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590 F2d 470 Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College T 77-2311 77-2312 | OpenJurist
590 F. 2d 470 - Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College T 77-2311 77-2312
590 F2d 470 Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College T 77-2311 77-2312
590 F.2d 470
Dr. Joseph T. SKEHAN
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF BLOOMSBURG STATE COLLEGE and Dr. Robert
Nossen and Dr. Charles Carlson and John Pittenger,
Superintendent of Education, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
and Bloomsburg State College. Dr. Joseph T. Skehan,
Appellant in No. 77-2311,
and Bloomsburg State College, Appellants in No. 77-2312.
Nos. 77-2311, 77-2312.
Decided Dec. 21, 1978.
Cletus P. Lyman, Richard A. Ash, Lyman & Ash, Larry D. Glass, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant in No. 77-2311.
Allen C. Warshaw, Howard M. Levinson, J. Justin Blewitt, Jr., Deputy Attys. Gen., Gerald Gornish, Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Harrisburg, Pa., for appellants in No. 77-2312.
Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, HUNTER, Circuit Judge, and LACEY*, District Judge.
On September 21, 1970, Skehan wrote Nossen a letter invoking Article 5e of the Statement of Policy for Continuous Employment and Academic Freedom at Bloomsburg State College (hereinafter Article 5e). In that letter he alleged that the decision not to reappoint him after 1970-71 had been caused by considerations violative of his academic freedom.1 Nossen did not refer Skehan's letter to the Committee on Professional Affairs, the College body charged with initiating proceedings under Article 5e to resolve such allegations, nor did Skehan take any further action to secure an Article 5e hearing.
The district court held a hearing on Skehan's request for a preliminary injunction on January 11 and 12, 1973. Preliminary injunctive relief was denied in an opinion and order dated January 31, 1973. Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College, 353 F.Supp. 542 (M.D.Pa.1973). Subsequently, the parties stipulated that a final hearing could be held on the record developed at the preliminary injunction hearing, and the district court issued its opinion on the merits on May 9, 1973. Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College, 358 F.Supp. 430 (M.D.Pa.1973).
Trial on the issues remanded to the district court was postponed while Skehan's petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court was pending. On May 27, 1975, the Supreme Court granted his writ, vacated the judgment of this Court, and remanded the case "for further consideration in light of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, (421 U.S. 240, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975)), and Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308 (, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214) (1975)." 421 U.S. 983, 95 S.Ct. 1986, 44 L.Ed.2d 474 (1975). This Court reviewed the case en banc on remand from the Supreme Court, and addressed itself to three issues respecting the relief to which Skehan might be entitled for the defendants' actions in bringing about his nonrenewal and termination. Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College, 538 F.2d 53 (3d Cir. 1976).
In conclusion, this Court reiterated that on remand the district court was to make findings of fact on the nature of the interest created by Article 5e and on whether the decision not to renew Skehan's contract beyond 1970-71 had been impermissibly based on his stands on campus issues. The Supreme Court denied defendants' petition for a writ of certiorari on November 29, 1976. 429 U.S. 979, 97 S.Ct. 490, 50 L.Ed.2d 588 (1976).
Two recent opinions of this Court compel our disposition of this question. In Meyers v. Pennypack Woods Home Ownership Association, 559 F.2d 894 (3d Cir. 1977), this Court faced the question whether a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1982, alleging racial discrimination by a private home ownership association, was governed by Pennsylvania's two year or its six year statute of limitations. The Court noted that the Pennsylvania scheme of limitations is complex, due to the establishment of a six year period for all actions in contract and all actions of trespass by the Act of 1713, while the Act of 1895, without reference to the earlier statute, provides a two year period for actions for personal injury not resulting in death. The Court noted that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held (citing Walker v. Mummert, 394 Pa. 146, 146 A.2d 289 (1958) and Helmig v. Rockwell Manufacturing Co., 389 Pa. 21, 131 A.2d 622 (1957) ) that the Act of 1713 still governs all actions in trespass not involving personal injury. 559 F.2d at 902. Elaborating further, this Court stated that 12 P.S. § 34 "by its terms applies only to 'actions brought to recover damages' whereas (the plaintiff) seeks a broad range of equitable relief," and that the statutory phrase " 'injury wrongfully done to the person, in cases where the injury does not result in death' expresses a limitation only on actions for bodily injury whereas (plaintiff's) claim is for tortious interference with his right to contract for the purchase of a house." Id. (footnote omitted).
The district court properly noted that Skehan's claim, like the plaintiff's in Davis, most resembled the state law claim of wrongful interference with a contract, and that it did not seek damages for a bodily injury but rather for economic loss. In affirming the district court's determination that 12 P.S. § 31 provides the applicable statute of limitations for Skehan's claim, we also rely on the fact that Skehan did not seek damages alone for the College's allegedly unlawful nonrenewal of his contract, but a broad range of equitable relief as well. See Meyers, supra, at 902. We agree with the ruling of the district court denying defendants' motion for judgment on the ground that the first amendment claim was barred by the statute of limitations.2
It is clear that "(g)enerally, whether a trial court will reopen a case to take more testimony is discretionary with that court." Rochez Brothers, Inc. v. Rhoades, 527 F.2d 891, 894 n. 6 (3d Cir. 1975), Cert. denied, 425 U.S. 993, 96 S.Ct. 2205, 48 L.Ed.2d 817 (1976); See Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 401 U.S. 321, 331, 91 S.Ct. 795, 28 L.Ed.2d 77 (1971). The contention that Skehan presses most vigorously in arguing that the trial court abused that discretion in this instance is that by not taking additional testimony on the first amendment claim the district court failed to comply with the mandate of this Court to make findings of fact on the causes of Skehan's nonrenewal. To the contrary, however, neither opinion of this Court specifically instructed the district court to take further evidence on any issue remanded to it for findings of fact. In fact, we feel that there was an assumption implicit in those opinions that the trial court need not reopen the record of this case for further testimony on the first amendment issue in order to make the required findings.
