Taylor v. St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners
Taylor v. St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners
Opinion of the Court
Judith A. Taylor, the former Democratic Director of Elections in St. Louis County, brought claims against the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners (“Board”) and against Commissioners John J. Diehl, Jr., William Miller, Jr., Anita Yeckel, and Chaim H. Zimbalist (“Commissioners”) in their official and individual capacities for wrongful discharge under Missouri common law and for a violation of the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 206(d), 215(a)(3). The Board and Commissioners removed the case to federal court. The district court
We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Pub. Water Supply List. No. 3 v. City of Lebanon, 605 F.3d 511, 515 (8th Cir. 2010). Summary judgment is appropriate where, viewing the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Wells Fargo Home Mortg., Inc. v.
The Board consists of four Commissioners — two Democrats (Miller and Zimbalist) and two Republicans (Diehl and Yeckel)— appointed by the Governor of Missouri. Mo.Rev.Stat. § 115.027. The Board oversees and sets policies for elections in St. Louis County and employs staff in a bipartisan manner. Id. §§ 115.043, 115.047, 115.053. The Board employs two Directors of Elections — one Democrat and one Republican — to manage elections in St. Louis County and to run the day-to-day operations of the Board. See id. § 115.045. The parties agree that Taylor was an at-will employee and that a majority of the Board must vote to discharge a Director of Elections. The Board discharged Taylor from her position as the Democratic Director of Elections by a unanimous vote. Taylor avers that the Commissioners terminated her employment because she testified under oath pursuant to a lawful subpoena about a controversial voter-identification issue.
Missouri maintains the default rule of at-will employment for employees without employment contracts for a definite term: an employer may discharge an at-will employee for any reason or for no reason without liability for wrongful discharge. Sivigliano v. Harrah’s N. Kan. City Corp., 188 S.W.3d 46, 48 (Mo.Ct.App. 2006). However, the Supreme Court of Missouri has recognized limited exceptions to the at-will employment doctrine:
An at-will employee may not be terminated (1) for refusing to violate the law or any well-established and clear mandate of public policy as expressed in the constitution, statutes, regulations promulgated pursuant to statute, or rules created by a governmental body or (2) for reporting wrongdoing or violations of law to superiors or public authorities.
Fleshner v. Pepose Vision Inst., P.C., 304 S.W.3d 81, 92 (Mo. 2010). Therefore, “[i]f an employer terminates an employee for either reason, then the employee has a cause of action in tort for wrongful discharge based on the public-policy exception.” Id.; see also Boyle v. Vista Eyewear, Inc., 700 S.W.2d 859, 871 (Mo.Ct.App. 1985) (“The public policy exception is a narrow exception to the at-will employment doctrine. It provides that an at-will employee who has been discharged by an employer in violation of a clear mandate of public policy has a cause of action against the employer for wrongful discharge.” (emphasis added)).
Taylor makes two arguments on appeal. First, Taylor suggests that the Commissioners need not have been Taylor’s employer to be liable for the common-law tort of wrongful discharge under Missouri law. Taylor argues that she need only “prove that defendant’s conduct was an actual cause of her injury ... [and] proximate cause, that the harm plaintiff suffered was the reasonable and probable consequence of defendant’s conduct,” for her claim to succeed. We disagree and conclude that Missouri law allows a former employee to maintain a public-policy wrongful discharge cause of action only against a former employer.
