Justia Federal District Court Opinions

Principles of qualified immunity govern this case. The controversy arises from the discharge, without a hearing, of plaintiff from state employment. In the district court, defendants, in their individual capacities, were granted judgment as a matter of law under Fed.R.Civ.Pro. 50(a). We affirm the judgments.

THE CASE

In June 1986, defendants--state university officials--were deciding what steps to take to discharge Albert Lassiter from his employment with Alabama A & M University (the "University"). Lassiter asked for a hearing. But defendants fired Lassiter without offering him a hearing.

Lassiter was entitled under the Federal Constitution to no procedural due process unless, under state law, he had a legitimate expectation of continued employment which rose to the level of a property right. Whitfield v. Finn, 731 F.2d 1506, 1507-08 (11th Cir.1984) (citing Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972)). Two documents have been advanced by Lassiter as possible sources of such a property right: his employment contract and a University policy manual. No one disputes the wording of these documents. The parties do disagree on the significance and meaning of the documents. A copy of the contract and pertinent manual excerpts are appended to this opinion.

Lassiter sued defendants in their individual capacities (and otherwise) under several theories. At trial, the district court, among other things, granted defendants judgment on the grounds of qualified immunity.¹ The issue in this case is whether defendants were due qualified immunity on Lassiter's claim that his termination deprived him of a property right without due process of law.

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY PRINCIPLES

No new rules need to be announced to decide this case. But, for emphasis, we restate principles which do govern qualified immunity cases:

I. Qualified immunity protects government officials performing discretionary functions from civil trials (and the other burdens of litigation, including discovery) and from liability if their conduct violates no "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 231-33, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991) (no discovery if immunity question can end case); see also Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, ----, 112 S.Ct. 534, 536, 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991) ("we repeatedly have stressed the importance of resolving immunity questions at the earliest possible stage in litigation") (citations omitted). The qualified immunity doctrine means that government agents are not always required to err on the side of caution. Davis v. Scherer, 468 U.S. 183, 196, 104 S.Ct. 3012, 3020, 82 L.Ed.2d 139 (1984).

II. That qualified immunity protects government actors is the usual rule; only in exceptional cases will government actors have no shield against claims made against them in their individual capacities.² Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738 (officials "generally are shielded from liability for civil damages"); Barts v. Joyner, 865 F.2d 1187, 1190 (11th Cir.1989) ("The Harlow decision sets up a bright-line test that is a powerful constraint on causes of action under section 1983."); Dartland v. Metropolitan Dade County, 866 F.2d 1321, 1323-24 (11th Cir.1989) (when "no bright-line standard puts the reasonable public employer on notice of a constitutional violation, the employer is entitled to immunity except in the extraordinary case where [First Amendment case law] would lead to the inevitable conclusion that the [act taken against] the employee was unlawful"). Unless a government agent's act is so obviously wrong, in the light of pre-existing law, that only a plainly incompetent officer or one who was knowingly violating the law would have done such a thing, the government actor has immunity from suit. See Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341-43, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096-97, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). Because qualified immunity shields government actors in all but exceptional cases, courts should think long and hard before stripping defendants of immunity.

III. For the law to be clearly established to the point that qualified immunity does not apply, the law must have earlier been developed in such a concrete and factually defined context to make it obvious to all reasonable government actors, in the defendant's place, that "what he is doing" violates federal law. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). Qualified immunity is a doctrine that focuses on the actual, on the specific, on the details of concrete cases.

The most common error we encounter, as a reviewing court, occurs on this point: courts must not permit plaintiffs to discharge their burden³ by referring to general rules and to the violation of abstract "rights." See Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639-41, 107 S.Ct. at 3038-39 (even though the "general right [defendant] was alleged to have violated--the right to be free from warrantless searches of one's home unless the searching officers have probable cause and there are exigent circumstances--was clearly established," lower court should have "consider[ed] the argument that it was not clearly established that the circumstances with which [defendant] was confronted did not constitute probable cause and exigent circumstances") (emphasis added); see also Barts, 865 F.2d at 1190 (stating "clearly established" question at specific, factually defined, level).