We believe that the concerns raised here by Skehan, and rejected by the district court, do not compel a conclusion that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to take additional testimony on the first amendment nonrenewal claim. This is not one of the exceptional cases envisioned in Rochez Brothers, supra at 894-95, in which a party failed to put into evidence all the necessary elements of his claim because of a misunderstanding among the parties and the trial court; nor was the trial court unable to make findings of fact on the nonrenewal claim without the proffered testimony. See Pittsburgh Press Club v. United States, 426 F.Supp. 553, 554 (W.D.Pa.1977), Aff'd in relevant part, 579 F.2d 751, 755 (3d Cir. 1978). Rather, as Skehan concedes, at the time of the preliminary injunction hearing, the district court and the parties probably considered the question of the College's motivation in its nonrenewal of Skehan to be merged with the first amendment challenge to his dismissal. Thus, Skehan did present evidence with respect to his first amendment activities, and the College's reaction to them, relevant to the whole period of his employment by the College. The district court in no way hindered him from offering proof that the nonrenewal decision was motivated by his engaging in conduct protected by the first amendment. Skehan's counsel made a tactical judgment to rest on the record made at the preliminary injunction hearing and, based on that record, the district court was able to detail Skehan's campus activism prior to the nonrenewal decision in the Spring of 1970 in twelve findings of fact contained in its opinion on the merits of the first amendment claim, discussed below.
Skehan has presented one contention for the consideration of this Court that, of necessity, he did not present to the district court prior to its order of January 10, 1977. That contention is that the district court should have reversed its order denying his motion to present additional testimony on the first amendment issue when it became aware of the change in the law represented by the decision of the Supreme Court in Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). The Mt. Healthy decision was issued by the Supreme Court on January 11, 1977, one day after the district court's order denying Skehan's motion, but prior to the court's ruling on the merits of the first amendment claim on March 24, 1977, in which it relied on the test of causation formulated in Mt. Healthy.
Mt. Healthy did not substantially affect the affirmative burden of a plaintiff in Skehan's position to show by a preponderance of the evidence that his first amendment activities were a substantial or motivating factor in an adverse employment decision. The standard of proof adopted in Mt. Healthy is, if anything, more stringent than the standard applied by the district court in its ruling in 1973 that Skehan had failed to prove he had been terminated for reasons violative of the first amendment, 358 F.Supp. at 434 a ruling affirmed by this Court, 501 F.2d at 39. To the extent the Mt. Healthy Court adopted a "new" formulation of the test of causation for claims alleging dismissal from public employment for reasons violative of the first amendment, the "new" aspect of that formulation was the Court's holding that the defendants in such a case must be afforded an opportunity to rebut a prima facie case of impermissible motivation by showing by a preponderance of the evidence that they would have reached the same decision even in the absence of the constitutionally protected conduct of plaintiff. 429 U.S. at 284-87, 97 S.Ct. 568. Because Skehan was permitted to adduce all testimony relevant to his first amendment nonrenewal claim at the preliminary injunction hearing, and because no evidence pertinent to his affirmative case after Mt. Healthy would not have been equally pertinent then, we cannot say that Skehan was prejudiced by the court's application of a "new" legal standard to his first amendment claim.
The district court found that the evidence adduced by Skehan at the preliminary injunction hearing failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that his constitutionally protected conduct was a "substantial" or "motivating" factor in the decision of the Board of Trustees to offer him a terminal contract for the 1970-71 academic year. See Mt. Healthy, supra at 287, 97 S.Ct. 568. Furthermore, the court went on to find that even if Skehan had met that initial burden, the defendants had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that Skehan's contract would not have been renewed beyond that year even if he had not spoken out on campus issues. See id. Having concluded that the court's findings on Skehan's failure to meet his initial burden of proof are not clearly erroneous, we affirm the court's judgment on the first amendment nonrenewal issue.
Whatever the true meaning of the phrase "disruptive activities" in the October 9 letter might be, we can find no error in the district court's determination that Skehan failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that Dr. Nossen acted to prevent the renewal of Skehan's contract because of his disagreement with Skehan's avowed positions on campus issues. Moreover, there is no evidence that the members of the Board of Trustees were even aware of Skehan's first amendment activities at the time they approved the decision not to renew his contract. Such a failure of proof requires that we credit the district court's evaluation of the testimony and affirm, as not clearly erroneous, its finding of fact that "Skehan's criticism and disagreement with the administration, specifically Dr. Nossen and the Board of Trustees . . . concerning certain campus issues . . . was not a motivating or substantial factor in the decision not to renew his contract of employment beyond the 1970-1971 year." Unpublished opinion of March 24, 1977, at 7. See Franklin v. Atkins, 562 F.2d 1188, 1192 (10th Cir. 1977); Cf. Mazaleski v. Treusdell, 562 F.2d 701, 716 (D.C.Cir. 1977) (Mt. Healthy requires that a dismissed public employee's first amendment claim be supported by more than Post hoc ergo propter hoc allegations).
