Opinion ID: 390862
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Backpay Award Against the Individual Defendants

Text: 50 The district court held both the Board and the individual defendants liable for backpay under § 1983 based upon its finding of a constitutional violation. We have held that the district court erred in holding that the Board's maternity leave policy established an irrebuttable presumption violative of the due process clause. However, finding that the Board's policy violated Title VII, we have held that the Board is liable for backpay. The question of the liability of the individual defendants nevertheless remains. Personal liability, if any, of the individual defendants must be predicated upon a constitutional violation under § 1983, for we find no authority for holding public officials personally liable for backpay under Title VII. 19 Moreover, any such personal liability must be based on constitutional grounds other than the irrebuttable presumption doctrine because we have found no irrebuttable presumption in this case. We need not go on to consider the constitutionality of the Board's policy, just to determine if there is individual liability. We find that even if the policy was unconstitutional, in addition to being in violation of Title VII, the individual defendants cannot be held personally liable for backpay because they established the defense of qualified immunity as a matter of law. 51 The basis for the district court's imposition of personal liability for backpay on the individual defendants was its rejection of their asserted § 1983 defense of qualified immunity. Under Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975) and its progeny, there are two components to the qualified immunity defense, one subjective and one objective. Fowler v. Cross, 635 F.2d 476, 482 (5th Cir. 1981); see also Bogard v. Cook, 586 F.2d 399 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 883, 100 S.Ct. 173, 62 L.Ed.2d 113 (1979). Under the subjective test, an official is not entitled to the defense if he acts with the malicious intention to cause a deprivation of constitutional rights or other injury to the plaintiff. Wood, 420 U.S. at 322, 95 S.Ct. at 1000; Fowler, 635 F.2d at 482. Under the objective test, a public official is not immune from liability if he knew or reasonably should have known that the action he took within his sphere of official responsibility would violate the constitutional rights of the plaintiff. Wood, 420 U.S. at 322, 95 S.Ct. at 1000. Though this test requires public officials to be aware of the legal rights of persons who are affected by their actions, it does not charge officials  'with predicting the future course of constitutional law.'  Wood, 420 U.S. at 322, 95 S.Ct. at 1000, quoting Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 557, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1219, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967). The constitutional rights at issue must have been clearly established at the time the official acted in order to hold him personally liable. Wood, 420 U.S. at 322, 95 S.Ct. at 1000; see Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U.S. 555, 562, 98 S.Ct. 855, 859, 55 L.Ed.2d 24 (1978); Fowler, 635 F.2d at 482-83. 52 The district court found that the individual defendants acted without malice and in subjective good faith in establishing and implementing the maternity leave policy, and we affirm that finding as amply supported by the record. The district court further held, however, that the individual defendants were liable because they should have known that their actions violated the constitutional rights of the teachers, citing Vlandis v. Kline, 412 U.S. 441, 446, 93 S.Ct. 2230, 2233, 37 L.Ed.2d 63 (1973), for the proposition that permanent irrebuttable presumptions have long been disfavored under the Due Process Clause  53 The individual defendants contend that the constitutional rights of the teachers were not clearly established at the time they acted (late 1972) and that the district court therefore erred in holding them personally liable for backpay. Their argument on this issue, like the opinion of the district court, focuses solely on the question whether the illegality of irrebuttable presumptions was clearly established in 1972. But our holding that the Board's maternity leave policy did not establish an irrebuttable presumption of unfitness to teach makes irrelevant the question whether irrebuttable presumptions were clearly illegal in 1972. We must now focus on the question whether it was clearly established in 1972 that the Board's maternity leave policy as applied to the teachers violated their right to equal protection or due process in some way other than by establishing an irrebuttable presumption of unfitness to teach. We emphasize that we need not determine whether the Board's policy is illegal under current law; we need only decide whether the law as it existed in 1972 had clearly established that such a policy was unconstitutional. 54 We hold that as a matter of law the teachers' right to be free from the type of maternity leave regulations involved in this case was not clearly established in 1972. Our research has revealed that the application of the due process and equal protection clauses to the area of pregnancy-based classifications is a relatively recent phenomenon. Until LaFleur, which was decided in 1974, the Supreme Court had never suggested that restrictive maternity leave regulations might be unconstitutional. Though the Courts of Appeals had decided some cases before 1973 involving pregnancy-based classifications, neither party has cited nor has our research revealed a single pre-1973 case invalidating maternity leave return provisions similar to those involved in this case. Moreover, no case cited by the parties or of which we are aware raised the vacancies issue presented here. Neither of the two Fifth Circuit cases which dealt with pregnancy classifications before 1973 Jinks v. Mays, 464 F.2d 1223 (5th Cir. 1972); and Schattman v. Texas Employment Commission, 459 F.2d 32 (5th Cir. 1972) involved policies analogous to the Board's. Under these circumstances, it is plain that the constitutional rights of the teachers cannot fairly be said to have been clearly established in 1972. Since the individual defendants are thus entitled as a matter of law to the qualified immunity defense, the portion of the district court's order holding them personally liable for backpay must be reversed. 20