Morris-Hayes v. Board of Education of the Chester Union Free School District

423 F.3d 153
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 12, 2005
DocketDocket No. 04-2450-CV(L), 04-2452-CV (XAP)
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 423 F.3d 153 (Morris-Hayes v. Board of Education of the Chester Union Free School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morris-Hayes v. Board of Education of the Chester Union Free School District, 423 F.3d 153 (2d Cir. 2005).

Opinion

MINER, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-Appellants, John M. Can-zoneri, Superintendent of Schools of the Chester Union Free School District, and Michael Mallon, Mary Luciana, Christine David-Collins, Michael Monroe, and John Behler, members of Defendant-Cross-Ap-pellee Board of Education for the District (collectively, the “Individual Defendants”), appeal from an Interlocutory Order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Brieant, /.). The Order rejected the defense of qualified immunity interposed by the Individual Defendants in response to a claim brought against them by Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant Jacqueline J. Morris-Hayes (“Morris-Hayes”) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of the Uniform Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”). .

Morris-Hayes cross appeals from an Interlocutory Order by the same court denying reconsideration of the dismissal of one of her claims against Defendant-Cross-Appellee, Board of Education of the Ches-ter Union Free School District (the “Board”). The claim charged violations of USERRA and the New York Military Law and was dismissed by the District Court on the basis of Eleventh Amendment immunity, the Court having classified the Board as an entity of the State of New York. For the reasons that follow, we dismiss both the appeal and the cross-appeal.

BACKGROUND

Morris-Hayes was hired by the Board as an Elementary School Principal in the Chester Union Free School District, and commenced employment in that capacity in August of 2001. At the time of her employment, the Board was aware that Morris-Hayes held a commission as a Major in the United States Army Reserve and, as such, was subject to calls to military training and active duty. On six separate occasions from October 2001 through October 2002, Morris-Hayes submitted leave requests to the Board for brief periods of military service. The military orders giving rise to the requests called for training and/or service for periods of one-to-three days at a time. During those periods, Morris-Hayes was unable to perform her duties as Elementary School Principal, and some of the Individual Defendants apparently expressed their displeasure over her absences.

According to the complaint, defendant Behler, a Board member, asked Morris-Hayes in July of 2002 to place his child in a “looping class”' so that the child, a fourth-grade student, would remain with the same teacher for the fifth grade. Morris-Hayes .denied the request as inconsistent with the policy for such placement. The School District Superintendent, defendant Canzoneri, then told her that Behler’s child should be placed in the class. Morris-Hayes alleges that when she alluded to the appearance of favoritism in such a request, defendant Canzoneri told her “that there were ‘rumors’ that she was taking too much time with her military reserve obligations, with specific reference to her military leave in June, which had coincided with ‘Moving-Up Day.’ ” On December 5, 2002, defendant Canzoneri noti[156]*156fied Morris-Hayes, who was serving a probationary term as Elementary School Principal, that he would recommend to the Board that her employment be terminated. In response to a request for a statement of the reasons for the termination, defendant Canzoneri, on December 16, 2002, sent a letter to Morris-Hayes setting forth his reasons. As pleaded in the complaint:

Canzoneri claimed that plaintiff was inaccessible to staff and parents; that she failed to organize student activities for Board of Education Recognition Night; that she failed to honor his request to meet with clerical staff in her office; failed to timely complete class lists at the beginning of the school year; and had failed to note that “certain aspects of the curriculum” were not referenced on lesson plans and that certain requirements imposed by the mentor teachers were unrealistic.

Morris-Hayes provided a written response to the Canzoneri letter, with copies to the Board. In the letter, she disputed the reasons given by defendant Canzoneri and expressed the opinion that his recommendation was based on her military service requirements and her failure to accommodate the request of Board member Behler regarding class placement for his son. On January 13, 2003, the Board terminated the employment of Morris-Hayes, effective February 18, 2003.

The original complaint in this action was filed on January 23, 2003, and included two claims. In the first claim, Morris-Hayes charged all of the defendants with violations of the USERRA, 38 U.S.C. § 4311 et. seq., and New York Military Law § 342(4) in “terminat[ing][her] employment on account of her military service.” In the second claim, Morris-Hayes charged all of the defendants with deprivation of her First Amendment rights, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for “terminat[ing][her] employment on account of her speech resisting defendant Behler’s improper attempt to influence class placement.”

By motion filed on January 29, 2004, the Board, as well as the Individual Defendants, moved for judgment on the pleadings dismissing the claims asserted by Morris-Hayes in her original complaint. The contentions put forward in the motion were: (1) the Board is the only entity against which the USERRA and New York Military Law claims could be asserted, and it is immune from suit in federal court on those claims under the Eleventh Amendment; (2) claims against the Board under USERRA must be brought in the state court; (3) the Board is entitled to assert Eleventh Amendment immunity as to the Section 1983 claim; and (4) the New York Military Law claim is barred by Section 3813 of the New York Education Law, requiring service of a notice of claim before an action may be brought against a school district.

By unpublished Memorandum and Order dated March 16, 2004, entered March 18, 2004, the District Court dismissed the claims made against the Board under the USERRA and the New York Military Law and denied the motion in all other respects. The District Court determined that the Board is an arm of the State of New York, applying the test set forth in Rosa v. Connelly, 889 F.2d 435, 437 (2d Cir.1989): “To determine whether a local board of education is an arm of the state and thus entitled to Eleventh Amendment protection from suit in federal court, [a] court must determine the degree to which the entity is supervised by the state and the entity’s source of funds for satisfying judgments against it.” Also cited was a New York Court of Appeals decision, Lanza v. Wagner, 11 N.Y.2d 317, 326-27, 229 N.Y.S.2d 380, 183 N.E.2d 670 (1962) (describing a school district as “an indepen[157]*157dent corporation created by the state for the purpose of carrying on a purely state function”), as well as two unpublished opinions issued by the District Court itself.

As to the USERRA and New York Military Law claims against the Individual Defendants, the District Court determined that they were not “employers” within the statutory definition of those prohibited from discriminating on the basis of military service.

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Bluebook (online)
423 F.3d 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morris-hayes-v-board-of-education-of-the-chester-union-free-school-ca2-2005.