Opinion ID: 147782
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Deprivation of Plaintiffs' Due Process Rights

Text: Finally, we consider, and reject, defendants' argument that plaintiffs were not deprived of protected property interests without due process of law because the process Puerto Rico provided was adequate. The plaintiffs' basic claim is that the Municipality deprived them of their property interest in continued employment pursuant to an official policy: the mayor, the Municipality's official policymaker, made the final decision to terminate plaintiffs, and the parties stipulated before the district court that no pre-termination hearing was provided. Defendants advance two arguments as to why state processes provided plaintiffs with all the process they were due. First, defendants say that, in practice, the Municipality provided plaintiffs with all the process they were due because plaintiffs were given notice and a collective opportunity to comment on their termination in the meeting where they were handed their termination notices. That argument is foreclosed by our earlier conclusion, based on the parties' previous submissions before this court, that none of the plaintiffs were granted a pre-termination hearing. Acevedo-Feliciano IV, 447 F.3d at 118-19. Second, defendants say that under Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), and its progeny, plaintiffs cannot make out a § 1983 claim without showing the inadequacy of existing state remedies, and that plaintiffs have failed to carry that burden. Defendants rely on cases involving random and unauthorized state deprivations of property interests, in which a pre-termination hearing is, by definition, infeasible and the question becomes whether the state's post-deprivation processes are enough to protect plaintiffs' rights. See, e.g., Chmielinski v. Massachusetts, 513 F.3d 309, 315 (1st Cir.2008). That is plainly not the kind of violation alleged here. [2]