Diaz Garcia v. Soler Aquino

916 F. Supp. 100, 1996 WL 88843
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 9, 1996
DocketCivil No. 93-1275(SEC)
StatusPublished

This text of 916 F. Supp. 100 (Diaz Garcia v. Soler Aquino) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Diaz Garcia v. Soler Aquino, 916 F. Supp. 100, 1996 WL 88843 (prd 1996).

Opinion

ORDER

CASELLAS, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket #50). After careful review of the parties’ arguments and applicable law, the Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED against plaintiffs Jenaro Rosado Vazquez (“Rosado”) [102]*102and Jannette Castro Correa (“Castro”). The Motion for Summary Judgment against plaintiff Luis Felipe Diaz Garcia is DENIED.

I. Plaintiffs’ Absence of Property Interest

Plaintiffs Rosado and Correa allege in their Amended Complaint (Docket # 10) that defendants terminated their employment at the Printing Shop Bureau of the General Services Administration of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (“GSA”), in disregard of an established layoff plan, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They also allege that their termination was politically based, in violation of their First Amendment Rights. The Court disagrees on both claims.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of his property without due process of law. The jurisprudence has extended this protection to traditional forms of real, personal and intangible property as well as the right to certain government benefits. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569-572, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705-07, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1969).

Before the Court determines whether to apply the constitutional guarantee of procedural due process, it must first determine “the presence of a legitimate ‘property’ or liberty interest within the meaning of the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment.” Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U.S. 134, 164, 94 S.Ct. 1633, 1649, 40 L.Ed.2d 15 (1974); Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. at 572, 92 S.Ct. at 2706. If the Court determines the existence of certain property or liberty interests, it must decide what procedures constitute “due process of law.” Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 672, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 1413, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977).

Defendants argue, and this Court agrees, that plaintiffs Rosado and Castro do not possess a right to continued employment. Plaintiffs do not invoke any contractual provision or officially sanctioned rule of the workplace that entitles them to their former positions. Instead, they rely solely on their job classification, which they have characterized as that of an “irregular” employee.

Puerto Rico law establishes that employers may terminate an irregular employee whenever his or her services are no longer required, and only a career employee has a property interest in continued employment. P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 3, §§ 711 and 1336(4) (1991 Supp.); Kauffman v. Puerto Rico Telephone Co., 841 F.2d 1169, 1173 (1st Cir.1988).

In Correa v. Department of Natural Resources, 118 D.P.R. 689 (1987), the Court determined whether a public employee with a transitory appointment had a legitimate interest to be retained in his job once the time of his appointment has expired. The Supreme Court indicated that, under the pertinent provisions of the Puerto Rico Personnel Act, a transitory employee is one who is appointed to a position of fixed duration, that the duration of the appointment is for the period of the position, and that transitory employees are not career employees. Id. at 694-695. The Court also concluded that pursuant to the provisions of the Public Service Personnel Act, a transitory employee did not have a right to a permanent status. Once his appointment expired, noted the Court, he did not have a legitimate job retention expectancy. Id. at 697. See also Cheveras Pacheco v. Rivera Gonzalez, 809 F.2d 125 (1st Cir.1987). The Court recently restated the norm in Orta v. Padilla, 92 J.T.S. 96, 9729, 9735-9736 (1992). Since the Court finds that plaintiffs lacked a legitimate claim of entitlement to continued employment, plaintiffs’ claim for violation of Due Process under the Fourteenth Amendment must fail. Roth, 408 U.S. at 576, 92 S.Ct. at 2709.

On May 13,1992, plaintiff Luis Felipe Diaz Garcia, Superintendent of the Printing Bureau, obtained the appointment of Jenaro Rosado Vazquez as an irregular employee from May 18,1992 to June 30,1992 to occupy the position of Inspector V (Exhibit 1, Luz Nereida Rodriguez’ Statement under Penalty of Perjury, Exhibit 2, Rosado Appointment). Plaintiff worked as an irregular employee from July 1, 1992 to December 31, 1992 (Exhibit 1). On January 1, 1993, defendants extended co-plaintiff Rosado’s designation as an irregular employee until March 31, 1993 (Exhibit 5). This document clearly stated [103]*103that Rosado’s appointment lasted until March 31, 1993. On March 13, 1993, co-defendant Elvin Colon notified Rosado through a letter dated March 13, 1993, that his appointment as an irregular employee expired on March 31, 1993 and that it would not be renewed (Exhibit 6). After review of this evidence, the Court concludes that plaintiff Rosado lacked a property interest on which he could hinge his Due Process claim.

Plaintiff Jeannette Castro is also unable to overcome the property interest “hurdle” required by our jurisprudence, in order to claim a Due Process violation. On June 29, 1990, co-plaintiff Jannette Castro Correa signed an internal memorandum accepting the certain terms and conditions regarding her appointment as an irregular employee at the GSA (Exhibit 7). In that document, she expressly acknowledged that the appointment did not confer a proprietary right, since it was an appointment for a fixed term. From September 30,1990 until December 31, 1992, defendants extended consecutively Castro’s appointment as an irregular employee (Exhibits 8a through 8j). On March 12, 1993, defendant Elvin Colon notified Castro through a letter that her appointment as an irregular employee expired March 31, 1993 and that it would not be renewed (Exhibits 10, 11). Such evidence leads the Court to conclude that plaintiff also lacked a property interest.

The Court acknowledges that even if a person lacks a property interest, the government may not deprive someone of a job for constitutionally forbidden reasons:

For at least a quarter of a century, this Court has made clear that even though a person has no “right” to a valuable governmental benefit and even though the government may deny him the benefit for any number of reasons, there are some reasons upon which the government may not rely. It may not deny a benefit to a person on a basis that infringes his constitutionally protected interests — especially, his interest in freedom of speech. Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 497 U.S. 62, 72 [110 S.Ct. 2729, 2736, 111 L.Ed.2d 52] (1990).

The Court concludes that defendants’ nonrenewal of plaintiffs’ appointment was not politically motivated, in violation of their First Amendment rights.

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Related

Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth
408 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Arnett v. Kennedy
416 U.S. 134 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Ingraham v. Wright
430 U.S. 651 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois
497 U.S. 62 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Bessie A. Kauffman v. Puerto Rico Telephone Company
841 F.2d 1169 (First Circuit, 1988)
Carmen Nereida-Gonzalez v. Cirilo Tirado-Delgado
990 F.2d 701 (First Circuit, 1993)
Departamento de Recursos Naturales v. Correa
118 P.R. Dec. 689 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1987)
Agosto-de-Feliciano v. Aponte-Roque
889 F.2d 1209 (First Circuit, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
916 F. Supp. 100, 1996 WL 88843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diaz-garcia-v-soler-aquino-prd-1996.