"General propositions have little to do with the concept of qualified immunity." Muhammad v. Wainwright, 839 F.2d 1422, 1424 (11th Cir.1987). "If case law, in factual terms, has not staked out a bright line, qualified immunity almost always protects the defendant." Post v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 7 F.3d 1552, 1557 (11th Cir.1993), modified, 14 F.3d 583 (11th Cir.1994); accord Kelly v. Curtis, 21 F.3d 1544, 1554 (11th Cir.1994).⁴ "The line is not to be found in abstractions--to act reasonably, to act with probable cause, and so forth--but in studying how these abstractions have been applied in concrete circumstances." Barts, 865 F.2d at 1194. And, as the en banc court recently accepted:

When considering whether the law applicable to certain facts is clearly established, the facts of cases relied upon as precedent are important. The facts need not be the same as the facts of the immediate case. But they do need to be materially similar. See, e.g., Edwards v. Gilbert, 867 F.2d 1271, 1277 (11th Cir.1989). Public officials are not obligated to be creative or imaginative in drawing analogies from previously decided cases.

Adams v. St. Lucie County Sheriff's Dept., 962 F.2d, 1563, 1573, 1575 (11th Cir.1992), (Edmondson, J., dissenting) (emphasis added), approved en banc, 998 F.2d 923 (11th Cir.1993). For qualified immunity to be surrendered, pre-existing law must dictate, that is, truly compel (not just suggest or allow or raise a question about), the conclusion for every like-situated, reasonable government agent that what defendant is doing violates federal law in the circumstances.

IV. Because qualified immunity is a doctrine of practical application to real-life situations, courts judge the acts of defendant government officials against the law and facts at the time defendants acted, not by hindsight, based on later events. See Hunter, 502 U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 537 ("the court should ask whether the agents acted reasonably under settled law in the circumstances, not whether another reasonable, or more reasonable, interpretation of the events can be construed five years after the fact").

V. The subjective intent of government actor defendants plays no part in qualified immunity analysis. Anderson, 483 U.S. at 641, 107 S.Ct. at 3040 (despite that courts may inquire into "information possessed" by defendant, the defendant's "subjective beliefs ... are irrelevant"); Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 517, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2810, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (in Harlow, "this Court purged qualified immunity doctrine of its subjective components"); Hansen v. Soldenwagner, 19 F.3d 573, 578 (11th Cir.1994) ("[t]he Supreme Court in Harlow staked a new path for immunity law by abandoning the subjective element of 'good faith' immunity in favor of an objective test"). Objective legal reasonableness is the touchstone.

VI. A decision on qualified immunity is separate and distinct from the merits of the case--a principle illustrated by the Supreme Court's willingness to treat the denial of qualified immunity at summary judgment as an appealable collateral order. Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 527-29, 105 S.Ct. at 2816-17 ("it follows from the recognition that qualified immunity is in part an entitlement not to be forced to litigate the consequences of official conduct that a claim of immunity is conceptually distinct from the merits of the plaintiff's claim that his rights have been violated"); Green v. Brantley, 941 F.2d 1146, 1151-52 (11th Cir.1991) (en banc) ("whether the defendant official is entitled to qualified immunity on a particular damage claim is also conceptually distinct from the substantive merits" for purposes of collateral review doctrine). Immunity contemplates exemption from liability that would otherwise exist on the merits.

APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES

In June 1986, defendants faced a decision: would they grant plaintiff a hearing before deciding finally to dismiss him? The law was clearly established at the time that, if Lassiter had a legitimate expectation of continued employment, he was due the hearing. But this general proposition is, in reality, a useless bit of abstract information, giving no practical instruction to defendants at the time and, in turn, having almost nothing to do with whether qualified immunity would protect defendants' acts. See Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639-41, 107 S.Ct. at 3038-39; see also Barts, 865 F.2d at 1190 (plaintiffs may not rely on "general, conclusory allegations of some constitutional violation, [n]or [may they rely on] broad legal truisms").

