David G. Renaud v. Wyoming Department of Family Services, et al.

Plaintiff David G. Renaud brought this action in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming for wrongful termination of his employment as superintendent of the Wyoming Boys' School. He asserted seven claims for relief. His first claim was that Defendant Wyoming Department of Family Services violated the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA], 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213. His second claim was that the Department violated the Family and Medical Leave Act [FMLA], 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601-2654. His third, fourth, and fifth claims, asserted under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, were against Defendant Shirley R. Carson, in her individual capacity. He alleged that Ms. Carson, then director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services, deprived him of his property and liberty interests without due process and violated his First Amendment rights of expression and association. His sixth and seventh claims, based on state law, were against both defendants for breach of an implied contract of employment created by Wyoming government personnel rules and policies and for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The district court entered an order granting Defendants' motion for summary judgment in part and denying it in part. The court granted summary judgment to Ms. Carson on all claims against her and granted summary judgment to the Department on the state law claims. The case went to trial only on the claims under the ADA and the FMLA. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the Department on both claims, and judgment was entered in favor of the Department.

On appeal, Plaintiff challenges the grant of summary judgment on his claims for deprivation of a liberty interest and breach of contract. He also challenges the court's jury instructions regarding the ADA claim, and he asserts a lack of evidence to support the jury finding on his FMLA claim.

I.

Plaintiff was superintendent of the Wyoming Boys' School from December 1985 through April 30, 1996. On Friday afternoon, March 29, 1996, following meetings in Casper, Wyoming, Plaintiff returned to his office on the Boys' School campus, where he had contact with six employees. On April 4, one of those employees, Tracy Norris, the education director at the school, reported to Les Pozsgi, administrator for the Division of Juvenile Services and Plaintiff's direct supervisor, that he believed that Plaintiff had been drunk when he returned to school on March 29. Mr. Pozsgi reported these allegations to Ms. Carson. On April 15, Ms. Carson placed Plaintiff on administrative suspension with pay to allow the Department of Family Services to investigate his alleged violation of Wyoming's substance abuse policy. On April 16, Plaintiff submitted a request for thirty days' sick leave and checked himself into a voluntary alcohol treatment program in a Wyoming hospital. Mr. Pozsgi granted the leave request. On April 18, Ms. Carson and Mr. Pozsgi attempted to meet with Plaintiff for the purpose of terminating his employment, but Plaintiff's doctor did not allow the visit. On April 22, Ms. Carson sent a certified letter to Plaintiff at the hospital stating that she was dismissing him from his employment as an "at-will" employee effective April 30, 1996. She later testified that she fired him because he had come to work drunk in violation of the Wyoming substance abuse policy. On April 26, Ms. Carson allegedly contacted the Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Division broadcast a statewide bulletin indicating that Plaintiff had checked himself out of rehabilitation and might be suicidal and dangerous to others. Plaintiff, in fact, remained in an inpatient treatment program at that time.

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Plaintiff asserts that Ms. Carson deprived him of his liberty interest by making false and damaging statements about him "accompanying his dismissal" or "when terminating his employment." Appellant's Br. at 37. He alleges that on April 26, 1996, while he remained in treatment at the hospital, Ms. Carson "caused the Division of Criminal Investigation to broadcast[] statewide . . . false and malicious allegations that he had checked out of rehabilitation and was dangerous." Appellant's App., Vol. 3 at 697. The bulletin broadcast indicated that he might be suicidal and, having recently lost a state job, might "try to go after state employees." Id. at 698. Plaintiff contends that the loss of his job, the false bulletin "'assassinating his character and reputation,'" and the "'pending loss of his home and the devastating effect of these events on his family'" forced him to leave rehabilitation prematurely. Id. He also contends that he has not been able to obtain employment in juvenile corrections since Ms. Carson terminated him. See id. Plaintiff alleges that these actions deprived him of a liberty interest without due process of law.

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that no state "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 2. The Supreme Court has addressed the nature of the liberty interest protected under this provision, observing that "there can be no doubt that the meaning of 'liberty' must be broad indeed." Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 572 (1972).

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Applying Supreme Court precedent, we delineated a four-part test in Workman v. Jordan, 32 F.3d 475 (10th Cir. 1994), that a plaintiff must satisfy to demonstrate a deprivation of liberty:

First, to be actionable, the statements must impugn the good name, reputation, honor, or integrity of the employee. Second, the statements must be false. Third, the statements must occur in the course of terminating the employee or must foreclose other employment opportunities. And fourth, the statements must be published.

Id. at 481 (citations omitted); see also Melton v. City of Oklahoma City, 928 F.2d 920, 926-27 (10th Cir. 1991) (en banc) (holding that elements are not disjunctive but must all be satisfied).

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Because Ms. Carson's statements were not made in the course of discharging Plaintiff,(1) Plaintiff has failed to show one of the four essential elements that establish a deprivation of a liberty interest under Workman, and we need not address the other three prongs of the Workman test. We conclude that the alleged defamation cannot establish a claim cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for deprivation of a constitutional right, and we affirm the district court's grant of Defendant's motion for summary judgment on this claim.

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Click the case caption above for the full text of the Court's opinion.

The judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming is AFFIRMED.

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