On April 14 and 15, 1977, the district court heard testimony without a jury concerning, Inter alia, the nature of the interest created by Article 5e of the College's Statement of Policy for Continuous Employment and Academic Freedom, and whether Skehan's right to a hearing under Article 5e had been violated by defendant Nossen's failure to institute the proceedings called for by that provision upon receipt of Skehan's letter of September 21, 1970. In an opinion issued on May 18, 1977, the district court held that Skehan possessed a contractual right to the procedures set forth in Article 5e, that he had invoked that right within a reasonable time, and that the College's failure to afford Skehan those procedures violated the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College, 431 F.Supp. 1379, 1391 (M.D.Pa.1977).
The defendants' cross-appeal raises two challenges to that holding: first, they assert that the district court should not have considered the Article 5e claim, even though this Court has specifically instructed that it do so, because the claim was never raised by Skehan at any stage of this litigation; second, they contend that Skehan did not have a contractual right to the procedures set forth in Article 5e because the College's Statement of Policy was not a contract supported by consideration nor one whose obligations were set forth with sufficient certainty, because it had not been practical for the College to adhere to those procedures in Skehan's case, because Skehan's behavior during the scheduling dispute had discharged the College's obligation to provide him with an Article 5e hearing and because Skehan's letter to President Nossen was not a proper invocation of Article 5e. If we reverse the district court's finding that Skehan was contractually entitled to the procedures set forth in Article 5e, the defendants rightly conclude that Skehan would have no property interest in those procedures rising "to the level of a 'legitimate claim of entitlement' protected by the Due Process Clause." Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 9, 98 S.Ct. 1554, 1560, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978).
The defendants argue that the district court's holding in Skehan's favor on the procedural due process claim should be reversed because it was error for the court to have addressed that issue in the first instance. The district court noted in its opinion on this issue that the Article 5e claim was never set forth in Skehan's complaint, never raised at the preliminary injunction hearing in January, 1973, never raised before this Court, and, in fact, "first surfaced in the Opinion of the Court of Appeals." 431 F.Supp. at 1382. The court also stated its view that Skehan's failure to raise the claim in his complaint ran afoul of the requirement that facts be pleaded with specificity in civil rights actions, and that the "creation" of the issue by this Court was inconsistent with our jurisprudential system. Id. Nonetheless, the court felt itself bound by the directions of this Court to fully consider the issue as though it had been initially raised by Skehan in his complaint.
The district court held that the College's Statement of Policy "sets forth its purpose in terms that meet the general requirement that a contract be supported by consideration." 431 F.Supp. at 1388. The court found that the Statement had been adopted by the College to insure the more effective services of faculty members, and that during the period in which it was in effect each faculty member was given a copy of the Statement at the start of his term of employment and was asked to acknowledge in writing his familiarity with its provisions. Id. 1387-88. Thus, the court found the Statement to be an integral part of the contractual structure defining the employment relationship between the College and its faculty.
The district court held, to the contrary, that the phrase "practical situations" can easily be interpreted by a factfinder and, hence, its presence in the Statement did not render its provisions unenforceable but rather permitted the College to avoid its obligations only by establishing that compliance in a given case was impractical. 431 F.Supp. at 1388. We believe the district court's ruling on this question to be consistent with applicable Pennsylvania law. See Kirk v. Brentwood Manor Homes, Inc., 191 Pa.Super. 488, 159 A.2d 48, 51 (1960).
The holding of the district court that the College's Statement of Policy was not an illusory promise, but a binding agreement that permitted the College to avoid its obligations thereunder only by establishing proof of impracticality, carries into effect the reasonable intention of the parties, articulated in the preamble of the Statement, that its provisions were adopted to protect the economic security of the faculty members at Bloomsburg State. That holding also comports with the determination of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that in the area of contract enforceability the maxim " 'Id certum est quod certum reddi potest ' (that is certain which can be made certain)" should be applied. Portnoy v. Brown, 430 Pa. 401, 243 A.2d 444, 447 (1968).
Findings of fact made by the district court, and supported by the testimony of President Nossen, belie the claim that the appropriate officers of the College made a reasoned determination that emergency conditions caused by Skehan's refusal to comply with administrative directives concerning the scheduling of classes compelled them not to comply with Article 5e in spite of Skehan's request that they do so. Rather, President Nossen did not respond to Skehan's invocation of Article 5e because he assumed, without reading the Statement, that the College's Committee on Professional Affairs was the appropriate body to initiate such proceedings. 431 F.Supp. at 1385. The district court also found that no evidence had been presented by the defendants in support of their contention that, given the scheduling dispute, it had been impractical for the College to implement the procedures of Article 5e in Skehan's case. Id. 1388. Thus, we find no error in the district court's determination that the defendants did not establish that proof of impracticality needed to avoid their contractual obligation to provide Skehan an Article 5e hearing.
