Konefal v. Hollis/Brookline

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedJanuary 31, 1995
DocketCV-94-139-M
StatusPublished

This text of Konefal v. Hollis/Brookline (Konefal v. Hollis/Brookline) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Konefal v. Hollis/Brookline, (D.N.H. 1995).

Opinion

Konefal v . Hollis/Brookline CV-94-139-M 01/31/95 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Robert Konefal and Gloria Konefal, Plaintiffs, v. Civil N o . 94-139-M Hollis/Brookline School Coop. et a l , Defendants.

O R D E R

Plaintiff, Gloria Konefal, brings this action for injunctive

relief and damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983 to redress alleged

violations of her civil rights under the First and Fourteenth

Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. She also sets forth certain

state law causes of action, over which she claims this court has

supplemental jurisdiction. Presently before the court is

defendants' Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P.

12(b)(6).

Standard of Review

A motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) is

one of very limited inquiry, focusing not on "whether plaintiff

will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to

offer evidence to support the claims." McLean v . Gaudet, 769 F. Supp. 3 0 , 31 (D.N.H. 1990)(citing Scheuer v . Rhodes, 416 U.S.

232, 236 (1974)). A court must take the factual averments within

the complaint as true, "indulging every reasonable inference

helpful to the plaintiff's cause." Garita Hotel Ltd. Partnership

v . Ponce Federal Bank, F.S.B., 958 F.2d 1 5 , 17 (1st Cir. 1992);

see also Dartmouth Review v . Dartmouth College, 889 F.2d 1 3 , 16

(1st Cir. 1989). In the end, a motion to dismiss may be granted

under Rule 12(b)(6) "only if it clearly appears, according to the

facts alleged, that the plaintiff cannot recover on any viable

theory." Garita, 958 F.2d at 17 (quoting Correa-Martinez v .

Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 4 9 , 52 (1st Cir. 1990)).

Facts

Reading the pleadings in the light most favorable to Konefal

and "indulging every reasonable inference helpful to [her]

cause," the court adopts the following facts for the purpose of

ruling on defendants' motion to dismiss. Konefal was an English

teacher employed with the Hollis Area High School. She was

second in seniority among those teachers in the English

Department for the 1990-91 school year. Plaintiff has twenty-two

years of teaching experience and two masters degrees.

2 The Hollis School District and the Brookline School District

agreed to form the Hollis/Brookline Cooperative School District

(the "Co-op"), a defendant in the present action. On March 2 5 ,

1991, all teachers employed at the Hollis High School, including

plaintiff, received letters notifying them that they would not be

renominated to teaching contracts because the Hollis School

District would not be operating a high school after June 3 0 ,

1991.

On June 1 , 1991, the Public Employee Labor Relations Board

ruled that the Co-op was obligated to honor the collective

bargaining agreement between the Hollis Education Association

(the "Association") and the Hollis School Board. After the

Board's ruling, all members of the English Department at Hollis

High School had their contracts renewed by the Co-op except for

Konefal. Defendant Philip J. Dahlinger, Superintendent of

Schools, informed Konefal that she was not being offered a

contract for a teaching position with the Co-op because her

position was being terminated.

The Co-op began operation on July 1 , 1991. All members of

the English Department whose contracts were renewed were members

3 of the Association during the 1990-91 school year. Konefal had never been a member of the Association.

DISCUSSION

Konefal brought this § 1983 action to redress alleged violations of her right to freedom of association under the First

Amendment of the United States Constitution.1 Specifically,

Konefal contends that:

the defendants acting individually and in concert with each other failed to renew her teaching contract because she was not a member of and had refused to join the Hollis Education Association, thereby interfering with her constitutionally protected right to enjoy freedom of association.

Plaintiff's Supplemental Objection to Defendants' Motion to

Dismiss, at 4 . Although not clearly set forth in her complaint,

Konefal also alleges violations of her liberty and property interests, as those interests relate to her First Amendment

claim.

1 Plaintiff's complaint contains various state law claims including a claim of loss of consortium by her husband, Robert S . Konefal. The present motion, however, challenges plaintiff Gloria Konefal's federal constitutional claims and this order is therefore limited to an analysis of those claims.

4 I. Plaintiff's First Amendment Right to Freedom of Association

"Freedom of association . . . plainly presupposes a freedom

not to associate." Roberts v . United States Jaycees, 468 U.S.

609, 623 (1984). This right is not absolute, however, being

subject to "regulations adopted to serve compelling state

interests, unrelated to the suppression of ideas, that cannot be

achieved through means significantly less restrictive of

associational freedoms." Id. at 623 (citations omitted). Thus

an employee may be discharged for nonmembership in a union if an

employer has entered into a union contract. See Radio Officers'

Union v . NLRB, 347 U.S. 1 7 , 41 (1954). If compulsory union

membership extends only to financial support of the union in its

collective bargaining activities, then such an arrangement does

not offend First Amendment values. Lehnert v . Ferris Faculty

Association, 500 U.S. 5 0 7 , 515 (1991)(citing Railway Employees v .

Hanson, 351 U.S. 225, 235 (1956)).

Of course, constitutional "red flags" arise when membership

dues, voluntary or involuntary, are used to support political

causes objectionable to the payor(s) of such dues. See Keller v .

State Bar of California, 496 U.S. 1 , 9 (1990); see also Lehnert,

supra at 522 (". . . the State constitutionally may not compel

5 its employees to subsidize legislative lobbying or other

political union activities outside the limited context of

contract ratification or implementation."); Austin v . Michigan

State Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 6 5 2 , 665 (1990)("Although a

union and an employer may require that all bargaining unit

employees become union members, a union may not compel those

employees to support financially `union activities beyond those

germane to collective bargaining, contract administration, and

grievance adjustment.'" (quoting Communications Workers v . Beck,

487 U.S. 735, 745 (1988)).

However, Konefal has not alleged that compulsory financial

support of the Association (if any such support was actually

required) extended beyond that necessary for collective

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