Opinion ID: 2971521
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: “Policy making employee” exemption

Text: Defendants also argue that Birch is exempt from Title VII as “an appointee on the policy making level,” relying on the district court decision in Dyer v. Radcliffe, supra. In that case, Plaintiff James Dyer, a referee (the same as a magistrate) was appointed by Judge Gerald Radcliffe of the Ohio Court of Common Pleas to serve in the Juvenile Division. The court held that Dyer was a policy-making employee, unprotected by Title VII, reasoning as follows: Under Ohio law, “the juvenile judge may appoint ... referees ....” O.R.C. § 2151.16. The Sixth Circuit has determined that “the referee effectively makes policy for, or suggests policy to the court on each occasion that he resolves a dispute in the court’s name or recommends a disposition to the judge.” Mumford v. Basinski, 105 F.3d 264, 272 (6th Cir.1997). In addition, Dyer’s referee position, which can be described as one “directly responsible to [an] elected county official[ ] ... and holding a fiduciary or administrative relationship to such elected county official [ ] ....[,]” is also exempt from the civil service No. 03-3228 Birch v. Cuyahoga County Probate Court, et al. Page 6 laws. O.R.C. § 124.[11](A)(9). Because Dyer’s position was an appointee on the policy making level, and he is exempt from the civil service laws of Ohio, he is not an employee under Title VII. Thus, he is not qualified to bring a suit under Title VII against Common Pleas Court or Judge Radcliffe. Dyer, 169 F. Supp.2d at 774-75. As was the case in Dyer, Judge Donnelly, an elected official, has the authority to appoint magistrates like Birch, who are exempt from the civil service laws. See OH. REV. CODE ANN. § 2101.01 (“The probate judge shall employ and supervise all clerks, deputies, magistrates, and other employees of the probate division.”); id. § 124.11(A)(9) (providing that “persons employed by and directly responsible to elected county officials or a county administrator and holding a fiduciary or administrative relationship to such elected county officials or county administrator” are not classified as civil servants). Further, as noted in Dyer, this Court in Mumford held that the inherent duties of a magistrate in the service of an Ohio Domestic Relations Court involve policymaking: Unquestionably, the inherent duties of an Ohio domestic relations court referee entail a relationship of confidence between the referee and the judge(s) which he serves. The referee is privy to confidential litigation materials and internal court communications in the discharge of his duties, and further maintains a personal confidential relationship with the judge(s) which [sic] he serves. See Blair[ v. Meade, 76 F.3d 97, 101 (6th Cir. 1996)]; Balogh v. Charron, 855 F.2d 356 (6th Cir.1988). Moreover, the referee effectively makes policy for, or suggests policy to, the court on each occasion that he resolves a dispute in the court’s name or recommends a disposition to a judge. Consequently, his supervising judge must be convinced that the judgment capabilities of the referee, and the confidential relationships that arise as a result of the intimate judicial and quasi-judicial discussions, are unquestionable. …Ohio law expressly assigns some discretionary adjudicative authority to the referees, permits Ohio judges to delegate other adjudicative powers to the referees, and provides that the referees shall proffer advice (often in confidence) to the judges concerning the disposition of cases and other legal controversies. For these reasons, this court is constrained to rule that Mumford’s former position as a referee for the Domestic Relations Court was an inherently political post…. Id. at 272. Since the inherent duties of a probate magistrate are delineated by the same Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure that govern a domestic relations magistrate,5 Mumford compels us to conclude that Birch effectively makes policy for the Probate Court by resolving disputes and recommending dispositions to Judge Donnelly. Accordingly, we affirm the dismissal of Birch’s Title VII claim on the independent ground that she is exempt from the statute’s protections as a policymaking employee.