Alternatively, the defendants argue that they were discharged from performing their contractual obligations to Skehan because he had materially breached his contract with the College by his actions during the scheduling dispute. This Court has already affirmed a prior holding of the district court that Skehan's participation in that dispute was a valid substantive ground for his dismissal, at least as a matter of constitutional law. 501 F.2d at 39. Skehan's dismissal is not at issue here, however; the claim now before this Court is that he was contractually entitled to a hearing into the reasons for his earlier nonrenewal. He requested such a hearing on September 21, 1970, which was found by the district court to be a reasonable time to initiate a complaint concerning his nonrenewal given that he was not formally notified of the Board's nonrenewal decision until May 19, 1970, and that the academic year ended on May 24 of that year. (The defendants do not challenge before this Court the reasonableness of the timing of Skehan's invocation of Article 5e.) Dr. Nossen did not deem it necessary to relieve Skehan of his classroom responsibilities because of his actions during the scheduling dispute until October 9, 1970. His preliminary decision to completely terminate the College's contractual relationship with Skehan was made on October 19, 1970, and affirmed by the College's Board of Directors on October 23. Thus, the record establishes that the defendants did not decide that Skehan's actions justified their termination of the College's contractual obligations to him until some four weeks after he had requested an Article 5e hearing. Under such circumstances we cannot agree that the defendants were discharged from their contractual obligations with respect to Skehan's challenge to his nonrenewal at any time prior to the date on which the College itself decided to treat his contract as terminated. During the interval between September 21 and October 19, 1970, Dr. Nossen made no attempt to set into motion the procedures of Article 5e. We agree with the holding of the district court that the College was not discharged from its obligation to do so by Skehan's failure to obey administrative directives during the scheduling dispute. We feel supported in this ruling by the observation of the district court that the very purpose of Article 5e would be defeated if the College were permitted to deny a faculty member a hearing on the causes of his nonrenewal whenever it asserted that his failure to perform his obligations to the College discharged the College's obligation to comply with Article 5e. 431 F.Supp. at 1388.
Finally, the defendants contend that it was error for the district court to hold that Skehan's letter of September 21, 1970, served as a proper invocation of Article 5e. They argue that the plain language of 5e and its context within the Statement of Policy supports their position that its proceedings were to be initiated by a letter to the College's Committee on Professional Affairs. The district court disagreed, finding the language of 5e to be ambiguous on the appropriate method of initiating its procedures, and holding that, although Skehan should have submitted a copy of his letter to the Committee, his failure to do so did not excuse the College's failure to act upon his request for a hearing. 431 F.Supp. at 1389. We believe that the district court's decision was amply supported by the terms of Article 5e and Skehan's letter.
In spite of this Court's holding that Bloomsburg State College is an entity of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to which sovereign immunity attaches, Skehan asked the district court to consider his claim for monetary relief against the College. In its opinion on the remedial aspects of this case, filed on July 20, 1977, the district court, deeming itself bound by our earlier holding, refused to entertain Skehan's argument that this Court had erred. Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College, 436 F.Supp. 657, 665 (M.D.Pa.1977). We, too, are bound by the determination of this Court en banc unless intervening decisions of the Supreme Court, acts of Congress, or changes in applicable state law require us to reconsider our prior holding.
Although Skehan was unable to present any arguments based on the effects of intervening law on the sovereign immunity issue to the district court, he argued before this Court that the eleventh amendment immunity of the College has been waived both by the effects of a recent decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and by recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court. We shall consider the effects of this intervening decisional law on our earlier holding that the eleventh amendment bars an award of monetary relief against the College in this case. We do so in the light of the Supreme Court's admonition that " 'an appellate court must apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision.' " Bradley v. School Board of the City of Richmond, 416 U.S. 696, 714, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2017, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974), Quoting Thorpe v. Housing Authority of the City of Durham, 393 U.S. 268, 281, 89 S.Ct. 518, 21 L.Ed.2d 474 (1969).
The eleventh amendment has been construed by the Supreme Court not to bar an action in federal court against the state or its officers acting in their official capacities for prospective injunctive relief from unconstitutional state actions. See Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 664, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974); Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). Thus, this Court earlier held that the eleventh amendment presented no impediment to Skehan's request for prospective reinstatement as relief for the constitutional violations he established. 538 F.2d at 63. However, Edelman made it clear that, absent consent to suit by the state, a federal court may not award relief against state officers or agencies that constitutes a compensatory money judgment payable out of the state treasury, even if that relief is labeled as equitable in nature. 415 U.S. at 666, 94 S.Ct. 1347.
Skehan does not challenge this Court's earlier holding that his request for a back pay award from the College is the type of retroactive monetary relief proscribed by Edelman ; rather, he contends that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court waived the Commonwealth's immunity to such an award in the Mayle decision. Although it cannot be gainsaid that a state may waive its constitutional protection under the eleventh amendment, See Edelman, supra at 673, 94 S.Ct. 1347, events subsequent to the decision in Mayle make it clear that Pennsylvania has not consented to the imposition of the type of monetary relief sought by Skehan in this case.
