William H. Boddie v. City Of Columbus

989 F.2d 745
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 14, 1993
Docket92-7233
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 989 F.2d 745 (William H. Boddie v. City Of Columbus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
William H. Boddie v. City Of Columbus, 989 F.2d 745 (5th Cir. 1993).

Opinion

989 F.2d 745

143 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2172

William H. BODDIE, Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant,
v.
CITY OF COLUMBUS, MISSISSIPPI and Robert W. Gale,
Individually and in his Official Capacity as Fire
Chief of the City of Columbus,
Mississippi,
Defendants-
Appellants
Cross-Appellees.

No. 92-7233.

United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.

April 14, 1993.

Dewitt T. Hicks, Jr., J. Gordon Flowers, P. Nelson Smith, Gholson, Hicks, Nichols & Ward, Columbus, MS, for defendants-appellants cross-appellees.

Jim Waide, Tupelo, MS, Gary Parvin, Coffeeville, MS, for plaintiff-appellee cross-appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before REYNALDO G. GARZA, HIGGINBOTHAM, and EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judges.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

The City of Columbus and its fire chief, appeal from a judgment entered upon a jury verdict finding them liable for firing Boddie, a fireman, in violation of his First Amendment right to associate with union members. The judgment awarded $30,558 against the City and fire chief, individually, and ordered reinstatement. Defendants argue that (1) Boddie's failure to prove that his association with union members was a matter of public concern is fatal to his claim, (2) the fire chief was entitled to qualified immunity because of the then uncertainty of whether a showing of public concern was required, (3) there was insufficient evidence to show that Boddie was fired for associating with union members, and (4) Boddie should not have been reinstated, because he falsified his employment application. Boddie also appeals, complaining about the effective date of his reinstatement. We affirm except we vacate the ordered date of reinstatement and remand with instructions that reinstatement be effective from the date of the jury verdict.

I.

The Columbus, Mississippi Fire Department hired Bill Boddie in 1987, with a twelve-month probationary period. Eight hours before the end of his probation, Chief Gale fired Boddie. More specifically, the City Council accepted Gale's recommendation and fired Boddie.

In this suit, defendants learned that Boddie failed to disclose in his job application his previous work for Kirby Mitchell, who has been convicted on drug charges, and LBC Management Company, which produced adult films.

At trial, Gale contended that his recommendation to the City Council was based on Boddie's poor attitude. Boddie replied that this was pretext, that he was fired because he associated with firemen who were union members. The jury found that firing Boddie violated his right to freedom of association under the First Amendment and awarded Boddie $36,558.00, which the judge reduced to $30,558.00.1 Upon Boddie's motion, the judge ordered reinstatement effective April 3, 1992, the date he ruled on post-trial motions. The district court stayed Boddie's reinstatement and deferred a ruling on attorneys' fees pending this appeal.

II.

The district court denied motions for directed verdict, JNOV, and new trial, ruling that Boddie's proof of associational activity need not include independent proof that it touched a matter of public concern. We agree. In Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983), the Supreme Court protected from employer discipline only the speech of employees touching on a matter of public concern. It pulled back from full protection for all speech in the workplace, sensitive to the reality that to do otherwise would elevate work-a-day personnel disputes to issues of a constitutional order. At the same time, the court explained that employees do not leave their free speech rights at home.

Defendants argue that this accommodating principle of public concern is a threshold hurdle to be cleared by all employees asserting a First Amendment violation in the workplace. Its force aside, the answer to this question is not open for this panel. In Coughlin v. Lee, 946 F.2d 1152, 1158 (5th Cir.1991), we stated that "[a] public employee's claim that he has been discharged for his political affiliation in violation of his right to freely associate is not subject to the threshold public concern requirement." See also Kinsey v. Salado Independent School Dist., 950 F.2d 988, 992-93 (5th Cir.1992) (en banc); Hatcher v. Board of Pub. Educ. and Orphanage, 809 F.2d 1546 (11th Cir.1987); but see Griffin v. Thomas, 929 F.2d 1210 (7th Cir.1991); Boals v. Gray, 775 F.2d 686 (6th Cir.1985). Coughlin answers the City's contention regarding public concern.

III.

Coughlin, decided four years after Boddie was fired, does not answer Chief Gale's contention to this court. Chief Gale argues that he has qualified immunity. Public officials are shielded from liability for damages under § 1983 so long as their conduct has not violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987); Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). " '[T]he question is not whether the law was settled, viewed abstractly, but whether, measured by an objective standard, a reasonable [official] would know that his action was illegal.' " Click v. Copeland, 970 F.2d 106, 109 (5th Cir.1992) (quoting Matherne v. Wilson, 851 F.2d 752, 756 (5th Cir.1988)).

Gale contends that in light of the split among the circuits on the question of whether public concern is an element of a freedom of association claim and the fact that we did not decide Coughlin until after Boddie's dismissal, he reasonably could not have been expected to know that firing Boddie violated clearly established law.

We turn to the law at the time Gale made his recommendation to the City Council in December 1987. Our inquiry ends, if we find from examining the decisions of the Supreme Court and our own decisions that the law was clearly established in this circuit. See Click, 970 F.2d at 110-11 (holding "[t]he law was established clearly enough in this circuit " despite a conflict with two other circuits) (emphasis added); see also Garcia by Garcia v. Miera, 817 F.2d 650, 658 (10th Cir.1987) ("[t]o give preclusive effect to a conflict among the circuits would effectively bind this circuit by the decisions of others").

There is one preliminary issue. Boddie argues that Chief Gale is not entitled to immunity, because Gale did not in fact believe that he could legally fire Boddie based on his union association. Rather, Gale has always maintained that he fired Boddie because of his poor attitude. However, subjective good faith reliance on the allegedly illegal reason for discharge is not required. See Pfannstiel v.

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989 F.2d 745, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/william-h-boddie-v-city-of-columbus-ca5-1993.