Bova v. City of Medford

324 P.3d 492, 262 Or. App. 29, 2014 WL 1316267, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 410
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 2, 2014
Docket081663E7; A144254, A146597, A147477
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 324 P.3d 492 (Bova v. City of Medford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bova v. City of Medford, 324 P.3d 492, 262 Or. App. 29, 2014 WL 1316267, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 410 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

SERCOMBE, J.

This consolidated appeal involves a series of judgments entered in favor of plaintiff, a now-retired employee of the City of Medford, in his class action suit for declaratory and injunctive relief against the city and its city manager.1 The factual premise of plaintiffs suit is simple and undisputed: The city made health care insurance coverage available to plaintiff and other city employees who were members of the class, but it did not offer that same coverage to the class members when they retired. The trial court concluded that, in failing to offer that coverage, the city violated ORS 243.303(2), which requires that a “local government that contracts for or otherwise makes available health care insurance coverage for officers and employees of the local government shall, insofar as and to the extent possible, make that coverage available for any retired employee of the local government ***.” The trial court ordered the city to provide plaintiff and the class members with health insurance coverage that included the option to purchase that same health insurance at the time they retired. The trial court later awarded plaintiff attorney fees on that claim and found the city in contempt of the court’s orders to comply with ORS 243.303(2). Separately, following a trial to the court, the court concluded that, by not making the same health insurance coverage available to plaintiff upon his retirement, the city had discriminated against him on the basis of age under ORS 659A.030(l)(b).2 The city now appeals the limited judgments, general judgment, and supplemental judgment encompassing those rulings.

As explained herein, we conclude that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to plaintiff on his claim for declaratory and injunctive relief under ORS 243.303(2), because the legal standard that the trial court applied conflicts with the standard articulated by the Supreme Court in Doyle v. City of Medford, 347 Or 564, 227 [32]*32P3d 683 (2010), a decision that issued after the trial court’s summary judgment ruling. We reverse and remand the limited judgment on the ORS 243.303(2) claim for declaratory and injunctive relief for further proceedings. As to plaintiff’s age discrimination claim under ORS 659A.030(l)(b), we conclude that the trial court erred in allowing plaintiff to try that claim, over the city’s objection, on a theory of disparate impact, because that theory had not been pleaded and depended on proof different from the disparate treatment theory that plaintiff had pleaded. We therefore reverse the trial court’s judgment in favor of plaintiff on his age discrimination claim. Because the supplemental judgment for attorney fees is not appealable, we dismiss the city’s appeal of that judgment. Otherwise, we affirm.

We begin with a review of related litigation that provides helpful background to this appeal. Plaintiff here, an employee of the city who was eligible for retirement but had not yet retired, first filed suit against the city for declaratory and injunctive relief in federal court. In a separate suit, four retired Medford employees (“the Doyle plaintiffs”) filed suit against the city, seeking damages and injunctive relief. In those suits, the plaintiffs alleged that, by failing to make health insurance coverage available to them, the city had violated various state and federal laws: ORS 243.303(2); the city’s ordinance implementing ORS 243.303(2), Resolution No. 5715; Oregon’s age discrimination statute, ORS 659A.030; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), 29 USC §§ 621-634; and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The federal district court declined to take jurisdiction over the state law claims in both suits, but gave the plaintiffs leave to refile their suits in state court.

The federal claims in both suits continued in federal court. As to the Doyle plaintiffs’ federal due process claim, the district court granted summary judgment to the city, and the plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit determined that a resolution of the due process claim depended on an interpretation of ORS 243.303, a statute that had not previously been construed and that was ambiguous, and, accordingly, certified [33]*33the following question to the Oregon Supreme Court: “What amount of discretion does [ORS] 243.303 confer on local governments to determine whether or not to provide health insurance coverage to their employees after retirement?” Doyle v. City of Medford, 565 F3d 536, 541-42, 544 (9th Cir 2009) (Doyle I).

The Oregon Supreme Court accepted the certified question and answered it in Doyle v. City of Medford, 347 Or 564, 227 P3d 683 (2010) (Doyle II). The Supreme Court determined that the certified question focused on the meaning of the phrase “shall, insofar as and to the extent possible” in ORS 243.303(2):

“The governing body of any local government that contracts for or otherwise makes available health care insurance coverage for officers and employees of the local government shall, insofar as and to the extent possible, make that coverage available for any retired employee of the local government who elects within 60 days after the effective date of retirement to participate in that coverage and, at the option of the retired employee, for the spouse of the retired employee and any unmarried children under 18 years of age. The health care insurance coverage shall be made available for a retired employee until the retired employee becomes eligible for federal Medicare coverage, for the spouse of a retired employee until the spouse becomes eligible for federal Medicare coverage and for a child until the child arrives at majority, and may, but need not, be made available thereafter. The governing body may prescribe reasonable terms and conditions of eligibility and coverage, not inconsistent with this section, for making the health care insurance coverage available. The local government may pay none of the cost of making that coverage available or may agree, by collective bargaining agreement or otherwise, to pay part or all of that cost.”

ORS 243.303(2) (emphasis added). The Doyle plaintiffs argued that the statute imposed a mandatory duty on local governments to provide retiree health insurance coverage.

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Related

Adelsperger v. Elkside Development LLC
529 P.3d 230 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2023)
Doyle v. City of Medford
351 P.3d 768 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2015)
Bova v. City of Medford
326 P.3d 1256 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
324 P.3d 492, 262 Or. App. 29, 2014 WL 1316267, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bova-v-city-of-medford-orctapp-2014.