Hartnett v. Stern

670 F. Supp. 155, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8766
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 28, 1987
DocketCiv. A. No. 85-536
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 670 F. Supp. 155 (Hartnett v. Stern) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hartnett v. Stern, 670 F. Supp. 155, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8766 (W.D. Pa. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

GERALD J. WEBER, District Judge.

Thomas Hartnett was the Western Regional Supervisor of the State Workmen’s Insurance Fund, a division of the Pennsyl[156]*156vania Department of Labor and Industry. On October 14, 1983, the Secretary of Labor and Industry paid a surprise inspection visit to the Pittsburgh Regional Office only to find that at 3:30 in the afternoon Hart-nett was not in. When Hartnett returned shortly thereafter the Secretary apparently communicated to Hartnett his displeasure on several points regarding management of the office. Several days later, Hartnett was informed of the Secretary’s decision to discharge him.

Plaintiff filed this suit claiming that his due process rights were violated by the precipitous manner in which he was discharged. After extensive discovery by both parties defendants moved for summary judgment arguing that as a matter of law plaintiff had no property interest in continued employment which would trigger due process guarantees.1 The parties have submitted briefs with evidentiary materials, including largely irrelevant excerpts of depositions. After a review of the parties’ submissions we conclude that plaintiff had no property interest in his job which would invoke a due process analysis.

Plaintiff must of course establish an underlying property or liberty interest to support a constitutional right to procedural due process. Here plaintiff relies solely on a claimed property interest in continued employment. Although plaintiff advances several possible sources for such a property interest, the only one with any arguable vitality is based on the state’s personnel regulations.2

To determine the import of these personnel rules in a due process context, i.e. whether they confer a property interest in continued employment, we must look to state law. Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976). In Pennsylvania, bureaucratic units of state government may not confer property rights in continued employment absent legislative action. E.g., Wilt v. Commonwealth, 62 Pa.Commw. 316, 436 A.2d 713 (1981); Pagano v. Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission, 50 Pa.Commw. 499, 413 A.2d 44 (1980). In the absence of a legislatively authorized property right, each non-civil service public employee serves subject to dismissal at will. E.g., Banks v. Redevelopment Authority of Philadelpia, 416 F.Supp. 72 (E.D.Pa.1976), aff’d. 556 F.2d 564 (3d Cir.1977).

In the present case, plaintiff relies on the personnel rules promulgated jointly by the Governor and the Executive Board. Management Directive 505.7. Two essential questions are presented at this stage: 1) Did the legislature authorize the creation of a property right in continued employment?, and 2) Do these Rules in fact create such a right? After a review of the enabling statutes and the various regulations we answer both questions in the negative and enter summary judgment for defendants.

The only statutory authority plaintiff advances to support the personnel rules is at best ambiguous on the issue of tenured employment. Administrative Code of 1929, 71 Pa.S.A. §§ 73, 75, 81, 82 and 249. These provisions empower the Governor and/or the Executive Board to hire, fire, fix compensation, set qualifications for employment, create titles, and approve and regulate such personnel matters as leaves of absence. Although quite specific on a variety of topics the Legislature does not mention, let alone authorize, permanent employment, the creation of a tenure system or a just cause standard for dismissal.

This silence in the enabling statutes speaks volumes on the issue before us, particularly in light of the Civil Service Act, 71 Pa.S.A. § 741.1 et seq. There the legislature demonstrated clearly its intention to create a system to provide a measure of job security for a wide range of public servants. We do not hold that only such a statutory scheme can create a property interest in continued employment, but it illustrates by stark contrast the absence of any such legislative intent in the statu[157]*157tory provisions which underlie the personnel rules in question.

The consistent theme of the Pennsylvania decisions is that any property interest in continued employment must derive from constitutional or statutory authority:

[I]n order for the plaintiff to prevail it would have been necessary that the Governor had the power to issue a directive granting an entitlement to continued employment to an employee in a non union position not included within the civil service system. Absent legislative action such a proposition is dubious.

Pagano v. Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission, 50 Pa.Commw. 499, 413 A.2d 44, 45 (1980), quoted in Wilt v. Commonwealth, 62 Pa.Commw. 316, 436 A.2d 713 (1981). See also, Mahoney v. Philadelphia Housing Authority, 13 Pa.Commw. 243, 320 A.2d 459 (1974); Perri v. Aytch, 724 F.2d 362 (3rd Cir.1983) (exception to the general rule based on the independence of the judiciary); Banks v. Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia, 416 F.Supp. 72 (E.D.Pa.1976), aff’d. 556 F.2d 564 (3d Cir.1977). The enabling statute relied on here simply does not provide any authority to create an entitlement to a non-union non-civil service job. Its scope is not that broad.

We must note that we have no doubt that the bureaucracy has the power to create procedures for handling personnel matters in a uniform and orderly manner. This is evidently the purpose of these personnel rules. What is not authorized is the creation of a second tier of civil service employees enjoying tenured employment.

Even the case plaintiff relies on most heavily3 illustrates the point. In Reneski v. Commonwealth, 84 Pa.Commw. 226, 479 A.2d 652 (1984), plaintiff was furloughed in apparent violation of certain Management Directives issued by the Governor and Executive Board. The court held that these Directives were enforceable and supported a cause of action in large measure because they were necessary to effectuate the requirements of the statute which authorized them. These regulations were not just permissible under the Civil Service Act, but were required to satisfy the Act’s purposes and would therefore be enforced as the statute would. In the present case, the Management Directive, i.e. the personnel rules, has a considerably more tenuous relation to the enabling statute.

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Related

Hartnett v. Stern
845 F.2d 1012 (Third Circuit, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
670 F. Supp. 155, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartnett-v-stern-pawd-1987.