No one disputes what defendants in this case did: they fired Lassiter without a hearing, in the face of a contract and policy manual--the words of which are undisputed. The historical or operative facts to which we apply the principles of qualified immunity were set on the date Lassiter was dismissed. Because in June 1986, when defendants acted, it was not clearly established as a matter of law in Alabama that either the contract's words⁵ or the manual's words⁶ or both would support a property right for Lassiter, the law was also not clearly established that Lassiter was, when defendants acted, due a hearing.⁷

The line between lawful conduct and unlawful conduct is often vague and thin. The essence of qualified immunity is that it is unfair--and, as a matter of public policy, unwise--to impose personal liability on government officers unless the officers had advance notice that what they were doing was unlawful. Pre-existing law must supply this notice; the unlawfulness must be obvious, considering the circumstances confronting the officers. No one--no matter how learned in the law--could have known in 1986 whether Lassiter was due, under federal law, a hearing or not.⁸ So, defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.

AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED.⁹

APPENDIX A
                ALABAMA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY
                             NORMAL, ALABAMA 35762
               OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF APPOINTMENT AND CONTRACT
TO:       Mr. Albert E. Lassiter
          Vice President for Business and Finance
 The President of the University is appointing you as designated above, subject
  to approval of the University Board of Trustees, and governed by policies,
  procedures, regulations and standards recorded in official University
  policies and procedures publications, for the period from May 1 , 19 85 to
  *September 30 , 19 85 , or for such portion of the period as your services
  are found satisfactory, and as the finances of the University permit at an
  annual salary of $ 51,000.00 , payable in 12 monthly payments, effective June
  1 , 19 85
 If this is a part-time instructional appointment, it is contingent upon a per
  class enrollment of at least _______ students, and will be consummated with
  the President's signature when the class(es) make(s).
 If you accept the appointment, sign all four copies of this notice and
  contract between you and the University.  Return all four copies (within 10
  days).  Your copy will be returned to you when the President has signed.
 If you will not accept the appointment, please note the fact on all forms and
  return them immediately to the
                                          For Alabama A. & M. University
          April 18, 1985                  By:      (s) Douglas Covington
-----------------------------------                ----------------------------
      (Date of Announcement)                               (President)
BUDGET OR SOURCE OF FUNDS: ____________________________________________________
  _____________________________________________________________________________
* This appointment and contract, which commence on May 15, 1985 and extend
  through September 30, 1985 (the end of the current fiscal year), would be
  extended, through our mutual agreement, on October 1, 1985.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The President
Alabama A. & M. University
 I hereby accept the above stipulated appointment and will assume my duties on
  the date the appointment becomes effective.
 I promise to give sixty days' notice if I seek release from this agreement.
          April 25, 1985                  Signed (s)
                                            Albert E.
                                            Lassiter
-----------------------------------                     -----------------------
       (Date of Acceptance)

APPENDIX B*

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge, concurring:

For purposes of qualified immunity, the relevant facts are the facts known to the decision-maker. In this case, Lassiter has pointed to no genuine issue of material fact as to what the decision-maker knew.1 In my judgment, the decision-maker did not know facts which clearly indicated that the contract had been extended by mutual agreement. Thus, the decision-maker did not know facts which clearly indicated that Lassiter had a property interest. Accordingly, I concur in and join the opinion by Judge Edmondson for the court.

BARKETT, Circuit Judge, concurring:

I concur in the result only.

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part in which HATCHETT, Circuit Judge, joins:

I agree with the majority opinion insofar as it concludes that the district court did not err in granting the defendants qualified immunity on the issue of whether the personnel policy manual created a property interest. I do not agree, however, with the majority's resolution of the due process claim based upon a property interest created by the contract. Therefore, I respectfully dissent on that issue.

The contract between Lassiter and the university has been determined as a matter of law to be ambiguous on the issue of its duration. Lassiter v. Covington, 861 F.2d 680, 683 (11th Cir.1988) (Lassiter I ). The majority opinion contends that this means that, "[b]y definition, then, a reasonable university official could not know whether firing Lassiter, without a hearing, under these circumstances violated the due process clause. Put differently, the landscape of pre-existing law would have compelled no definite conclusion from reasonable persons in defendants' positions, given the ambiguous contract before them." In my view, this analysis obscures the issue of when qualified immunity is appropriate and reflects a misunderstanding of the significance of the legal conclusion that a contract is ambiguous.

