Opinion ID: 395225
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Harassment, embarrassment, and defamation;

Text: 39 4. Deprivation without a hearing of appellant's scholarship and his business and educational relationship with Arizona State University. 40 We shall consider each of these allegations. All concede that all relevant actions by the appellees were under color of state law. 41 1. Assault and Battery. 42 This court has held that an allegation of an unprovoked assault and battery by a guard upon a prisoner known by the guard to be suffering from an attack of emphysema, by striking him in the solar plexus hard enough that the 'attack rendered the patient plaintiff totally handicapped'  states a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Meredith v. State of Arizona, 523 F.2d 484 (9th Cir. 1975); see Gregory v. Thompson, 500 F.2d 59 (9th Cir. 1974). We left open the question whether less reprehensible conduct would suffice to state a claim. 523 F.2d at 484. 43 We need not pursue this issue, however, because we believe the teaching of Parratt v. Taylor, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), provides the guidance we must accept. Under that decision we may assume, without deciding, that the alleged assault and battery deprived the appellant of liberty within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and focus our attention on whether this was done without due process of law. Id. at 1914. Obviously the assumed deprivation was not, nor could it have been, accompanied by a predeprivation hearing. That being so, the issue is whether the postdeprivation hearing available to the appellant under the law of the State of Arizona satisfies the due process requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment. 44 We hold that it does. The Supreme Court in Parratt v. Taylor indicated that when no practical way to provide a predeprivation hearing exists, a postdeprivation hearing provided at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner will suffice. Id. at 1915. The issue becomes merely whether the remedies available under Arizona law and in the Arizona courts constitute the postdeprivation hearing required by the Fourteenth Amendment. As already mentioned, counsel have informed us that certain proceedings growing out of the incidents related by the complaint before us already have taken place. This indicates not only the existence of postdeprivation remedies under Arizona law, but also that appellant has pursued those remedies. Thus, our task is made less difficult than that of the Parratt Court, which relied on the mere existence of state tort procedures to find that due process concerns had been met, despite the plaintiff's failure to take advantage of those procedures. In the instant case, since appellant has sought redress in the Arizona state courts, and in the absence of suggestion that the postdeprivation procedures under state law are deficient, we must conclude that the alleged deprivation was not without due process of law. That the effect of our holding is to relegate appellant to his tort law remedy under Arizona law for Kush's alleged assault and battery should surprise no one. That is the consequence of Parratt v. Taylor as applied to this action of Kush. 45 2. Demotion of Appellant. 46 As already indicated, to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, it is necessary that there be a deprivation of a right, privilege, or immunity secured by the Constitution and laws. Appellant enjoyed no right under the Constitution nor under the laws of Arizona to maintain his position as either a first or second string defensive back or as the first string punter. In demoting him, Kush, acting we will assume under color of state law, deprived him of neither liberty nor property. See Walsh v. Louisiana High School Athletic Ass'n, 616 F.2d 152, 159-60 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 939, 67 L.Ed.2d 109 (1981); Albach v. Odle, 531 F.2d 983 (10th Cir. 1976) (per curiam); Parish v. NCAA, 506 F.2d 1028, 1034 (5th Cir. 1975); cf. Rivas Tenorio v. Liga Athletica Interuniversitaria, 554 F.2d 492, 497 (1st Cir. 1977) (participation in intercollegiate athletics not a fundamental right for equal protection analysis). Appellant had no legal guarantee of uninterrupted enjoyment of the status he occupied during the 1977 season. See Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 701-12, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1160-1166, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976). Neither was the demotion a grievous loss within the meaning of that phrase when employed for purposes of fixing the substantive content of actions cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 588, 95 S.Ct. 729, 743, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975) (Justice Powell, dissenting). 47 3. Harassment, Embarrassment and Defamation. 48 Appellant's allegations of harassment, embarrassment, and defamation by Kush also fail to state a claim cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This result is compelled by Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. at 701-10, 96 S.Ct. at 1160-1164. Even if, as appellant impliedly alleges, Kush went beyond the usual verbal lashings common to football practice fields his transgressions constitute nothing more than a tort which the state may protect against ... by virtue of its tort law. Id. at 712, 96 S.Ct. at 1165. 49