The Supreme Court has held that "(i)n deciding whether a State has waived its constitutional protection under the Eleventh Amendment, we will find waiver only where stated 'by the most express language or by such overwhelming implications from the text as (will) leave no room for any other reasonable construction.' " Edelman, supra at 673, 94 S.Ct. at 1360-61, Quoting Murray v. Wilson Distilling Co., 213 U.S. 151, 171, 29 S.Ct. 458, 53 L.Ed. 742 (1909). This rule has been applied to cases in which a state has consented to suit in its own courts by statute; consent to a similar suit in the federal courts has not been inferred absent a clear declaration in the statutory language that the state intended to waive its eleventh amendment immunity as well as its sovereign immunity under state law. See Kennecott Copper Corp. v. State Tax Commission, 327 U.S. 573, 577, 66 S.Ct. 745, 90 L.Ed. 862 (1946); Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury of Indiana, 323 U.S. 459, 465, 65 S.Ct. 347, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945); Great Northern Life Insurance Co. v. Read, 322 U.S. 47, 54, 64 S.Ct. 873, 88 L.Ed. 1121 (1944).
We would face an apparently novel application of this rule were we required to interpret the effect of a state's abrogation of its state law sovereign immunity by judicial decision on its eleventh amendment immunity from damage actions in federal court. See Greenfield v. Vesella, 457 F.Supp. 316, 319-20 (W.D.Pa.1978) (holding that the decision in Mayle has waived the Commonwealth's eleventh amendment immunity). Recent action by the Pennsylvania legislature has precluded our need to enter this thicket.
Skehan also argues that the Supreme Court's holding in Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), that local governmental units may be deemed "persons" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 compels the conclusion that § 1983 now must be construed as a valid Congressional waiver of the states' eleventh amendment immunity to suits for damages in federal court. Thus, he requests this Court to make a determination as to the College's status as a "person" liable to an award of damages under § 1983. Because we do not believe that the necessary implication of the Monell decision is an overruling of prior Supreme Court cases holding that § 1983 does not abrogate the states' eleventh amendment sovereign immunity, we find it unnecessary to make the requested finding as to the College's status as a § 1983 "person."
In ruling on Skehan's argument here it is necessary to first review recent opinions of the Supreme Court touching upon the legislative authority of Congress to impose upon the states consent to being sued in actions otherwise barred by the eleventh amendment. Parden v. Terminal Railway Co., 377 U.S. 184, 84 S.Ct. 1207, 12 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964), is the seminal case in this area. There the Supreme Court held that Alabama had consented to a suit for damages under the Federal Employers' Liability Act brought by an employee of a state-owned interstate railroad who had sustained injuries in the scope of his employment. The Court's holding was based on the fact that the F.E.L.A. was a congressional enactment which by its terms authorized suit against a general class of defendants literally including states and state instrumentalities, and the fact that Alabama began to operate an interstate railroad twenty years after the passage of the Act. See Edelman v. Jordan, supra, 415 U.S. at 672, 94 S.Ct. 1347.
In Edelman, supra, the Court of Appeals had held that Parden compelled a similar finding of consent to suit waiving the eleventh amendment. There plaintiffs had sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for retroactive payment of welfare benefits allegedly withheld from them by the Illinois Department of Public Aid in violation of applicable federal laws and the equal protection clause. The Court of Appeals held, and three dissenters from the Supreme Court's reversal of that holding agreed, that § 1983 created a private cause of action to enforce the applicable provisions of the Social Security Act, and that the state's participation in the federally assisted welfare program constituted constructive consent to suits challenging the state's failure to comply with the terms of participation in that program. See Edelman v. Jordan, supra at 688-96, 94 S.Ct. 1347 (Marshall & Blackmun, JJ., dissenting); Id. 678-87, 94 S.Ct. 1347 (Douglas, J., dissenting).
The Court majority disagreed, however, holding that a federal court's remedial power under § 1983 was limited by the eleventh amendment to awarding prospective injunctive relief against the state, absent "the threshold fact of congressional authorization to sue a class of defendants which literally includes States . . . ." Id. 672, 94 S.Ct. at 1360. Section 1983 was held by the Court not to be such an authorization because it was not deemed to authorize suits against the states themselves but only against state officers. Id. 675-77, 94 S.Ct. 1347.
In Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, 96 S.Ct. 2666, 49 L.Ed.2d 614 (1976), the Court was faced with the question whether the eleventh amendment proscribed Congress' authorization of suits for back pay awards brought by employees against state governmental bodies found to have violated the antidiscrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e Et seq. Congress had amended Title VII to include governmental bodies within the Act's definition of employers through passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. The Second Circuit had held that insofar as the amendments to Title VII authorized a private action for the recovery of damages against the states they were unconstitutional under the interpretation of the eleventh amendment adopted by the Supreme Court in Edelman.
The Supreme Court, in unanimously reversing that judgment, noted that in Fitzpatrick "(o)ur analysis begins where Edelman ended, for in this Title VII case the 'threshold fact of congressional authorization,' . . . to sue the State as employer is clearly present." 427 U.S. at 452, 96 S.Ct. at 2670. The Court reiterated that neither the Social Security Act nor § 1983 had provided that threshold predicate to a finding of eleventh amendment waiver in Edelman. The Court explained that § 1983 had not been read as such an embodiment of congressional intent to abrogate sovereign immunity because "(it) had been held in Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 187-191 (, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492) (1961), to exclude cities and other municipal corporations from its ambit; that being the case, It could not have been intended to include States as parties defendant." 427 U.S. at 452, 96 S.Ct. at 2669. (emphasis supplied).
