54 L.Ed.2d 758 (1978); Norbeck v. Davenport Community School District, 545 F.2d 63 (8th Cir......
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Eng v. Cooley
...F.3d 907, 911 (9th Cir.1996) (emphasis added). The Mt. Healthy but-for causation inquiry is purely a question of fact. Wagle v. Murray, 560 F.2d 401, 403 (9th Cir.1977) (per curium) ("Mt. Healthy indicates the `trier-of-fact' should determine whether the firing would have occurred without t......
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Fujiwara v. Clark
...of the protected speech. Another case that increased the uncertainty of the constitutionality of defendants' actions is Wagle v. Murray, 560 F.2d 401 (9th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1014, 98 S.Ct. 729, 54 L.Ed.2d 758 (1978).37 In Wagle, a teacher alleged that his employment had been......
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...teacher. Wagle v. Murray, 546 F.2d 1329, 1336 (9th Cir.), vacated and remanded, 431 U.S. 935, 97 S.Ct. 2645, 53 L.Ed.2d 252 on remand, 560 F.2d 401 (1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1014, 98 S.Ct. 729, 54 L.Ed.2d 758 (1978). Although the case at bar is similar to Wagle and differs from Burton ......