Doe v. Warren Consolidated Schools

93 F. App'x 812
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 24, 2004
DocketNos. 03-1291, 03-1292, 03-1306
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 93 F. App'x 812 (Doe v. Warren Consolidated Schools) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. Warren Consolidated Schools, 93 F. App'x 812 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

COLE, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-Appellants Jerry Maiorano, James Clor, and Paul Stamatakis bring this interlocutory appeal from the February 13, 2002 order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of [814]*814Michigan denying their motion for summary judgment and qualified immunity. The district court denied Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the ground that the facts would allow a reasonable jury to find that they deprived Plaintiffs — • three elementary school-aged girls — of their constitutional right to be free from sexual abuse by a public school teacher, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Defendant-Appellant, the Warren Consolidated Schools (the “School District”), asks us to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over its appeal of the district court’s denial of its motion for summary judgment on Plaintiffs’ § 1983 and Title IX claims.

For the reasons discussed below, we DISMISS Maiorano and Clor’s appeals for lack of appellate jurisdiction; we AFFIRM the denial of qualified immunity and summary judgment as to Stamatakis; and we decline to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over the School District’s interlocutory appeal and therefore DISMISS it.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs, three young girls, were sexually molested by Defendant James Kearly in 1998, while they were students at Siersma Elementary School in Warren, Michigan, where Kearly was a teacher. In criminal proceedings, Kearly pleaded no contest to charges of Fourth Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, in violation of Michigan law, and he is currently listed on the state of Michigan’s Public Sex Offender Registry. Defendants do not dispute Plaintiffs’ allegations of sexual molestation by Kearly.

On June 30, 2000, Plaintiffs filed this federal action claiming (1) violation of their constitutional rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983; (2) sexual harassment pursuant to Title IX; and (3) gross negligence and intentional misconduct pursuant to Michigan law. Plaintiffs seek relief from the Warren Consolidated Schools and the following individual defendants in addition to Kearly: Jerry Maiorano, Principal of Siersma Elementary School; James Clor, current Superintendent of the Warren Consolidated Schools and former Associate Superintendent in charge of elementary education; and Paul Stamatakis, former Superintendent of the Warren Consolidated Schools.

After discovery, all Defendants, except for Kearly, moved for summary judgment. In an order dated February 13, 2003, the district court dismissed the state law claim in its entirety and the Title IX claim against Maiorano, Clor, and Stamatakis. However, the district court denied summary judgment to all Défendants with respect to the § 1983 claim.

Maiorano, Clor, and Stamatakis have interlocutorily appealed the district court’s denial of their motion for summary judgment. Specifically, they appeal the denial of their claim for qualified immunity with respect to the § 1983 claim, which alleges that, in neglecting their obligations as supervisors, they deprived Plaintiffs of their constitutional right to be free from sexual abuse by a public school teacher. In addition, the School District interlocutorily challenges the district court’s denial of its motion for summary judgment on Plaintiffs’ § 1983 and Title IX claims, and asks us to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over its appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Appellate Jurisdiction

Plaintiffs contend that we lack appellate jurisdiction to consider Maiorano, Clor, and Stamatakis’s interlocutory appeals. Typically, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 bars our review of interlocutory appeals, but there is an exception where the district court has denied a claim of qualified immu[815]*815nity. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). This exception, however, is a narrow one. A denial of a claim of qualified immunity is immediately appealable only if the appeal is premised not on a factual dispute, but rather on “neat abstract issues of law.” Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 317, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995) (citations omitted). Accordingly, a defendant is required to limit his argument to questions of law premised on facts taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. We must dismiss the appeal if the defendant “attempts to persuade us to believe [his] version of the facts.” Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561, 565 (6th Cir.1998). In short, in order for this Court to exercise jurisdiction, the Defendants’ appeals must be premised on evidence viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs and they must contend that, viewing the evidence in that light, it fails to demonstrate violation of a clearly-established constitutional right.

The voluminous record in this case reveals Kearly’s history of inappropriate conduct and illuminates to what extent Defendants knew about and responded to this conduct. In its comprehensive order of February 13, 2002, the district court set forth those facts in full and — pursuant to the standards governing review of a motion for summary judgment — properly construed those facts in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, which is how we now must view them in considering our jurisdiction over the individual Defendants’ appeals. As a result, we will recite only those facts relevant to our resolving the pending appeals.

1. Jerry Maiorano

Maiorano claims virtual ignorance of Kearly’s history of misconduct and any disciplinary or precautionary actions taken by the School District in response to it. In his brief, Maiorano claims that he was unaware of most of Kearly’s past misconduct and concedes only the vaguest awareness of “hearsay,” “innuendo,” and “rumors” about Kearly, all of which he “chose not to believe.” (Maiorano and Clor Brief at 18.) Notwithstanding his acknowledgment that he was the only administrator assigned to Siersma Elementary School, Maiorano contends that he was unaware of the contents of Kearly’s personnel file and simply assumed that Kearly had been properly screened by the School District. He claims that he “had no reason to believe that [Kearly] ... could have affected the safety of the kids.” (Id. at 19.) He “does not recall” having conversations about Kearly with Clor or any other school official and he claims that “the Central Office never advised him of any problems that might exist with Kearly up to the time that the three Plaintiffs in this case came forward.” (Id. at 20.) Maiorano further claims that he was unaware of Kearly being under any plan of supervision while at Siersma Elementary or under any form of discipline other than an out-of-cycle evaluation. (Id. at 20.) Finally, Maiorano contends that it was only in May and June of 1998. while doing an evaluation of Kearly, that he first learned that Kearly was prohibited from using older students to assist him without specific permission from the building principal. (Id.

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93 F. App'x 812, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-warren-consolidated-schools-ca6-2004.