PER CURIAM:
Cory Hall appeals the district court's order dismissing his Amended Complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
In his Amended Complaint against the City of Newport News (the "City") and the City's Police Department (the "Department"), Hall alleges the following facts, which we accept as true for purposes of this opinion.
Hall appealed his discharge to the City's grievance panel. The panel conducted a hearing and issued a decision dismissing three of the four disciplinary charges against Hall and reducing the charge of untruthfulness during the course of an investigation to negligent record-keeping. In addition, the panel directed Hall's reinstatement as a police officer.
Thereafter, the City exercised its right to remand the decision to the panel for reconsideration. Although the panel affirmed its previous decision, the Department did not reinstate Hall. Hall then brought an action in state court seeking implementation of the panel decision. Although that court directed the Department to reinstate Hall, the Department still refused. Thereafter, Hall filed a motion with the state court to compel his reinstatement. After a hearing on that motion, the Department finally reinstated Hall in December 2008.
When Hall returned to work, the Department assigned him to a civilian position in the Records Bureau and stripped him of his law enforcement powers and status as a police officer. Additionally, the City and Department records still contain the original disciplinary charges against Hall. These records do not reflect that the grievance panel dismissed three of the four disciplinary charges and reduced the fourth.
In response to both the delay and the terms of his reinstatement, Hall brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging three due process violations: (1) a violation of his procedural due process right to have a hearing at a meaningful time; (2) a deprivation of his liberty interest in his reputation and occupation without due process of law; and (3) a deprivation of his property interest in his position as a police officer without due process of law. The defendants moved to dismiss Hall's claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. The district court granted the motion and dismissed Hall's case on all counts.
We review de novo an order dismissing a claim under Rule 12(b)(6).
In Count I, Hall alleges that the delay in his reinstatement constitutes a deprivation of property without due process of law pursuant to
In Count II, Hall alleges that his personnel records continue to contain the original disciplinary charges against him despite the grievance panel decision dismissing three and reducing one of those four charges. Therefore, Hall claims that the defendants violated his liberty interest in his reputation and occupation by maintaining inaccurate personnel records on these charges. "To state this type of liberty interest claim under the Due Process Clause, a plaintiff must allege that the charges against him: (1) placed a stigma on his reputation; (2) were made public by the employer; (3) were made in conjunction with his termination or demotion; and (4) were false."
The district court found that Hall pled facts sufficient to support all but the third
Hall alleges that although he has been reinstated as a Department employee, he has a civilian position and is no longer a "certified law-enforcement officer" with the police power to make stops, issue summons and warrants, and make arrests. Am. Compl. ¶¶ 38, 43. Accordingly, Hall alleges that the Defendants have made him "something other that [sic] a police officer." Am. Compl. ¶ 38. Therefore, taking these allegations as true, Hall's reinstated position within the Department effectively excludes him from his trade or calling as a police officer. Because this is sufficient under
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the dismissal of Count I and reverse the dismissal of Count II. Accordingly, we remand this case to the district court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
GREGORY, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part:
Although I concur in Parts I and II.B of the opinion reversing the dismissal of Hall's liberty interest claim, I am compelled to dissent from Part II.A. Because Hall has alleged facts sufficient to support a claim for an unconstitutional obstruction that resulted in a delay of his reinstatement, I would reverse the district court's dismissal of Count I as well.
This case is unique because, unlike the typical post-termination procedural due process claim, Hall does not allege that he was denied a hearing or that he experienced an unreasonably prolonged delay before receiving a decision from the grievance panel proceedings. He was granted a grievance hearing and received a decision in his favor that was final and binding under Virginia law and City ordinances. Instead, Hall alleges that the City willfully refused to comply with the panel decision and that this deliberately obstructive behavior constituted a deprivation of property without due process.
No precedent directly addresses the question of when a failure to implement a final
The majority is correct that a claim for delay cannot be based solely on the standard time that elapses throughout the chronology of the proceedings. Nor can it be based on a "delay" in requesting court action external to the procedure to force compliance. Had this been the sum of Hall's allegations, his claim for delay would not survive. It was not. Instead, Hall alleged that his delayed reinstatement was the direct consequence of obstructive conduct: the City's willful refusal to comply with the final and binding grievance decision. The City conceded the truth of this allegation in oral argument:
Willful refusal to abide by a final and binding order because you do not agree with the decision is not standard procedural delay. It is categorically unreasonable and, in certain circumstances, could amount to an obstruction of justice. Under these facts, a delay inevitably ensues as the direct consequence of the City's
What's more, today's majority gives the City every incentive to do just that as no circumstances exist where the City could be susceptible to a claim for unreasonable delay in reinstatement under the majority's analysis. The time it takes a prevailing officer to initiate an external enforcement procedure will
Cory M. Hall, a police officer decorated with commendations including Police Officer of the Year and a Medal for Valor, has experienced what no officer in the City of Newport News has ever had to endure: a willful refusal by the City to comply with a final and binding decision ordering his reinstatement. Once that decision was reached, the City was required to reinstate Hall. The majority incorrectly assumes that the period between the binding grievance panel decision and Hall's initiation of the state court enforcement action eliminates the relief he is due for the City's egregious actions. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent from Part II.A.