Williams v. Seniff
| Decision Date | 20 August 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-1231.,02-1231. |
| Citation | 342 F.3d 774 |
| Parties | Norval WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Rick SENIFF, individually and in his capacity as Sheriff of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Ganpat Waugh, individually and in his capacity as Chief of Police of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Christopher Toth, individually and in his official capacity as Prosecuting Attorney of St. Joseph County, Indiana, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Donald E. Werthheimer (argued), South Bend, IN, for plaintiff-appellant.
Peter J. Agostino (argued), Anderson, Agostino & Keller, Thomas M. Dixon (argued), Dixon, Wright & Associates, South Bend, IN, Wayne E. Uhl, Office of the Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, for defendants-appellees.
Before RIPPLE, ROVNER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
Norval Williams was employed by the St. Joseph County Sheriff's Department as an Assistant Chief of Police. He was fired after he made a comment in the media questioning the guilt of an individual who had been convicted of killing a police officer. Mr. Williams claimed that he suffered racial discrimination in his workplace and that the defendants conspired to retaliate against him after he made the comment. He therefore filed this action, alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985 based on deprivations of his First Amendment free speech, procedural due process and equal protection rights. Involving Title VII, see 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., he also claimed that he had suffered racial discrimination. Finally, he alleged a state law claim for interference with contractual relations under Indiana law. The district court dismissed a portion of Mr. Williams' claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and later granted summary judgment on the remaining claims. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
Mr. Williams, an African-American, was hired by then-St. Joseph County Sheriff, Rick Seniff, to serve as an Assistant Chief of Police, beginning on January 1, 1999. One of Mr. Williams' responsibilities was to oversee security for the St. Joseph County Courthouse in South Bend, Indiana. Serving in this oversight capacity in June of 1999, Mr. Williams attended the trial of Gregory Dickens, an African-American youth who was tried before an all-white jury for the murder of a white South Bend police officer. The jury convicted Dickens.
At some time during the trial or after the verdict was returned, Mr. Williams commented to television and newspaper reporters that "if the person who committed the murder was not on trial, the verdict would not be just." R.1 at ¶ 5. Mr. Williams contends that his statement "mirrored doubts felt and expressed by other members of the African American community of South Bend, Indiana," related to a matter of public concern, and "was not without reasonable basis and foundation." R.1 at ¶ 7. Mr. Williams further alleges that a witness had called to inform him that the real murderer was not on trial. Mr. Williams claims he disclosed this communication to both the prosecution and the defense in Dickens' trial. However, the witness feared for her personal safety and subsequently refused to testify. Mr. Williams contends that, after he made the statement in the media, he was subjected to great anger and was forced to endure race-based hostility in his workplace.
Mr. Williams maintains that, after he made this statement, South Bend Mayor Stephen Luecke, then-St. Joseph County Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Toth, and Fraternal Order of Police ("F.O.P.") Lodge 36 President Joseph Lauck expressed displeasure and exerted pressure on Sheriff Seniff to fire Mr. Williams. These individuals admit that they called Sheriff Seniff to express their displeasure with Mr. Williams' comment, but the defendants deny that they requested that Sheriff Seniff fire Mr. Williams.1
Mr. Williams claims that, during his approximately seven-month tenure on the police force, Sheriff Seniff displayed an intent to discriminate against him by refusing to hire minority job applicants in lieu of white applicants, as well as by excluding him from input in the hiring process and from social activities. Mr. Williams also contends that he was singled out for an unprecedented performance evaluation that was not given to similarly situated white officers. On August 4, 1999, Sheriff Seniff summoned Mr. Williams to a performance evaluation meeting. During the session, Sheriff Seniff terminated Mr. Williams' employment based on allegations of poor job performance, Mr. Williams' negative response to criticisms and Mr. Williams' failure to submit to a polygraph test. Mr. Williams maintains that these claims were mere pretext for a race-based termination.
