Wynne v. Loyola University

CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 21, 2000
Docket1-99-3830 Rel
StatusPublished

This text of Wynne v. Loyola University (Wynne v. Loyola University) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wynne v. Loyola University, (Ill. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

FOURTH DIVISION

December 21, 2000

No. 1-99-3830

MARTHA ELLEN WYNNE, ) Appeal from the

) Circuit Court of

Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County.

)

  1. )

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, an Illinois ) Honorable Judith Cohen,

not-for-profit corporation, ROBERT ROEMER, and ) Honorable Sophia Hall,

JOY J. ROGERS, ) Judges Presiding.

Defendants-Appellees. )

JUSTICE SOUTH delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Martha Ellen Wynne, filed this lawsuit seeking damages based upon claims for defamation per se (count I), defamation per quod (count II), false light (count III), public disclosure of private information (count IV), intentional infliction of emotional distress (count V) and negligent infliction of emotional distress (count VI).   Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment which was granted in favor of all defendants on all six counts.  Plaintiff filed a motion to reconsider and that motion was denied.  Plaintiff appeals both of these orders, as well as the denial of her motions to reopen discovery, a motion to reconsider that ruling and to obtain additional discovery pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 191(b) (134 Ill. 2d R. 191(b)).

The issues presented for review are (1) whether the trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on all six counts of plaintiff's second amended complaint; and (2) whether there was a manifest abuse of discretion in the trial court's refusal to extend discovery past the cutoff or in the denial of plaintiff's motion for additional discovery pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 191(b).

In 1989, defendant Robert Roemer joined Loyola as the Dean of the School of Education and served in that position until 1996.  As dean, Roemer was responsible for managing the School of Education, which also  included the resolution of disputes between faculty members.  He reported directly to Loyola's vice president and Dean of Faculties, James Wiser.  One of Wiser's responsibilities was to help deans and department chairs resolve faculty disputes.  Wiser was assisted with these responsibilities by Lorraine Serwatka, the Associated Vice President for Faculty Administration.

In the fall of 1993, Loyola was considering a reorganization of its School of Education to centralize all programs related to teacher education into one department, to be called the “Curriculum Instruction and Educational Psychology Department” (CIEP Department).   Among the subjects being discussed was the selection of a chairperson for the new department.

Dean Roemer thought Wynne would be a good department chair for the new CIEP Department and asked if she was interested.    Although Wynne said that she was not, Roemer stated that he hoped to change her mind.  

In January 1994, Loyola formally announced its plans to reorganize the School of Education and, among other things, create the CIEP Department.  The change would take effect in the fall term of 1994.  Both Wynne and defendant Joy Rogers taught core courses central to the teacher-education curriculum and both were assigned to CIEP.

Sometime in January 1994, Rogers heard from one of her CIEP colleagues, Ronald Morgan, that Wynne was interested in becoming the chair of the CIEP Department and had Roemer's support.   Rogers then called another CIEP colleague, Jack Kavanagh, who also told Rogers that he had heard about Wynne's possible candidacy for chair.    Rogers then spoke with a senior member of the CIEP Department, Barney Berlin, who confirmed that he had heard similar talk.

Rogers believed that Wynne would be an unsuitable chair and wanted to inform new members of the CIEP Department the reasons for her belief.   On or about February 2, 1994, Rogers composed a memorandum to Barney Berlin about Wynne's fitness to serve as chair of the CIEP Department.  She addressed the memorandum to Berlin because he was to be the most senior professor in the CIEP Department and knew many of the newer faculty members who would be asked to assess Wynne's candidacy.

The memorandum discussed how, over the 15 years that Rogers and Wynne worked at Loyola, Wynne brought personal problems, including her fertility and psychiatric difficulties, into the workplace and how, in Roger's opinion, Wynne could not work well with colleagues.  Rogers reported that Dr. Hablutzel told her about calls from Wynne requesting that she and Dr. Harding come to her home and chase her around to give her injections of a fertility drug.  Rogers stated that Wynne had called her, as well as Drs. Harding and Hablutzel, informing them that she was on the inpatient psychiatric unit at Evanston Hospital due to a sleep disorder.  When Wynne appeared at work within a day or two after these calls, she stated she had signed herself out of the hospital because they had failed to help her sleep.  Wynne asked Rogers to provide her with a copy of the Illinois Mental Health Code Confidentiality Act which Wynne stated was for the purpose of learning how to obtain copies of her psychiatric records.  Rogers also complained about Wynne's stewardship of a new M.Ed. program in the CIEPS department, which Rogers stated was never approved by CIEPS.    Rogers also discussed what she saw as Wynne's longtime tendency to “wheedle, persuade, nag, and domineer for incremental changes ***,” although “nothing ever seemed to satisfy her.”   Rogers believed that “[t]here seemed no room for compromise or consensus building.”   Rogers concluded by listing those traits which she considered essential for effective leadership of a department and concluding that Wynne lacked those traits.

Rogers faxed the memorandum to Berlin at the department fax machine in the Loyola Skyscraper Building.   This machine was used by Loyola faculty and Loyola employees who worked in the building.

The memorandum was retrieved from that fax machine by Sister Mary Wojnicki, a Loyola staff member in the School of Education.   Wojnicki telephoned the chair of her department, Judith Ingram, at home that same evening to report finding the memorandum.  Wojnicki copied the memorandum and placed the original in a blue “confidential” envelope for Barney Berlin, the intended recipient.  Ingram arranged to meet Wojnicki the next morning to retrieve the one copy.

The next morning, prior to Ingram's meeting with Wojnicki, Ingram received a phone call from Wynne.  Wynne informed Ingram that another Loyola employee, Janet Pierce-Ritter, had found the first page of the Rogers memorandum in the copy machine and had telephoned Wynne to report the discovery.  Wynne directed Ingram to place the entire Rogers memorandum in a blue “confidential” envelope and give it to Pierce-Ritter for delivery to Wynne, which Ingram did.

After speaking with Wynne, Ingram called Roemer to report the incident. Roemer was attending a meeting with Wiser and other administrators at Loyola's Water Tower Campus.  After conferring with Lorraine Serwatka, Loyola's Associate Vice President of Faculty Administration, Roemer asked Ingram to fax a copy of the memorandum to Serwatka, who waited over the fax machine to receive it.  Roemer himself did not see the Rogers memorandum until he returned to the School of Education.  At that time, he reviewed the memorandum with Ingram, but Ingram kept the one copy.

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Wynne v. Loyola University, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wynne-v-loyola-university-illappct-2000.