Anderson v. Low Rent Housing Commission

304 N.W.2d 239, 7 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1726, 1981 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 916
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 15, 1981
DocketNos. 63597, 63834
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 304 N.W.2d 239 (Anderson v. Low Rent Housing Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Low Rent Housing Commission, 304 N.W.2d 239, 7 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1726, 1981 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 916 (iowa 1981).

Opinion

SCHULTZ, Justice.

This consolidated appeal grew out of a suit in five divisions based on libel, invasion of privacy, and wrongful discharge from employment. The plaintiff, Phyllis M. Anderson (Anderson), was formerly employed as a secretary in the Community Development Department of defendant City, of Muscatine, Iowa (City); her immediate supervisor was defendant Jeffrey Schott (Schott), the city’s Acting Community Development Director. Defendant Low Rent Housing Commission of Muscatine, Iowa (LHA), was established by ordinance under the provisions of chapter 403A, The Code 1970, and is governed by five commissioners, one of whom is defendant George Six (Six).

During the course of her employment from January 1975 until she was dismissed on February 17, 1976, fifty-four weeks later, Anderson was in the midst of a controversy, which received widespread coverage from the news media, involving city projects, officials, and fellow employees. This multi-party action stems from that controversy. In the trial below Anderson contended that she was wrongfully discharged. She claimed she had a constitutionally protected liberty interest in her employment, and that the circumstances underlying the termination of that employment deprived her of due process of law in violation of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. She also maintained that she was the victim of a libel by Six and LHA on October 20, 1975, and that the City and Schott invaded her privacy on February 17, 1976, by disclosing the facts surrounding her termination to the media.

The wrongful termination claim, which was tried to the court, was dismissed. Anderson appeals from that ruling. We affirm. LHA and Six appeal from a judgment entered in part on jury verdicts rendered in favor of Anderson on the libel claim. We reverse and remand. Schott appeals from the portion of the judgment entered on jury verdicts awarding Anderson actual and punitive damages on the invasion of privacy claim. We affirm. Schott also claims the trial court erred in allowing the admission of an exhibit introduced for the limited purpose of showing that Anderson typed the exhibit at the mayor’s request. We find no error in that ruling.

I. Jurisdiction of Anderson’s appeal. Since there was some question as to whether or not Anderson’s appeal was taken from a nonfinal judgment, we required the parties to brief the issue.

Anderson appeals from the trial court’s dismissal of her wrongful termination claim, which was tried to the court while her other claims were simultaneously tried to. a jury. At the time the trial court issued its ruling on the wrongful termination claim, the jury had returned verdicts on the other claims, and posttrial motions were pending on those claims. The nonfinality issue arose because Anderson appealed from the adverse ruling on the wrongful termination claim prior to the time the trial court ruled on the posttrial motions.

Anderson claims that the ruling on the wrongful termination claim was a final judgment within the meaning of Iowa R.App.P. 5. We need not decide the accuracy of this assertion, however, because we conclude that Iowa R.App.P. 1(c), which became effective July 1, 1980, is dispositive of this jurisdictional issue. Appellate rule 1(c) provides:

If an appeal to the supreme court is improvidently taken because the order from which appeal is taken is interlocutory, this alone shall not be ground for dismissal. The papers upon which the appeal [243]*243was taken shall be regarded and acted upon as an application for interlocutory appeal under rule 2, rules of appellate procedure, as if duly presented to the supreme court at the time the appeal was taken.

In Smith v. Partnership of Korf, Diehl, Clayton and Cleverley, 302 N.W.2d 137, 138 (Iowa 1981), we held that appellate rule 1(c) is to be given retrospective effect and thus applies to all appeals pending on its effective date, as well as those perfected thereafter.

It should be noted, however, that the rule permits us to grant appeal only as if application had been made under appellate rule 2. Appellate rule 2 allows us to entertain an appeal on an interlocutory ruling upon finding that the ruling “involves substantial rights and will materially affect the final decision and that a determination of its correctness before trial on the merits will better serve the interests of justice.” We determine that the present case meets the requirements of appellate rule 2. We therefore focus our attention on the merits of this appeal.

II. Liberty interest. Anderson’s petition, as amended, alleged that the City and Schott wrongfully terminated her employment, depriving her of due process of law. Before the issues were submitted to the jury, the trial court sustained Anderson’s motion to withdraw the wrongful termination claim from the jury and have the court determine the issue. The trial court subsequently dismissed the claim, ruling that Anderson did not have a constitutionally protected liberty interest, and that even if she did she was afforded due process. Anderson contends the trial court erred in so ruling. We must first determine whether Anderson had a constitutionally protected liberty interest which was affected by her discharge.

“Liberty interest” is a general, somewhat nebulous, term whose definition depends on the context in which it is used. The concept has its origin in the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution: “[N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . ... ” As applied to public employment, due process does not afford a right to public employment, but it does afford certain constitutional rights in relation to such employment. See McDowell v. Texas, 465 F.2d 1342, 1345-46 (5th Cir.1971), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 943, 93 S.Ct. 1371, 35 L.Ed.2d 610 (1973). Among these rights is the right to procedural due process when charges are brought against an employee which might seriously damage standing and association in the community or impose a stigma or other disability that forecloses the freedom of the employee to take advantage of other employment opportunities. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 573, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2707, 33 L.Ed.2d 548, 558-59 (1972).

It is necessary for us to examine the facts presented to the trial court in order to determine whether a constitutionally protected liberty interest was violated by Anderson’s termination. When a violation of constitutional rights is alleged we review the facts de novo to make an evaluation of the totality of the circumstances under which the trial court’s ruling on those constitutional rights was made. State v. Cullison, 227 N.W.2d 121, 126 (Iowa 1975).

It was agreed below that Anderson was an employee at will and had no statutory or contractual rights to due process. She was terminated summarily by Schott, her immediate supervisor, and was given a letter containing five reasons for her discharge, to-wit:

1. You have antagonized personnel in the Community Development Department and are a constant source of friction within the Department.
2. You have antagonized personnel in other departments in City Hall, creating animosities between City employees.

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Anderson v. LOW RENT HOUSING COM'N, ETC.
304 N.W.2d 239 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1981)

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304 N.W.2d 239, 7 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1726, 1981 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 916, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-low-rent-housing-commission-iowa-1981.