Youker v. Schoenenberger
| Decision Date | 20 April 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-2136,92-2136 |
| Citation | 22 F.3d 163 |
| Parties | 128 Lab.Cas. P 57,680, 9 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. (BNA) 700 Christopher R. YOUKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Edward E. SCHOENENBERGER and Town of Milton, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Ernest T. Rossiello (argued), Rossiello & Associates, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellant.
Francis P. Kasbohm (argued), Michael F. Bonaguro, James F. Best, Matthew E. VanCleave, Fraterrigo, Best & Beranek, Chicago, IL, John F. Garrow, Rathje, Woodward, Dyer & Hurt, Wheaton, IL, for defendants-appellees.
Before FAIRCHILD, COFFEY and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiff-appellant, Christopher Youker, appeals a judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants, Edward Schoenenberger and the Town of Milton, Illinois, on the plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 claim for denial of First Amendment rights and his state law retaliatory discharge claim. We affirm.
The plaintiff, Christopher Youker, was a deputy tax assessor for defendant Town of Milton, Illinois ("Milton") from 1984 until his discharge on July 26, 1990. Defendant, Edward Schoenenberger, assumed his role as the duly elected Tax Assessor for Milton on January 1, 1990 replacing his predecessor, Gordon Boyd. Schoenenberger appointed Larry Gage as Chief Deputy Assessor to oversee the sixteen employees and to run the day-to-day affairs of the Assessor's Office.
A review of the record reveals that Youker's relationship with the other employees in the office was both contentious and confrontational. At different times during 1990, Youker questioned employees for: making personal phone calls during business hours, providing citizens with incorrect tax information, using Schoenenberger's signature stamp, performing functions not within the employee's qualifications, improperly filing documents, and attending to personal affairs during business hours (the employee was studying for the Illinois Assessor's Office certification with Schoenenberger's permission). The latter incident resulted in the young female employee bursting into tears and running to her supervisor to report the encounter. Based on these numerous confrontations, Schoenenberger had Chief Deputy Assessor Gage instruct Youker to report all conflicts with fellow employees to Gage rather than personally confronting an employee.
On July 25, 1990, an employee of the Assessor's Office reported another confrontation with the plaintiff in which Youker was "screaming" at her in the presence of taxpayers in the office. That afternoon, Schoenenberger instructed Gage to talk to Youker and forbid him from mistreating co-workers. The very next morning, when Youker verbally confronted a different female employee in the same manner he had the previous day, Schoenenberger called Youker into his office to inquire of his abusive behavior. When Youker failed to heed the rebuke, Schoenenberger discharged him. In response to In addition to Youker's acrimonious relationship with several female employees in the office, an event occurred that Youker felt was responsible for his ouster. Part of the plaintiff's job description included safeguarding against fraudulent homestead exemption claims. 2 Perhaps being somewhat overzealous in performing his duties, the plaintiff sent a letter to the Assessor of a neighboring township (Bloomingdale) notifying him that a certain landowner in Bloomingdale (not within the Milton Assessor's jurisdiction) was claiming two exemptions but was only entitled to one. The letter, dated July 19, 1990, was sent on Milton Township Assessor stationery and signed with a stamp of Edward Schoenenberger's signature. The Bloomingdale Assessor replied the next day via letter and politely requested the Milton Assessor's office to mind its own business. The response letter added that the property owner in question was entitled to both exemptions under the statute because one property was subject to a lease agreement. 3
Youker's request for a written explanation of the reasons for his discharge, Schoenenberger hastily wrote a note documenting the reasons as poor attitude, poor job performance, refusal to change his behavior and an unspecified threat directed at Schoenenberger. 1
Upon receiving the letter from the Bloomingdale Assessor, Edward Schoenenberger was "stunned" because he was unaware that anyone in his office was sending out letters bearing his signature without his approval. After calling the Bloomingdale Assessor's Office to ascertain the substance of the July 19, 1990 letter, Schoenenberger inquired around the office and discovered that Youker had sent the letter. Thereafter Schoenenberger instructed Larry Gage to talk to Youker and make clear that he was never to send out correspondence with Schoenenberger's signature without first receiving authorization. Schoenenberger testified that he had not authorized Youker to send out correspondence with his stamped signature while Youker testified that under the previous Assessor he had been trained to draft letters with the signature stamp but that he would submit them to the Assessor for approval. Youker testified that he did not follow this procedure with Schoenenberger because he did not think the new Assessor wanted to be bothered with clerical matters. Youker believes he was discharged because of his July 19, 1990 letter to the Bloomingdale Assessor.
The plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in finding his speech (notifying the Bloomingdale assessor of the allegedly fraudulent homestead exemption) was not constitutionally protected under Count I. He also contends that the court erred in dismissing Count II on the grounds of defendants' immunity under the Illinois Tort Immunity Act.
In Count I, the plaintiff alleges Schoenenberger violated his civil rights by discharging him for exercising his First Amendment rights. The trial court granted summary judgment on Count I because Youker failed to establish that he was discharged for speech that was a matter of public concern finding that Youker's speech was by an employee in the course of his employment rather than speech by a citizen on a matter of public concern. We review the grant of summary judgment de novo and "utilize the same standard of decision making as that employed by the district court." Pommier v. Peoples Bank Marycrest, 967 F.2d 1115, 1118 (7th Cir.1992) (quoting McMillian v. Svetanoff 78 F.2d 186, 188 (7th Cir.1989)). "The party moving for summary judgment has the burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Id.
" 'Whether an employee's speech addresses a matter of public concern must be determined by the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed by the whole record.' [Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 147-48, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 1690, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983) ]. We have previously 'recognized that content is the greatest single factor in the Connick inquiry.' Berg v. Hunter, 854 F.2d 238, 243 (7th Cir.1988) [, cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1053 [109 S.Ct. 1314, 103 L.Ed.2d 583 (1989) ]." Churchill v. Waters, 977 F.2d 1114, 1121 (7th Cir.1992), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2991, 125 L.Ed.2d 686 (1993). If the speech constitutes a matter of public concern then "[o]ur task, as we defined it in Pickering, is to seek 'a balance between the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.' " Connick, 461 U.S. at 142, 103 S.Ct. at 1687 (quoting Pickering v. Board of Educ., 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 1734, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968)).
Thus to prevail in his civil rights claim the plaintiff must establish that his speech was a matter of public concern. In this regard, Connick noted that "[t]he repeated emphasis in Pickering on the right of a public employee 'as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern,' was not accidental." Connick, 461 U.S. at 143, 103 S.Ct. at 1688 (quoting Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1734-35). Seizing upon this language, the district court rejected the plaintiff's claim because Youker's speech was not "as a citizen" but rather as an employee in the course of his employment.
While we are in agreement with the district court that the speech is not protected, we reach our conclusion on slightly different grounds than the trial court. Simply stated, the speech in the present case is not protected because it was not speech as a citizen because Youker represented, without authority, that it was Assessor Schoenenberger's official speech. The record is eminently clear that Youker wrote the letter to the Bloomingdale Assessor on stationery of the Milton Township Assessor (Edward E. Schoenenberger's name appears on the top of the stationery). Moreover, Youker did not sign the letter with his own name but with Schoenenberger's stamped signature. Schoenenberger testified that Youker did not have authorization to send out letters bearing Schoenenberger's signature while Youker maintained that under the former Assessor, Gordon Boyd, he frequently sent out letters concerning homestead exemptions bearing Boyd's signature but only after Boyd had read and approved the letter. Youker further testified that Schoenenberger instructed the office staff to continue the same office procedures they followed under the previous Assessor thus he believed he was authorized to send out letters with Schoenenberger's stamped signature. Even if Youker is correct in stating that he was authorized during the past administration to send out letters with the Assessor's stamped signature, he failed to follow the procedures he observed under the previous Assessor because he neither submitted the letter to Schoenenberger...
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