(W)e think that the Eleventh Amendment, and the principle of state sovereignty which it embodies . . . are necessarily limited by the enforcement provisions of § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In that section Congress is expressly granted authority to enforce "by appropriate legislation" the substantive provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, which themselves embody significant limitations on state authority. When Congress acts pursuant to § 5, not only is it exercising legislative authority that is plenary within the terms of the constitutional grant, it is exercising that authority under one section of a constitutional Amendment whose other sections by their own terms embody limitations on state authority. We think that Congress may, in determining what is "appropriate legislation" for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, provide for private suits against States or state officials which are constitutionally impermissible in other contexts. See Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651 (, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662) (1974) . . . .
427 U.S. at 456, 96 S.Ct. at 2671 (citations and footnote omitted).
Justices Brennan and Stevens separately concurred in the Court's judgment in Fitzpatrick on grounds not applicable to our discussion here. See 427 U.S. at 457-58, 96 S.Ct. 2666 (Brennan, J., concurring); Id. 458-60, 96 S.Ct. 2666 (Stevens, J., concurring).
We need not review here the Supreme Court's analysis of the legislative history of § 1983 in Monell that led it to its conclusion "that Congress Did intend municipalities and other local government units to be included among those persons to whom § 1983 applies." 436 U.S. at 690, 98 S.Ct. at 2035 (footnote omitted; Court's emphasis). However, we should note that the Court also held that "the language of § 1983, read against the background of the same legislative history, compels the conclusion that Congress did not intend municipalities to be held liable unless action pursuant to official municipal policy of some nature caused a constitutional tort. (I)n other words, a municipality cannot be held liable under § 1983 on a Respondeat superior theory." Id. at 691, 98 S.Ct. at 2036. Rather, the Court concluded that "it is when execution of a government's policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under § 1983." Id. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2038.
The possible effect of this holding on the eleventh amendment sovereign immunity doctrine was not addressed by the Court; the Monell holding was "limited to local government units which are not considered part of the State for Eleventh Amendment purposes." Id. at 690, n.54, 98 S.Ct. at 2035 n.54. In the case before us today we are confronted with a local government defendant that has been held to share in the eleventh amendment sovereign immunity of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, Bloomsburg State College's status as a person under § 1983 has not been previously determined by this Court or the district court; up until now subject matter jurisdiction over the College in this case has been affirmed only under the general federal question jurisdiction of 28 U.S.C. § 1331. See 501 F.2d at 44. If we were to accept Skehan's contention that Monell overruled Edelman sub silentio on the question of § 1983's effect on the state's eleventh amendment immunity it might first be necessary to remand this case to the district court with instructions to determine the College's liability as a § 1983 defendant under the guidelines set forth in Monell. See Norris v. Frame, 585 F.2d 1183, 1186 n.8 (3d Cir. 1978).
Such a remand is unnecessary in this case because, absent a much clearer statement by the Supreme Court to the effect that § 1983 must now be construed as waiving the states' sovereign immunity from awards of monetary damages, this Court considers itself bound by the holding of Edelman to the contrary. We note that of the present members of the Supreme Court, Justice Brennan has expressed his view that it is at least an open question whether Edelman has been overruled by Monell. See Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 700 - 704, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 2579-81 (1978) (Brennan, J., concurring). Justice Powell, joined by the Chief Justice and Justices White and Rehnquist, has argued, to the contrary, that the vitality of the Edelman holding has not been undermined Sub silentio by Fitzpatrick And Monell. See id. 708 n.6, 98 S.Ct. at 2583 n.6 (Powell, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Thus, the conclusion that Edelman is no longer good law is certainly not an inescapable one. We feel that it would be inappropriate for this Court to hold that Edelman has been overruled by Monell, an opinion issued only four years later, when such a result was not even intimated by the authors of the majority, concurring and dissenting opinions in Monell. We conclude that Skehan's argument that the College's sovereign immunity has been waived by the congressional imposition of suits upon the states in § 1983 is precluded by the Supreme Court's opinion in Edelman v. Jordan.
In its opinion issued on May 18, 1977, the district court concluded, based on its findings of fact, that defendant Nossen's actions with respect to both violations of procedural due process established by Skehan had been taken in good faith and without malicious intention. The court also concluded that he had acted in a reasonable manner and had not violated clearly established constitutional rights with respect to either denial of due process. 431 F.Supp. at 1391. In its later opinion, entered on July 20, 1977, the court stated that the only individual defendant from whom Skehan had sought monetary damages was President Nossen, and because he and the College were both immune from liability, the court was unable to award Skehan any relief in the nature of back pay. 436 F.Supp. at 659. Skehan challenges both the district court's refusal to address the question of the liability of each individual defendant in this case, and its findings and conclusions with respect to Nossen's immunity from liability.
Like a motion to reopen the record for the taking of additional testimony, See Part I, B Supra, a Rule 15(a) motion for leave to amend the pleadings is within the sound discretion of the trial court. Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 401 U.S. 321, 330, 91 S.Ct. 795, 28 L.Ed.2d 77 (1971); Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962). Although district courts are required to allow amendments freely under the terms of the Rule, certain factors, such as undue prejudice to the other party and undue delay by the movant, have been found to establish sufficient justification for the denial of such motions. See 3 Moore's Federal Practice P 15.08(4) at 91-94 (2d ed. 1978). Here, the district court found that the trustees would be prejudiced by their addition as parties defendant in their individual capacities because they had not been participants in the proceedings that established Skehan's right to recovery on the pretermination hearing claim. Moreover, Skehan's motion was not filed until a short time prior to the scheduled date of trial on his remaining substantive claims. In light of the district court's careful consideration of these factors we cannot find the court's denial of Skehan's motion for leave to add the individual members of the Board of Trustees as named defendants in his complaint to have been contrary to the sound exercise of its discretion.
