Woolsey v. Hunt
| Decision Date | 09 May 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-5083,90-5083 |
| Citation | 932 F.2d 555 |
| Parties | 67 Ed. Law Rep. 514 Telena D. WOOLSEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James C. HUNT, Chancellor of University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences; Arnold E. Postlethwaite, Director of the Connective Tissue Diseases Division of the Department of Medicine; and the University of Tennessee, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Wanda S. Donati and Donald A. Donati (argued), Donati & Associates, Memphis, Tenn., for plaintiff-appellee.
Ronald C. Leadbetter, Assoc. Gen. Counsel (argued), Beauchamp E. Brogan, Knoxville, Tenn., and JoAnn C. Cutting, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Memphis, Tenn., for defendants-appellants.
Before KEITH, KENNEDY and SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judges.
James C. Hunt, M.D. ("Hunt"), Chancellor of the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences ("UTCHS"), Arnold E. Postlethwaite, M.D. ("Dr. Postelthwaite"), Director of the Connective Tissue Diseases Division ("CTDD") of the Department of Medicine, and the University of Tennessee ("University"), defendants-appellants (collectively "defendants"), appeal from the district court's June 21, 1989, judgment and damages award entered pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 in favor of plaintiff-appellee, Telena D. Woolsey ("plaintiff"). For the reasons set forth below, we REVERSE.
Plaintiff was first employed at UTCHS on February 9, 1977, as a senior secretary in CTDD. Prior to her employment, plaintiff had been an executive secretary for a number of years. On September 1, 1981, plaintiff's position was reclassified and upgraded, resulting in a promotion to the position of office supervisor in the division. Among her duties were secretarial duties for the chief of the section, administrative duties, as well as training and supervision of office personnel.
Plaintiff's 1983-1984 evaluation by the then CTDD Director, Dr. Robert S. Pinals ("Dr. Pinals") was outstanding. In the evaluation, Dr. Pinals described plaintiff as "an excellent employee, very efficient, devoted to her job...." In the spring of 1984, Dr. Pinals decided to accept a position as chairman of the Department of Medicine at Princeton University. Dr. Postlethwaite was designated to assume the position of CTDD Director previously occupied by Dr. Pinals. Shortly after Dr. Postlethwaite had been named Dr. Pinals' successor, on March 28, 1984, Dr. Postlethwaite informed Dr. Pinals that he wanted plaintiff to leave when Dr. Postlethwaite assumed the directorship. Dr. Pinals advised Dr. Postlethwaite that there must be cause for such an action and that no cause existed. Dr. Postlewaithe responded that he would document cause. 1 Dr. Pinals made a written record of this conversation and signed it on April 2, 1984.
After his conversation with Dr. Pinals, Dr. Postlethwaite consulted Scott McDaniel ("McDaniel"), business manager for the Department of Medicine, about reorganizing CTDD. McDaniel referred the matter to Paula Harris ("Harris"), then Director of personnel services. Harris approved Dr. Postlethwaite's proposed reorganization, which included the elimination of plaintiff's position of office supervisor.
During this time, Dr. Pinals informed plaintiff about his conversation with Dr. Postlethwaite. Before Dr. Postlethwaite assumed his duties as CTDD director, plaintiff learned about Dr. Postlethwaite's plans for reorganization. Plaintiff promptly sought the advice of Roland Woodson ("Woodson"), UTCHS Director of employee relations. On or by April 2, 1984, Woodson assured plaintiff that Dr. Postlethwaite could not "get rid" of her through reorganization. Woodson conveyed to plaintiff that he considered what was being done to her immoral and unjust. Woodson also expressed his opinion regarding Dr. Postlethwaite's treatment of plaintiff to Woodson's superiors, Howard Carman ("Carman"), Vice Chancellor for Facilities Management and Human Resources, and Dr. T. Earle Bowen ("Bowen"), Vice Chancellor for Administration. Bowen informed plaintiff also that Dr. Postlethwaite's action in seeking to terminate plaintiff through departmental reorganization was illegal and could not be done.
