Crocker v. Fluvanna County (Va) Board of Public Welfare
Opinion of the Court
Elisabeth B. Crocker, a former state employee, initiated an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C., §§ 1983 and 1985, alleging, inter alia, that her employment was terminated in violation of the due process requirements of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution.
In September of 1979, Mrs. Crocker was appointed Director of Fluvanna County, Virginia, Department of Social Services. The Fluvanna County Board of Public Welfare (the Board), a five member body, is the employer and supervising body of the Flu-vanna County Department of Social Services. Mrs. Crocker’s responsibilities, in addition to general management of the department, included counseling employees regarding their grievance rights under Virginia’s state grievance procedure.
Neither the Board members nor Ridder affirmatively apprised Mrs. Crocker of her right to grieve the termination.
Mrs. Crocker claims that although she was responsible for counseling employees on their grievance rights, she was unaware of the application of those rights to her. She claims here, although she apparently did not press this claim below, (see Crock-er, 676 F.Supp. at 712, 714) that the grievance procedures themselves were ambiguous with respect to the availability of grievance rights to Directors of local welfare departments. Therefore, she argues, the Board had a duty to affirmatively advise her of these rights. From that position, she asserts that their failure to do so constituted a breach of an obligation, imposed upon the State as a part of constitutional due process, to provide timely notice of her rights.
Although Mrs. Crocker was aware of the existence of the grievance procedures, she urges upon us the argument that she believed they did not apply to her,
Mrs. Crocker also complains that, for a variety of reasons, three of the five Board members were prejudiced against her. That being so, she argues that she did not receive a fair and impartial pre-termination hearing and that such is required by due process.
While it may be that the three members of the Board Mrs. Crocker accuses were not in fact biased, because this appeal is from a summary judgment, we will assume, as did the district court, that they were. We also assume, as did the district court, that as a non-probationary employee she possessed a protectable property interest, although that question need not be decided. See Detweiler v. Com. of Va. Dept. of Rehab. Services, 705 F.2d 557 (4th Cir. 1983).
Because she had a protectable property interest, she was entitled not to be deprived of that interest without appropriate procedural safeguards guaranteed by the Constitution. Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 105 S.Ct. 1487, 84 L.Ed.2d 494 (1985). “The question then remains what process is due.” Loudermill p. 541, 105 S.Ct. p. 1493. Loudermill explains that such a deprivation must be preceded by notice and opportunity for hearing appropriate to the nature of the case. The principle requires “some kind of a hearing” prior to discharge, which includes the existence of some pre-termination opportunity to respond. Loudermill, p. 542, 105 S.Ct. p. 1493. The Court concluded in Loudermill as follows: “We conclude that all the process that is due is provided by a pre-termination opportunity to respond, coupled with post-termination administrative procedures as provided by the ... statute.” Loudermill p. 547-548, 105 S.Ct. p. 1496.
Applying these principles to our case, we agree with the district court that Mrs. Crocker received all the process that she was due. When she appeared before the Board, as the district court found: “Upon request, the Plaintiff was given a list of reasons for her proposed termination and she was, in her own words, able to ‘quite calmly present [her] side’ on each of the issues.” 676 F.Supp. at 715. She was notified on February 4th of the Board’s intention to discharge her on February 28th if she did not resign. Thus, she received notice, a hearing, an explanation of the charges, and a right to refute them, which she did. This was all the process which Mrs. Crocker was due. As did the Court in Loudermill, we write in view of the fact that the Virginia grievance procedures which were applicable to Mrs. Crocker were available and provided for a full post-termination adversarial hearing in the nature of a trial before an impartial panel complete with the right to have an attorney and to present witnesses. These procedures have been held by us to be constitutionally valid in Detweiler, 705 F.2d at 560-561, and require no further discussion here.
We should not leave the subject without remarking that the Sixth Circuit in Duchesne v. Williams, 849 F.2d 1004 (6th Cir. 1988) (en banc), has followed Garraghty, and we especially note that it also relied with approval on the opinion of the district judge in this very case with respect to whether or not the decision maker at a pre-termination Loudermill hearing need be unbiased. 849 F.2d at 1008.
The judgment of the district court is accordingly
AFFIRMED.
. Plaintiff also asserted several pendent state claims. On appeal, she only asserts due process claims and does not mention § 1985 except to recite that it was included in the complaint.
. The grievance procedure is established and described in Va.Code (1950), § 2.1-114.5:1.
. A. Jackson Ridder, then the Director of the Valley Regional Office of the Virginia Department of Social Services. Ridder’s office is advisory so far as Mrs. Crocker is concerned; he did not supervise her work and is not a superior to the local Board.
. Although she technically resigned, the district court discusses her separation from employment as a termination. For purposes of this appeal, we too accept that characterization.
. In addition to the Board, Crocker named as defendants each individual Board member as well as A. Jackson Ridder.
. The procedures provide for appeal to the agency head, and for further review by an impartial panel. Va.Code, § 2.1-114.5:1(D), (E) and (F).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Elisabeth B. CROCKER v. FLUVANNA COUNTY (VA) BOARD OF PUBLIC WELFARE, a/k/a Fluvanna County Social Services Ann Moshenek, in her individual and official capacity as Chairman of the Fluvanna Co. Board of Public Welfare Thomas J. Bugg Louise Campbell Helen Morris Kenneth Woodson, in their individual and official capacity as members of the Fluvanna Co. Board of Public Welfare, Palmyra, Va. A. Jackson Ridder, in his individual and official capacity as Director of the Valley Regional Office of the Va. Dept. of Social Services
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published