Court Opinion

ID: 9364587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-19 18:00:38.425485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:39.187470
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                        JAN 19 2023
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ANTHONY T. DEFRANCESCO,                         No.    21-16530

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No. 4:20-cv-00011-CKJ

 v.
                                                MEMORANDUM*
ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS; et al.,

                Defendants-Appellees.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                            for the District of Arizona
                   Cindy K. Jorgenson, District Judge, Presiding

                     Argued and Submitted December 9, 2022
                                Phoenix, Arizona

Before: WARDLAW and BUMATAY, Circuit Judges, and GLEASON,** District
Judge.

      Anthony T. DeFrancesco (DeFrancesco) appeals the district court’s order

dismissing his Title VII, Equal Protection Clause, and First Amendment claims

against the University of Arizona Health Sciences (UAHS), UAHS Senior Vice

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      **
              The Honorable Sharon L. Gleason, Chief United States District Judge
for the District of Alaska, sitting by designation.
President Michael Dake (Dake), and President Robert Robbins (Robbins)

(collectively “Defendants”). DeFrancesco alleges that Defendants retaliated

against him after his spouse, then-UAHS Chief Financial Officer Gregg Goldman

(Goldman), opposed UAHS’ hiring of Dake. The complaint specifically alleges

that Dake subjected DeFrancesco to a months-long pattern of harassment,

culminating in his termination, motivated both by Goldman’s speech and

DeFrancesco’s sexual orientation.

       The district court dismissed DeFrancesco’s First Amendment claims with

prejudice. The district court also ruled that DeFrancesco failed to allege a Title VII

or Equal Protection Clause claim, but allowed DeFrancesco leave to amend his

original complaint. Following amendment, the district court dismissed his Title

VII and Equal Protection Clause claims with prejudice.

       We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm in part and reverse

in part.

       1.    The district court properly dismissed with prejudice DeFrancesco’s

claims of sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII and the Equal

Protection Clause. DeFrancesco correctly contends that the district court

erroneously applied the four-factor test from McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green,

411 U.S. 792, 802 (1973), a summary judgment standard, to his Title VII claims.

See also Austin v. Univ. of Oregon, 925 F.3d 1133, 1136 (9th Cir. 2019) (citations

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omitted) (“[T]he prima facie case under McDonnell Douglas . . . is an evidentiary

standard, not a pleading requirement.”). Nonetheless, because DeFrancesco failed

to allege facts leading to a reasonable inference that he suffered adverse

employment action on the basis of his sexual orientation, the district court properly

dismissed these claims.

      Under Title VII, it is “unlawful . . . for an employer . . . to fail or refuse to

hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any

individual . . ., because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national

origin.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(a)(1). Discrimination based on sexual orientation

amounts to discrimination based on sex under Title VII. Bostock v. Clayton Cnty.,

Georgia, 140 S. Ct. 1731, 1741 (2020).

      Here, DeFrancesco “failed to adequately allege discriminatory intent” on the

part of the Defendants. See, e.g., Wood v. City of San Diego, 678 F.3d 1075, 1081

(9th Cir. 2012). While it is undisputed that DeFrancesco is a member of a

protected class based on his sexual orientation, his factual allegations of

discrimination do not “raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl.

Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007). For example, DeFrancesco alleges

that because Robbins and Dake specialized in surgery—which he claims has “a

reputation for a jock/frat culture”—they must be biased against gay men, which is

an unreasonable, conclusory contention that reflects a mere stereotype of surgeons.

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Additionally, while DeFrancesco alleges discrimination because “the University

hired a heterosexual male” for a promotion he wanted, the complaint also alleges

that DeFrancesco, a three-year employee at UAHS, was passed over in favor of a

fifteen-year employee of UAHS. These allegations give rise to an inference that

the Defendants promoted the more experienced employee. While the complaint

further alleges that, after Goldman left the University, “Dake told DeFrancesco that

he has ‘a decision to make’ now that DeFrancesco’s husband had left the

University,” that remark appears motivated by Goldman’s vocal opposition to

Dake’s hiring, not Dake’s animus toward DeFrancesco’s marriage.