When determining the scope of Missouri law, we are bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court of Missouri. City of Jefferson City v. Cingular Wireless LLC, 531 F.3d 595, 599 (8th Cir. 2008). In Luethans v. Washington Univ., the Supreme Court of Missouri asserted that a plaintiff must be a discharged employee of the defendant to bring a claim for wrongful discharge. 894 S.W.2d 169, 172 (Mo. 1995) (stating that “Luethans’ cause of action against Washington University was pled as wrongful discharge ... in violation of the public policy against retaliation for reports of ani
Second, Taylor argues that even if Missouri law requires her wrongful discharge claim to have been brought against her former employer, the individual Commissioners were indeed her employers because they “had the power to hire, fire and supervise Mrs. Taylor.” We disagree. In Missouri, “[t]he determination of whether an employer/employee relationship exists is generally based on ‘right of control.’ ” Chandler, 108 S.W.3d at 763 (quoting Davis v. Human Dev. Corp., 705 S.W.2d 540, 542 (Mo.Ct.App. 1985)); see also Alderson v. State, 273 S.W.3d 533, 537 (Mo. 2009). The right of control is affected by factors such as the “extent of control, actual exercise of control, duration of employment, right to discharge, method of payment for services, furnishing of equipment, whether the work is part of regular business of the employer, and the contract of employment.” Chandler, 108 S.W.3d at 763 (quoting Davis, 705 S.W.2d at 542). No one factor is controlling, “but each may be considered relevant to the issue.” Id.
Taylor has not produced any evidence to show that the Commissioners, when acting in their individual capacities, had the right to, or did in fact, exercise any of these indicia of control. The Missouri statute authorizing election authorities gives only “[e]ach election authority,” and not the individual Commissioners, the
Taylor points to no cases where Missouri courts have found public board members who lack the power individually to hire and terminate employees liable in their individual capacities for wrongful discharge. Taylor cites several cases that, she argues, support her claim that public commissioners and board members can be liable in their individual capacities, but we agree with the district court that these cases are inapposite because either they discuss “potential liability” for alleged constitutional violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Moran v. Clark, 359 F.3d 1058 (8th Cir. 2004); Mauzy v. Mexico Sch. Dist. No. 59, 878 F.Supp. 153, 156 (E.D.Mo. 1995), or they apply broad statutory definitions of “employer,” Darby v. Bratch, 287 F.3d 673, 680-81 (8th Cir. 2002); Kizer v. Curators of the Univ. of Mo., 816 F.Supp. 548, 550-51 (E.D.Mo. 1993). None of these cases involves the cause of action at issue here: wrongful discharge in contravention of public policy under Missouri common law.
We conclude that Taylor was required under Missouri law to show that the Commissioners in their individual capacities were her employers and that no reasonable jury could make such a finding.
. The Honorable Thomas C. Mummert, III, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, presiding by consent of the parties pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c).
. “Decisions from Missouri's intermediate appellate court (the Missouri Court of Appeals) are particularly relevant, and must be followed when they are the best evidence of Missouri law." Bockelman v. MCI Worldcom, Inc., 403 F.3d 528, 531 (8th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted).
.Even if Taylor had presented evidence that the Commissioners exercised some degree of control or supervision of her daily activities in their individual capacities (an unlikely proposition), courts interpreting Missouri law have also refused to consider individuals who merely supervise an employee as employers for the purpose of wrongful-discharge claims. See Irvine v. City of Pleasant Valley, No. 09-cv-0682, 2010 WL 1611030, at *3 (W.D.Mo. Apr. 21, 2010); Criswell v. City of O’Fallon, No. 06-cv-01565, 2007 WL 1760744, at *6 (E.D.Mo. Jun. 15, 2007).
. Accordingly, we need not discuss whether Taylor presented sufficient evidence that her discharge violated public policy and whether the district court properly struck certain portions of Taylor's affidavit.
. Taylor also argues that the district court's grant of summary judgment is against public policy because it would leave her without redress. Taylor’s claim for wrongful discharge is rightly brought against the Board, her former employer. Her recourse is limited not by the courts, but by the state of Missouri,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Judith A. TAYLOR v. ST. LOUIS COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS, an election authority, John J. Diehl, Jr., as an individual and in his official capacity as Chairman of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners, William Miller, Jr., as an individual and in his official capacity as Commissioner of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners, Anita Yeckel, as an individual and in her official capacity as Commissioner of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners, and Chaim H. Zimbalist, as an individual and in his official capacity as Commissioner of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published