Dziewior v. City of Marengo

715 F. Supp. 1416, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6999, 1989 WL 67780
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 21, 1989
Docket87 C 20318
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 715 F. Supp. 1416 (Dziewior v. City of Marengo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dziewior v. City of Marengo, 715 F. Supp. 1416, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6999, 1989 WL 67780 (N.D. Ill. 1989).

Opinion

ORDER

ROSZKOWSKI, District Judge.

This action comes before the court on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, the court grants summary judgment in favor of the defendants.

BACKGROUND

The plaintiff Daniel Dziewior (“Dziew-ior”) was an applicant for a position as a police officer with the City of Marengo. Dziewior participated in the application process and, after successfully completing a physical agility test and written and oral examinations, was placed on an “initial” or “currant” [sic] “eligible” or “eligibility” list of Marengo police officer candidates. Subsequently, Dziewior was notified by the Marengo Fire and Police Commission (“Commission”) that vacancies existed on the police force and that Dziewior, if still interested, would be scheduled for a psychological test, a polygraph test, and a final physical examination. (Defendants’ 12(e) Statement, II9). The plaintiff subse *1418 quently sat for the polygraph and psychological tests. (Defendants’ 12(e), 1110).

After receiving the test results, the commission made up of Gaye Anderson, Doria Kelley and John Keenum, informed the plaintiff that as a result of his test scores he would no longer be able to take part in the selection process. (Defendants’ 12(e), If 12). The plaintiff demanded a hearing on the subject of his removal from consideration and he received one. (Defendants’ 12(e), II14).

Dissatisfied with his hearing and his removal from the selection process, the plaintiff brings a procedural due process claim, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against the defendants the City of Marengo, the Commission, and Gaye Anderson, Doria Kelley, and John Keenum in their personal capacities. The plaintiff charges the defendants with depriving him of both liberty and property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiff prays for injunctive relief ordering the defendants to hire Dziewior; and award compensatory damages in an amount including back pay, benefits, and credit for seniority from the date of eligibility to the date of hire; and damages for emotional distress; and punitive damages; fees and costs. The parties have presently filed cross motions for summary judgment, each moving the court to find the instant controversy ripe for judgment and that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

DISCUSSION

The court will not grant any summary judgment motion unless all the pleadings and supporting documents, if any, indicate that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2513, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Fitzsimmons v. Best, 528 F.2d 692, 694 (7th Cir.1976).

The initial burden is on the moving party to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue or question of material fact in dispute. Rose v. Bridgeport Brass Co., 487 F.2d 804, 808 (7th Cir.1973). Once the moving party has stated that a fact is not in question, the burden shifts to the non-moving party to demonstrate that there is some question of fact or to contradict a fact and bring it into question. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

Property Interest

By now it is a well-settled proposition that one is only entitled to due process, that is notice and an opportunity to be heard, when one is deprived of a protecta-ble “property” or “liberty” interest. A protectable property interest is defined and arises as follows:

[t]he Fourteenth Amendments’ procedural protection of property is a safeguard of the security of interests that a person has already acquired in specific benefits ... [T]o have a property interest in a benefit, a person clearly must have more than an abstract need or desire for it. He must have more than a unilateral expectation of it. He must, instead, have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it.
* * * * * *
Property interests ... are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules and understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law — rules and understandings that secure certain benefits and that support claims of entitlement to those benefits.

Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 576-77, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2708-09, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). See also Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 344, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2077, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976); Anderson v. City of Philadelphia, 845 F.2d 1216, 1220-22 (3rd Cir.1988).

The plaintiff charges that the defendants have deprived him of a property interest, but Dziewior is not entirely clear on exactly what that property interest entails. In his complaint, the plaintiff complains of a deprivation of his property interest in future employment as provided by the Rules and Regulations of the Commission. Later, in the plaintiff’s memorandum opposing defendants’ motion for summary judgment, *1419 the plaintiff’s allegedly deprived interest is described as “a right to or interest in fair consideration for public employment, 1 including consideration for placement on an eligibility list.” While there appears to be some drift in the plaintiff’s definition of the relevant property interest, the pleadings in total seem to indicate that the ultimate interest the plaintiff is determined to protect is his interest in appointment to the Marengo Police Department. Whether the defendant expresses this interest as placement on an eligibility list the sine qua non of appointment, or a right to future employment does not matter since both phrases serve as euphemisms for the plaintiffs allegedly legitimate entitlement to appointment to the Marengo police force.

Thus, the initial question to be addressed and answered by this court is whether Mr. Dziewior has a mere subjective or unilateral expectation of appointment to the Mar-engo police force, in which case he has no property interest, or a legitimate entitlement to appointment, in which case he does have a property interest. See Harris v. City of Wilmington, 644 F.Supp. 1483, 1487 (D.Del.1986).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
715 F. Supp. 1416, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6999, 1989 WL 67780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dziewior-v-city-of-marengo-ilnd-1989.