Opinion ID: 336380
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiff's Property Interest in His Residency.

Text: 22 It is clear from the Supreme Court decision in Board of Regents v. Roth that the Constitution protects interests not embraced within the traditional notions of real or personal property. However, the Court indicated that a benefit which merits protection as a property interest must be one to which there is more than a unilateral expectation. 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709, 33 L.Ed.2d at 560. Rather there must exist rules or understandings which allow the claimant's expectations to be characterized as a legitimate claim of entitlement to (the benefit). Id. 23 The defendants argue that the district court was in error in finding a property right in continuation as a pathology resident. Defendants assert that the district court relied in making this finding solely upon the historical infrequency of termination a ground, defendants argue, which was implicitly rejected by the Supreme Court in Roth. We believe the defendant misreads both the district court's finding and overstates the scope of Roth's refusal to regard rehire rates as conclusively demonstrating a property interest. 24 It is inaccurate to characterize the holding of the court below as resting solely upon the statistical evidence of failures to terminate. Such failure to terminate was consistent with and reinforced by a specified four-year duration of the residency. The district court recognized this and stated that (i)t is undisputed that the duration of the residency program in pathology was four years. We find nothing in the record which would lead us to overturn this finding. 25 Moreover, we believe Roth recognized that rehire rates under some circumstances may evidence a common law of employment sufficient to support the finding of a property interest. See Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. at 578 n. 16, 92 S.Ct. at 2710, 33 L.Ed.2d at 561. But we need not rest rejection of the defendant's position on this interpretation of Roth. Certainly nothing in Roth precludes the use of historical termination patterns as evidence that a plaintiff's claim is a property interest deserving of the protection of due process. 26 However, in holding that Dr. Stretten's claim to his residency is a property interest, we need not place primary reliance on the fact that no one had been officially terminated in the 20-year, 5,000-physician history of the program. Such reliance is unnecessary because Dr. Stretten, at the time of his appointment, was advised that he would be employed for the duration of this training unless sooner terminated, and subject to periodic review by resident review board and, as found by the district court, the duration of the training was four years. We rely primarily on these facts in finding no error in the district court's conclusion that Dr. Stretten's claim to his residency is a property interest deserving of appropriate due process before it is removed. 16 27