Opinion ID: 464724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reorganization Exception

Text: 12 As Judge Aspen recognized, there is an exception to a hearing right when the discharge is caused by reorganization. Chestnut v. Lodge, 34 Ill.2d 567, 216 N.E.2d 799 (1966); Fitzsimmons v. O'Neill, 214 Ill. 494, 73 N.E. 797 (1905). However, plaintiffs have consistently claimed in their complaint and in their briefs that the so-called reorganization of the Chicago Health Systems Agency was purely pretextual in an effort to replace plaintiffs with others favored by the acting Executive Director of the agency. In view of the allegations in their complaint and the arguments in their briefs, it was erroneous for the district court to assume that the plaintiffs were discharged in a reorganization. Slip op. 5 Plaintiffs' App. A-1. Indeed defendants submitted no affidavits or evidence to contradict plaintiffs' assertions that there was no reorganization of the agency. 13 The cases relied upon by the district court are easily distinguishable. In each of those cases the plaintiffs were questioning the motives behind actual reorganizations; here plaintiffs allege no reorganization took place. For example, in Fitzsimmons, 214 Ill. 494, 73 N.E. 797, the plaintiff's position was abolished when the city council failed to appropriate funds. The Illinois Supreme Court held that the statute conferring the property interest did not apply where the incumbent is dismissed for want of funds, or in order to reduce expenses. Id. at 503, 73 N.E. 797. Similarly, in Chestnut v. Lodge, 34 Ill.2d 567, 216 N.E.2d 799 (1966), the court held that plaintiffs were not entitled to an administrative hearing when their jobs in the Department of Conservation were abolished. On remand to the state court of appeals, plaintiffs argued that their job abolitions were tainted by political motives. The court held that because the jobs had been eliminated, plaintiffs' discharges were not for cause. 77 Ill.App.2d 281, 288, 222 N.E.2d 36 (1966). Finally, in Thomas v. City of Springfield Civil Service Cm., 106 Ill.App.3d 939, 62 Ill.Dec. 726, 436 N.E.2d 752 (1982), the plaintiffs admitted that their jobs were abolished, but complained that the reorganization was the result of improper discriminatory motives. The court held that the plaintiffs were not entitled to a pre-termination hearing to determine bad faith in the event of reorganization. Id. at 942, 62 Ill.Dec. 726, 436 N.E.2d 752. 14 These cases are factually distinguishable from the case before us. In each of the above cases the plaintiffs admitted that their jobs had been abolished and that a reorganization had in fact taken place. Here the plaintiffs assert that the reorganization was a sham and that their jobs were never abolished. Thus the plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that they were fired for cause to afford them the protections of due process. To hold otherwise would allow government officials to cry reorganization in order to circumvent the constitutional and statutory protections guaranteed Illinois and Chicago employees. 15