Opinion ID: 437648
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: james trabue

Text: 11 Plaintiff Trabue brought suit against the Sheriff's Department and the County of El Paso under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981 and 1983. He contends on appeal that the district court erred by not finding that defendants had intentionally violated Title VII and section 1983 by their failure to supply him with an employment application upon request. Because Trabue did not assert a Title VII claim at trial, we consider only his claim under section 1983. 6 12 Trabue testified at trial that he had visited the El Paso County Sheriff's Department offices on six occasions between September 1976 and September 1978 to request an application form. He testified that he spoke to an unidentified uniformed officer during one of those visits, and to Audrey Bryson, an administrative assistant in the Department, during the other visits. Trabue stated that on each of those occasions he was told either that no positions were open and that in any event the Department already had enough applicants, or that no application forms were available. The Sheriff's Department hired at least three new white employees during this period. 13 Bryson testified that she gave application forms to anyone who requested them, even when the Sheriff's Department had no job vacancies. She said she remembered only one visit by Trabue and that she did not give him an application form at that time because she had run out of them. Mike Sullivan, who served as County Sheriff until August 14, 1978, and Ray Montes, who succeeded Sullivan, testified that their policy was to provide job applications to anyone who requested them. Trabue never spoke to either Sullivan or Montes during his visits to the Department. 14 The district court found that Trabue had failed to prove his claim under sections 1981 or 1983, and that neither Montes, Sullivan, the Sheriff's Department, nor the County maintained a policy against the employment of blacks in the Sheriff's Department between 1976 and 1978. In reviewing the court's findings, we note that the plaintiff bears the burden of persuasion that he has been the victim of intentional discrimination by the defendants. Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 256, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1095, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981); Redditt v. Mississippi Extended Care Centers, Inc., 718 F.2d 1381, 1385 (5th Cir.1983); Williams v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 718 F.2d 715, 717 (5th Cir.1983). 7 The district court's finding on the ultimate factual issue of intentional discrimination is subject to the clearly erroneous standard of review of Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 287-88, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 1789, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982); Carroll v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 708 F.2d 183 (5th Cir.1983); Williams at 718; Redditt at 1385. 15 Trabue attacks the district court's ultimate finding that defendants did not intentionally discriminate against him and challenges several subsidiary factual findings of the district court. 8 We need not decide whether these subsidiary findings are erroneous, because they are not dispositive of Trabue's discrimination claim. The crux of that claim is the alleged refusal of two Sheriff's Department employees to allow him to apply for work with the Department. Neither employee is named as a defendant in this case. Citing Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6870 (Vernon 1962), which makes sheriffs responsible for the official acts of their deputies, Trabue asserts that Sheriffs Sullivan and Montes are vicariously liable under section 1983 for the discriminatory actions of their subordinates. Therefore, presumably the County is also liable. 9 However, we have held that state law cannot, ex proprio vigore, impose vicarious section 1983 liability on a sheriff for the acts or omissions of his employees. Baskin v. Parker, 602 F.2d 1205, 1208 (5th Cir.1979); Watson v. Interstate Fire & Casualty Co., 611 F.2d 120, 123 (5th Cir.1980); Douthit v. Jones, 641 F.2d 345, 346 (5th Cir.1981); Lozano v. Smith, 718 F.2d 756, 768 (5th Cir.1983). 10 16 To be liable under section 1983, a sheriff must be either personally involved in the acts causing the deprivation of a person's constitutional rights, or there must be a causal connection between an act of the sheriff and the constitutional violation sought to be redressed. Lozano at 768, citing Douthit at 346. Trabue does not allege, and the record does not suggest, that either Sheriffs Sullivan or Montes were personally involved in the allegedly discriminatory actions against Trabue. Nor does Trabue allege the existence of a causal connection between the claimed discrimination and any acts by either Sheriff. 17 A causal connection may be established, for section 1983 purposes, where the constitutional deprivation and practices occur as a result of the implementation of the sheriff's affirmative wrongful policies by his subordinates, Wanger v. Bonner, 621 F.2d 675, 679 (5th Cir.1980), or where the sheriff wrongfully breaches an affirmative duty specially imposed upon him by state law, and as a result thereof, the complained of constitutional tort occurs. Barksdale v. King, 699 F.2d 744, 746 (5th Cir.1983). Douthit, 641 F.2d at 346; Sims v. Adams, 537 F.2d 829, 831 (5th Cir.1976). Lozano at 768. 18 There is no evidence in the record contradicting the testimony of Sullivan and Montes that their policy was for job applications to be distributed on a nondiscriminatory basis, and Trabue cites no breach by them of any specific affirmative duty under state law. Thus, we find no basis for holding defendants liable for the acts of discrimination alleged by Trabue, and the district court's findings on Trabue's claim cannot be termed clearly erroneous.