Mr. Williams contends that, after his termination, Sheriff's Department Chief of Police Ganpat Waugh ("Chief Waugh") and St. Joseph County Police Merit Board members Terry O'Connor, Mary Jane Clark, Donald Decker, Michael Anderson and Jon Hanley (collectively "Merit Board members"), improperly acquiesced in his illegal termination. Mr. Williams claims that the Merit Board members had the authority and duty to challenge the termination directly or to grant a hearing at which Mr. Williams might answer charges and present a defense. He claims that the Merit Board members failed to exercise their authority with the intent that Sheriff Seniff would terminate Mr. Williams in retaliation for the comment in the media.
Moreover, Mr. Williams alleges that Chief Waugh participated in the pretextual performance review and wrongful termination and that Chief Waugh had the jurisdiction and authority to stop the conspiracy to deprive Mr. Williams of his rights. Mr. Williams contends that Chief Waugh is liable for failing to stop or investigate the illegal actions of Sheriff Seniff, Mayor Leucke, Mr. Toth and Mr. Lauck.
Before the district court, Mr. Williams named Sheriff Seniff, Chief Waugh, Mr. Toth, Mr. Lauck, Mayor Luecke and the Merit Board members, all individually and in their official capacities, in a six-count complaint filed on May 26, 2000. Count I alleged that Mayor Luecke, Mr. Toth and Mr. Lauck conspired with Sheriff Seniff to deprive Mr. Williams of his First Amendment free speech rights by pressuring Sheriff Seniff to terminate Mr. Williams in retaliation for his statement in the media. The first count also claimed that the Merit Board members and Chief Waugh violated Mr. Williams' First Amendment rights by failing to intervene and stop his termination. Mr. Williams alleged that all of the defendants' actions constituted violations of both 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985.
In the second and third counts of his complaint, Mr. Williams alleged that all named defendants, individually and in their official capacities, deprived him of his equal protection rights by forcing him to work in a hostile and discriminatory work environment and violated his due process rights by depriving him of his liberty and property interests in continued employment as Assistant Chief of Police, both in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985.
Mr. Williams' fourth count alleged that he had suffered disparate treatment and a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII. The complaint stated that the creation of a hostile work environment was undertaken by all named defendants individually and in their official capacities in furtherance of the deprivations alleged in Counts I through III. However, the complaint specifically singled out the actions of Sheriff Seniff as his employer and Mr. Lauck in his capacity as an agent for the F.O.P., which Mr. Williams characterizes as a labor union. Finally, in the fifth count of the complaint, Mr. Williams alleged that all defendants committed a wrongful and tortious breach of contract under Indiana law.2
In an order issued on October 5, 2000, the district court addressed a number of motions for dismissal on the pleadings. First, the court noted that, in response to Mayor Luecke's motion to dismiss, Mr. Williams had stated that Mayor Luecke's actions occurred "in the course of his official duties and while exercising his responsibilities as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana [and] nothing in the complaint alleges or indicates that [Mayor] Luecke was `off-duty' or somehow acting as a private individual when he became involved in the conspiracy." R.41 at 6-7 (quoting Williams Resp. at 8). Consequently, the court determined that the complaint only alleged action in the Mayor's official capacity, and the court dismissed claims against Mayor Luecke in his individual capacity. The court then ruled that Mr. Williams could proceed on the claims against Mayor Luecke in his official capacity. On June 14, 2001, the court granted Mr. Williams' and Mayor Luecke's joint motion to voluntarily dismiss the remaining claims as to Mayor Luecke in his official capacity. Mr. Williams has not appealed the dismissal of claims against the Mayor.
The court then addressed Mr. Lauck's Rule 12(b)(6) motion. The motion claimed that the conspiracy allegations of Mr. Williams' complaint were insufficient, that Mr. Lauck was not a state actor, that the speech in question was not protected, and that the state law claims in Count V did not properly contain any allegations against Mr. Lauck or the F.O.P. The court granted Mr. Lauck's motions with respect to Count V because the pleading alleged only a breach of an employment agreement and because Mr. Lauck was not in privity in the employment contract with Mr. Williams. Although in his brief in opposition to the motion to dismiss Mr. Williams pointed out that the Indiana torts of interference with an employment relationship and interference with a contractual relationship do not require privity...
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