Established law in this circuit has recognized that where the legal norms at issue are clearly established, critical factual disputes preclude the grant of qualified immunity. See Swint v. City of Wadley, Ala., 5 F.3d 1435, 1442 (11th Cir.1993), modified on other grounds, 11 F.3d 1030 (11th Cir.1994); Rich v. Dollar, 841 F.2d 1558, 1564-65 (11th Cir.1988). The majority opinion violates this rule by affirming a grant of qualified immunity despite a factual dispute on the critical issue in this case. The Lassiter II panel noted:

Qualified immunity turns on ambiguity in the law, not ambiguity in the contract. If the law is clear, but there are issues of fact concerning the contract, then a defendant is not immune from having a jury resolve the factual issues concerning the contract.

In 1986, the law was clear that an employee with a contractual expectation of continued employment had a property interest in that employment. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577-78, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2709-10, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972).

3 F.3d 1482, 1486 (11th Cir.1993), vacated, reh'g en banc granted, 19 F.3d 1370 (11th Cir.1994).

The determination that the contract in this case is ambiguous is not tantamount to a conclusion that a reasonable university official, possessing the information known to the defendants, would have thought that Lassiter was not under contract on the date that he was fired. Rather, it is simply a finding that the normal methods of interpreting a contract are inadequate. In an unambiguous contract the words of the agreement alone control its interpretation. In such cases, contractual rights are interpreted by the court based on written words of the agreement. Parol evidence usually is inadmissable. In an ambiguous contract, however, the words alone cannot solely determine the substance of the actual agreement between the parties. See Miles College, Inc. v. Oliver, 382 So.2d 510, 511 (Ala.1980). Alabama law clearly provides that once a contract has been found, as a matter of law, to be ambiguous on its face, the meaning of the contract becomes a question of fact to be determined by the jury. McDonald v. U.S. Die Casting and Dev. Co., 585 So.2d 853, 855 (Ala.1991). Alabama law dictates that,

[s]hould the trial court determine a contract to be ambiguous, yet not void for uncertainty, the question of the true meaning of the contract becomes an issue for the jury to decide. To aid the jury in this determination, evidence of facts and circumstances aliunde (from another source) or in pais (outside the record of the contract) may be introduced to aid the jury in its clarification of the terms of the contract; it then becomes the province of the jury to draw inferences and ascertain those facts from which the true meaning of the contract's terms can be determined.

Miles, 382 So.2d at 511 (citations omitted) quoted in Middleton v. Dan River, Inc., 834 F.2d 903, 911 (11th Cir.1987). A ruling that a contract is ambiguous does not mean that the parties did not have an agreed upon understanding of the contract terms, or that they failed to reach an agreement on the issue left ambiguous in the contract. It merely means that extrinsic evidence must be consulted to adequately identify the rights conferred upon the parties by the contract. Thus, it does not follow that because the contract is ambiguous a reasonable university official in the appellees' position could have concluded that there was no contract that extended past September 1985.

Crucial to the resolution of this claim is a determination of the dates of the contract.1 The text of the contract itself does not answer this question.2 The facts and circumstances surrounding the formation of the contract showed that prior to working for the university, Lassiter was employed by the state of Mississippi as the director of Public Accounts. Lassiter was recruited by the university to leave that job and accept a position as vice president for Business and Finance at Alabama A & M. Lassiter presented evidence that during contract negotiations he was told that the university could not commit to a contract that extended beyond the fiscal year, which ended on September 30. He testified, however, that Dr. Covington, the president of the university, advised him that the contract would be automatically renewed in October 1985 and would run through September 1986. Dr. Covington testified that he and Lassiter had agreed only to a five month contract, from May until September, and that the extension referred to in the contract was to occur through their mutual agreement at a later point. Dr. Covington further testified that no such agreement to extend the contract was ever reached and therefore Lassiter worked for the university without a contract after September 1985. Because the resolution of this factual issue was critical to the determination of Lassiter's claim, the trial court erred in not sending the factual question of the duration of the contract to the jury.

I therefore would reverse the district court's grant of qualified immunity on the due process claim grounded in the contract and remand for a jury resolution of the factual dispute.