On June 29, 1984, plaintiff received a reappointment letter from Bowen. In the letter, Bowen advised plaintiff that her salary, effective July 1, 1984, would be at a monthly rate of $1,254, and an annual rate of $15,048. The letter stated that the terms and conditions of her employment with the University were in accordance with the policies and procedures set forth in the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual. The employment status policy referred to at that time stated that regular staff non-exempt employees were employed "for a term that is expected to be six months or more." Joint Appendix at 32 (). A new employment status policy took effect on July 1, 1984, which stated that all non-faculty employees "are not employed for a specified time, but, instead, serve on an 'at will' basis, subject to the policies and procedures set forth in the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual." Id. at 242. The revised policy also contained the language included in the old policy stating that employees in plaintiff's category were employed for a term expected to be six months or more. The district court found that there was no evidence that any of the parties involved were aware of the revision at any time pertinent to this lawsuit.
Despite the assurances to plaintiff from University officials that Dr. Postlethwaite's reorganization plan was not a legitimate action, plaintiff received notification of the elimination of her position from Dr. Postlethwaite in a memorandum dated July 1, 1984, the date he assumed the duties of CTDD director. The memorandum stated that, effective July 31, 1984, her position would be eliminated because of departmental reorganization; the memorandum also advised plaintiff to apply for employment elsewhere within the University.
On July 17, 1984, plaintiff initiated a grievance pursuant to the University's employee grievance policy concerning the elimination of her position as senior secretary and office supervisor. Her grievance addressed two additional matters pertaining to the elimination of her position. She complained that junior secretaries were being retained, while her position as a senior secretary and office supervisor, was being eliminated. She also complained that the elimination of her position was as a result of Dr. Postlethwaite's "personal whim" to "get rid" of her "without due cause." Plaintiff requested reversal of the plan to eliminate her position and the cessation of further threats to terminate her position within CTDD.
Subsequently, plaintiff's 1983-1984 outstanding evaluation by Dr. Pinals was reduced to satisfactory. McDaniel notified plaintiff of the reduction on July 25, 1984. In a July 26, 1984, letter to plaintiff, McDaniel claimed that Dr. Pinals had requested this downgrading in the evaluation. Further, McDaniels claimed that Dr. Pinals had not timely requested approval of plaintiff's outstanding evaluation from the Dean of the College of Medicine. McDaniel characterized the downgrading of plaintiff's performance evaluation as part of a random process to comply with the mandate from the University to limit the number of employee evaluations in each of the four categories. McDaniel testified before the district court that plaintiff's performance On July 23, 1984, plaintiff met with Harris and Carman. Carman offered plaintiff continued employment of one to two months if she would drop the grievance. Plaintiff refused. Carman and Harris then agreed to extend her employment indefinitely to allow her to seek other employment at the University. Harris confirmed this agreement by letter to plaintiff dated July 24, 1984. The letter stated that the reorganization of CTDD had affected plaintiff's duties and that her new responsibilities would be defined by the administrators of that division.
evaluation had been reduced several weeks earlier, but that he had inadvertently forgotten to notify her until July 25, 1984. The district court did not credit the latter testimony because McDaniel admitted that all other employees whose evaluations had been downgraded were notified in May. Further, the district court admitted into evidence Dr. Pinals' timely request for an outstanding evaluation for plaintiff on April 25, 1984. Following notification of her performance evaluation downgrade, plaintiff filed a second grievance concerning the evaluation.
On July 26, 1984, Dr. Postlethwaite advised plaintiff by letter that her employment in CTDD was being extended beyond July 31, 1984. The letter also directed her to report as a temporary secretary to another part of the division. Plaintiff was instructed to vacate her office by July 30, 1984. While removing her belongings from her office on July 27, 1984, in compliance with Dr. Postlethwaite's order, plaintiff injured her wrists. As a result of this injury, plaintiff was initially put on authorized sick leave. This was subsequently converted to a leave of absence under worker's compensation. Plaintiff was on leave from the University from July 27, 1984, until her termination on October 8, 1984.
Between July 16 and September 28, 1984, plaintiff continued her efforts to process her grievances and obtain a hearing before University officials. 2 Plaintiff encountered several obstacles to the prompt processing of her grievance. The Department chairperson, Dr. Andrew Kang ("Dr. Kang"), did not initially respond to plaintiff's first grievance. Plaintiff then attempted to submit the grievance to Dean Robert Summitt ("Dean Summitt"). Dean Summitt refused to hear the grievance until Dr. Kang first considered the matter. On August 16, 1984, still having received no response from Dr. Kang, plaintiff wrote to Dr. Kang regarding her...
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