This Court directed the district court to make findings concerning "whether the defendants met their burden of establishing (1) that they did not know and reasonably need not have known that depriving Skehan of a pretermination hearing violated due process, and (2) that they acted without malicious intention to deprive him of his constitutional rights or cause him to suffer other injury." 538 F.2d at 62. Similar findings were to be made if the district court found for Skehan on his Article 5e claim. Id. 63. After hearing testimony on this issue the district court concluded that defendant Nossen had met his burden of proving both elements of the official immunity test, as set forth by the Supreme Court in Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975). The court fully set forth the factual findings it relied upon in reaching those conclusions.
Additionally, we agree with the district court that at the time these events occurred in the Fall of 1970, defendant Nossen did not have reason to know that his actions would later be held to have violated Skehan's constitutional rights. As the district court pointed out, quoting an opinion of the Seventh Circuit, "The first definitive holding that a termination of teachers' property interests in their employment contracts with state institutions required due process hearings was Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, (408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972))." 431 F.Supp. at 1391, Quoting Hostrop v. Board of Junior College District No. 515, 523 F.2d 569, 578 (7th Cir. 1975), Cert. denied, 425 U.S. 963, 96 S.Ct. 1748, 48 L.Ed.2d 208 (1976). The first definitive holding that Skehan was contractually entitled, under Pennsylvania law, to the provisions of Article 5e, and that the College's failure to afford him those procedures violated due process, was the district court's opinion in this case on the 5e issue. Paraphrasing the Supreme Court's opinion in Wood v. Strickland, supra, 420 U.S. at 321, 95 S.Ct. 992, we cannot say that President Nossen acted in "ignorance or disregard of settled, indisputable law" when he terminated Skehan's employment with the College without a prior hearing and without having acted upon his request for an Article 5e hearing.
We agree with the district court's findings and conclusions that defendant Nossen established by a preponderance of the evidence that he was entitled to an official immunity defense from Skehan's claims for monetary damages arising from either his dismissal from the College without a prior hearing or his failure to receive the academic freedom hearing set forth in Article 5e.3
The district court issued a final order, unchallenged, and indeed supported, by the defendants, granting Skehan the following injunctive relief: he was reinstated to the suspended with pay status he held at the College on October 15, 1970; the College was ordered to recreate for his case the procedures of Article 5e; a reconstituted Committee on Professional Affairs was to conduct the initial investigation of Skehan's allegation that his nonrenewal resulted from considerations violative of his academic freedom; deadlines were established for each stage of the nonrenewal proceedings set out in Article 5e and Article 9, See note 1 Supra ; and, following a final decision on Skehan's renewal or nonrenewal, the President of the College was given the option of holding a pretermination hearing within 30 days failure to hold that hearing within the stated time would result in Skehan's full reinstatement as a faculty member of the College. 436 F.Supp. at 668-69.
On the other hand, the court's order enabled Skehan to return to the College's payroll pending the proceedings to which he was entitled and, thus, he was not "unduly limited in his ability to pursue the hearing remedy."436 F.Supp. at 664. We believe that the relief afforded by the district court presented an equitable accommodation of the interests of both the College and Dr. Skehan. Noting the admonition of the Supreme Court that, "(i)n shaping equity decrees, the trial court is vested with broad discretionary power; appellate review is correspondingly narrow," Lemon v. Kurtzman, 411 U.S. 192, 200, 93 S.Ct. 1463, 1469, 36 L.Ed.2d 151 (1973), we hold that the district court's failure to order the College to provide Skehan with teaching responsibilities pending his Article 5e and pretermination hearings did not constitute an abuse of discretion.
During the proceedings below Skehan based his claim for an award of attorney's fees on the provisions of the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976,4 which had been enacted subsequent to this Court's en banc opinion. The district court made factual findings, unchallenged here, that would preclude a fee award based on the alternative grounds of the defendants' bad faith either in the prelitigation stages of this case or in the pursuit of their defense. See 436 F.Supp. at 663. The court also denied Skehan's request for attorney's fees under the provisions of the Awards Act. Skehan's challenge to this aspect of the district court's order is governed by the opinion of the Supreme Court in Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 98 S.Ct. 2565 (1978).
First, the court held that defendant Nossen was not personally liable for such an award because Skehan was not a "prevailing party" vis a vis Nossen. This followed from the fact that Nossen had established immunity to Skehan's claim for damages. 436 F.Supp. at 665. Even if Nossen's successful official immunity defense could not be viewed as preventing Skehan from characterizing himself as a prevailing party, the court held that it would have denied Skehan's request for fees from Nossen as an exercise of its discretion under the Act. The court stated that an award of fees against Nossen in his individual capacity would be grossly unjust, and would tend to "severely undermine the policies which motivated the Supreme Court to fashion (the official immunity) defense." Id. 665-66.