      As DeFrancesco failed to plead facts that “permit [us] to infer more than the

mere possibility of misconduct” under Title VII, his claim was properly dismissed.

Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 679 (2009). Because an Equal Protection Clause

claim also requires DeFrancesco to “show that the defendants acted with an intent

or purpose to discriminate against the plaintiff based upon membership in a

protected class,” Barren v. Harrington, 152 F.3d 1193, 1194 (9th Cir. 1998), the

district court also properly dismissed his constitutional claim. As DeFrancesco

already had one opportunity to amend his complaint and does not assert that he can

plead additional facts to demonstrate Defendants’ bias, the district court did not

abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend his discrimination claims a second

time. Ultimately, DeFrancesco does not identify any facts linking his sexual

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orientation to the termination decision or suggesting that the Defendants’ actions

reflected an intent to discriminate against him because he is gay. Instead, the facts

DeFrancesco pleads support an inference that he was terminated because he is

married to a person who spoke out against the Defendants’ actions.

      2.     The district court abused its discretion by denying DeFrancesco leave

to amend his First Amendment claim. The district court ruled that Goldman

engaged in unprotected speech, and alternatively, UAHS was entitled to qualified

immunity. The district court found that Goldman spoke pursuant to his official

duties on “individual personnel disputes and grievances,” Eng v. Cooley, 552 F.3d

1062, 1070 (9th Cir. 2009) (citation omitted), not a matter of public concern.

Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 421 (2006).

      DeFrancesco’s original complaint alleged that Goldman reported to

President Robbins that “Dake did poorly in interviews” and that “hiring Dake

would be the worst mistake he could make.” While this speech can be construed to

implicate only workplace grievances or a “personality dispute,” see Desrochers v.

City of San Bernardino, 574 F.3d 703, 712 (9th Cir. 2009), DeFrancesco contends

that, if permitted to amend his complaint, he would allege facts demonstrating that

Goldman spoke as a whistleblower on cronyism and corruption at UAHS, a “public

health organization . . . with an annual budget of over $1 billion and over 500

employees.” Allegations of government misconduct—including the rigging of the

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executive search process and the mismanagement of a hospital—can constitute

protected speech as a matter of public concern. See Ulrich v. City & Cnty. of San

Francisco, 308 F.3d 968, 978 (9th Cir. 2002) (holding that a physician’s internal

protest of layoffs “touched on the ability of the hospital to care adequately for

patients” and was therefore a matter of public concern); Thomas v. City of

Beaverton, 379 F.3d 802, 811 (9th Cir. 2004) (holding that a genuine issue of

material fact existed as to whether speech addressed a matter of public concern

when an employee expressed disapproval of her employer’s allegedly unlawful

treatment of another employee). The district court should have permitted

DeFrancesco to amend his complaint to allege Goldman’s whistleblowing speech

and facts that demonstrate that Goldman spoke outside the “scope and content of

[his] job responsibilities.” Posey v. Lake Pend Oreille Sch. Dist. No. 84, 546 F.3d

1121, 1131 (9th Cir. 2008).

      The district court also concluded that DeFrancesco’s claims were barred by

qualified immunity because DeFrancesco’s First Amendment right to be free from

retaliation for the speech of his spouse is not “clearly established.” Pearson v.

Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 227 (2009). “Determining claims of qualified immunity

at the motion-to-dismiss stage raises special problems for legal decision making.”

Keates v. Koile, 883 F.3d 1228, 1234 (9th Cir. 2018). “If the operative complaint

‘contains even one allegation of a harmful act that would constitute a violation of a

                                          6
clearly established constitutional right,’ then plaintiffs are ‘entitled to go forward

with their claims.’” Id. (quoting Pelletier v. Fed. Home Loan Bank of San

Francisco, 968 F.2d 865, 872 (9th Cir. 1992)).

      Accordingly, the district court should have granted DeFrancesco leave to

amend his complaint and should reconsider its qualified immunity ruling under the

allegations of the amended complaint. We therefore need not and do not decide

whether there is a clearly established First Amendment right based on a plaintiff’s

intimate association with a person engaged in protected speech.

      AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART.

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