Glenn v. Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp.

500 F. App'x 520
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 24, 2013
DocketNo. 12-2917
StatusPublished

This text of 500 F. App'x 520 (Glenn v. Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glenn v. Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp., 500 F. App'x 520 (7th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

Micah E. Glenn appeals the dismissal of his complaint against the Bradley Center Sports and Entertainment Corporation and several of its employees and attorneys. Glenn charges that the defendants fired him without due process and in breach of contract. A magistrate judge, proceeding with Glenn’s consent, see 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(1), dismissed the suit for failure to state a claim. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1). Because Glenn did not have a property interest in his employment, we affirm.

We accept as true the allegations in Glenn’s complaint. See Gomez v. Randle, 680 F.3d 859, 864 (7th Cir.2012). In May 2010, Glenn began training to work as an arena control operator with the Bradley Center. The Center, which hosts three sports teams and countless other special events, was created by the Wisconsin legislature, see Wis. Stat. § 232.03. According to its website, the Center “is the only major, public assembly facility in North America with construction underwritten through the philanthropy of a single family.” Arena Highlights, http ://www. bmoharrisbradleycenter.com/arena-info/ arena-highlights (visited Dec. 19, 2012). Three months after his training, the Center hired Glenn. His contract — contingent upon the results of a drug screening, which [522]*522Glenn passed — provided for permanent placement as an arena control operator.

The Center fired him the next year. In an exchange of letters with the Center’s attorneys about the discharge, Glenn contended that his due process rights were violated because the Center fired him ■without notice or a hearing. The attorneys replied that he had no property interest in his employment because he was an at-will employee and was fired because he violated the employee handbook by copying Bradley Center documents onto a flash drive. Glenn repeated his due-process contentions in his complaint, where he added contract and tort claims and denied the Bradley Center’s asserted grounds for firing him.

The magistrate judge — citing to this court’s passing reference to the Bradley Center’s status as a private entity in Arlotta v. Bradley Ctr., 349 F.3d 517, 524 (7th Cir.2003) — concluded that the Bradley Center is not a state actor. See Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n v. Tarkanian, 488 U.S. 179, 191 (1988) (Fourteenth Amendment “affords no shield” against private conduct). Having dismissed Glenn’s sole federal claim, the magistrate judge declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Glenn’s state-law claims.

On appeal Glenn first challenges the magistrate judge’s conclusion that the Bradley Center is a private entity. He observes that. the Wisconsin legislature created the Center by special law, see Wis. Stat. § 232.03, and that the governor of Wisconsin, with the advice and consent of its senate, retains the permanent authority to appoint a majority of the Bradley Center’s board of directors, see Wis. Stat. § 232.03(2)(a). We need not decide whether the Bradley Center is a state actor under the test of Lebron v. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp., 513 U.S. 374, 395-400, 115 S.Ct. 961, 130 L.Ed.2d 902 (1995), because we conclude that Glenn has not alleged a constitutionally protected interest in his employment with the Center.

To establish a due-process claim, Glenn must identify a protected property or liberty interest in his employment. See Bd. of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Santana v. Cook Cnty. Bd. of Review, 679 F.3d 614, 621 (7th Cir.2012); Rujawitz v. Martin, 561 F.3d 685, 688 (7th Cir.2009). We look to Wisconsin law to determine whether Glenn had such an interest. See Rujawitz, 561 F.3d at 688; Moss v. Martin, 473 F.3d 694, 700 (7th Cir.2007). In Wisconsin, employees generally have no claim of entitlement to employment. Unless civil-service regulations or laws, or a contract or collective-bargaining agreement provide otherwise, employment is terminable at the will of either party, and there is no property interest. See Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Wis. Sys. v. State Pers. Comm’n, 254 Wis.2d 148, 646 N.W.2d 759, 769 (2002); Vorwald v. Sch. Dist. of River Falls, 167 Wis.2d 549, 482 N.W.2d 93, 96 (1992). The Bradley Center is specifically exempted from complying with civil-service protection laws in Wisconsin, see Wis. Stat. § 232.05(1)(g), and Glenn has not alleged that he was protected by any collective bargaining agreement. Thus we turn to the terms of Glenn’s contract as he has described them in his complaint.

Glenn alleges that his employment was on a “non at-will basis.” But that allegation is merely a legal conclusion, which we need not accept as true. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009); Munson v. Gaetz, 673 F.3d 630, 632 (7th Cir.2012). Glenn further describes his contract as providing for permanent employment. But he correctly acknowledges that in Wisconsin, “a contract for permanent employment, for life employment, or for other terms pur[523]*523porting permanent employment amounts to an indefinite general hiring terminable at the will of either party.” Smith v. Beloit Corp., 40 Wis.2d 550, 162 N.W.2d 585, 587 (1968); see also Forrer v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 36 Wis.2d 388, 153 N.W.2d 587, 589-90 (1967); Heinritz v. Lawrence Univ., 194 Wis.2d 606, 535 N.W.2d 81, 83 (App.Ct.1995). Unless Glenn can demonstrate that he furnished “consideration additional to the services incident to [his] employment,” Smith, 162 N.W.2d at 587, he cannot establish a protected property interest. See Forrer, 153 N.W.2d at 589-90; Heinritz, 535 N.W.2d at 83.

Glenn argues that he furnished additional consideration because his employment with the Bradley Center was contingent upon the results of a drug screening, which he passed. But passing the drug screening was merely a condition precedent to his employment.

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Related

Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth
408 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Paul v. Davis
424 U.S. 693 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill
470 U.S. 532 (Supreme Court, 1985)
National Collegiate Athletic Assn. v. Tarkanian
488 U.S. 179 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation
513 U.S. 374 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Harvey v. Town of Merrillville
649 F.3d 526 (Seventh Circuit, 2011)
Munson v. Gaetz
673 F.3d 630 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
William Moulton v. Vigo County
150 F.3d 801 (Seventh Circuit, 1998)
Santana v. Cook County Board of Review
679 F.3d 614 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
Gomez v. Randle
680 F.3d 859 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
Rujawitz v. Martin
561 F.3d 685 (Seventh Circuit, 2009)
Forrer v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.
153 N.W.2d 587 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1967)
Heinritz v. Lawrence University
535 N.W.2d 81 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1995)
Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. State
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Bluebook (online)
500 F. App'x 520, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glenn-v-bradley-center-sports-entertainment-corp-ca7-2013.