The Supreme Court, in its opinion in Hutto v. Finney, stated that, absent a finding that individual defendants had litigated in bad faith, they would not be held liable to a fee award under the Awards Act. 437 U.S. at 700, 98 S.Ct. at 2579. Thus, the district court's refusal to award fees to Skehan against defendant Nossen in his individual capacity could be affirmed on the basis of the court's factual finding that the defendants in this case had not pursued their defense in bad faith. Moreover, language in the Hutto opinion also suggests that the district court soundly exercised its discretion in refusing to award fees against a defendant who had been deemed immune from liability for damages under the official immunity doctrine. In a footnote disputing the dissenters' suggestion that the Awards Act should be construed to provide for fee awards only against individual defendants, the Hutto majority stated:
This is manifestly unfair when, as here, the individual officers have no personal interest in the conduct of the State's litigation, and it defies this Court's insistence in a related context that imposing personal liability in the absence of bad faith may cause state officers to "exercise their discretion with undue timidity." Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 321 (, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214) . . . .
Id. at 699, n.32, 98 S.Ct. at 2578, n.32 (citation omitted).
The district court also held, however, that Skehan was not entitled to a fee award against the defendants in their official capacities. The Court stated that "(i)n the absence of explicit statutory language (in the Awards Act) subjecting the states to liability for damages and attorney's fees, this Court will not imply a limit to the state's immunity to suit under the Eleventh Amendment." 436 F.Supp. at 667. Thus, the court held that Skehan was constitutionally barred from recovery of a fee award against the College. The Supreme Court's opinion in Hutto requires us to reverse that holding.
In Hutto the Court held that under the Awards Act fees may be recovered from governmental entities otherwise entitled to immunity under the eleventh amendment. This holding was based on the Act's legislative history, clearly indicating Congress' intent to allow recovery of attorney's fees from the states or local governments, and on the fact that attorney's fees "as a part of the costs" have traditionally been awarded without regard for the states' sovereign immunity. 437 U.S. at 692 - 700, 98 S.Ct. at 2575-79. The Court also made clear that the Awards Act applies to cases, such as this one, that were pending on the date of its enactment. Id. at ----, n.23, 98 S.Ct. at 2576, n.23. See generally Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, 416 U.S. 696, 710-11 & n.14, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974). Moreover, the Court held that whether or not state agencies are named as defendants in a § 1983 action, the Awards Act contemplates that the prevailing plaintiff may recover fees from the individual defendants in their official capacities or directly from the state agencies. 437 U.S. at 699-700, 98 S.Ct. at 2578-79. Thus, the district court need not determine whether the College is a person subject to liability under § 1983 in order to grant Skehan's request for attorney's fees from the College. See Part III, B, 2 Supra.
It is intended that the standards for awarding fees be generally the same as under the fee provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A party seeking to enforce the rights protected by the statutes covered by (§ 1988), if successful, "should ordinarily recover an attorney's fee unless special circumstances would render such an award unjust." Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc., 390 U.S. 400, 402 (, 88 S.Ct. 964, 19 L.Ed.2d 1263) (1968).
Skehan's final ground for appeal questions the district court's award of court costs. In its final opinion the district court stated that, "(b)ecause each party was at fault in this case, it seems appropriate that each party shall bear his own costs." 436 F.Supp. at 667. In its original opinion on the merits of this case, entered on May 9, 1973, the district court stated that "the Clerk will be directed to enter judgment in favor of the Plaintiff . . . together with costs." 358 F.Supp. at 436. We shall assume that Skehan's entitlement to costs connected with the earlier proceedings in the district court, which were taxed against defendants on June 4, 1973, was not meant to be rescinded by the district court's order directing that each party bear his own costs with respect to the proceedings after remand. Given that assumption, we find no basis to alter the district court's determination as to costs.
The Honorable Frederick B. Lacey, United States District Court Judge for the District of New Jersey, sitting by designation
The Statement of Policy for Continuous Employment and Academic Freedom at Bloomsburg State College went into effect on September 1, 1968. It has since been superseded by a collective bargaining agreement, but was in effect during the entire period of Skehan's dispute with the College. Article 5e provided:
If a faculty member's service to the College is to be terminated during the first two years of the probationary (pretenure) period, the President of the College will feel free to explain to the faculty member the basis of the decision, but he shall not be required to do so except in a situation where there is an allegation of infringement of academic freedom. If a faculty member of professorial rank, on probationary appointment, alleges that a decision not to reappoint him has been caused by considerations violative of academic freedom, his allegation shall be given preliminary consideration by the Committee on Professional Affairs, and the procedures concerning notification, appeal, hearing, and defense outlined in # 9 of this document will be followed.
Article 9 of the Statement, referred to in Article 5e, set out the formal procedures applicable to the dismissal of a tenured faculty member.
We note that Pennsylvania has recently revised its statutes of limitations through the enactment of the Judicial Code. See Act of July 9, 1976, P.L. 586, Act No. 142, § 2, 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 5501-5574 (Purdon's 1977 Supp.). The new codification went into general effect on June 27, 1978; however, the newly enacted periods of limitation have no effect on an action such as this one that was already pending on the effective date of repeal. See Act of July 9, 1976, P.L. 586, Act. No. 142, § 25(a)
Because we have affirmed the determination that neither the College nor any of the individual defendants are liable to Skehan for a back pay award, we need not consider the defendants' argument that the earlier directions of this Court concerning the appropriate amount of such an award, See 538 F.2d at 63; Part III, A Supra, must be reconsidered in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978)
The Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976, Pub.L. No. 94-559, 90 Stat. 2641, Amending 42 U.S.C. § 1988, was enacted on October 19, 1976. It provides: