In Blantz v. Cal. Dept. of Corr. & Rehab., published August 15, 2013, the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit a nurse brought against the California Department of Corrections and the Chief Medical Officer for the Receiver of the California prison medical care system. The nurse was an independent contractor. Her contract provided it could be terminated immediately if the Department requested that she be removed from her placement. She allegedly received a negative assessment that she was not informed of, and then was terminated without explanation. When she applied to work elsewhere in the department, she learned that she had poor recommendations from her prior position and no longer met their requirements. She contended that the defendants deprived her of property and liberty without due process.
The Ninth Circuit held that the nurse did not have a constitutionally protected property interest in continuing in her position. The nurse alleged that she received orientation documents that explained the Department's peer review procedures; and alleged that those documents created a property interest in continuing in her position absent the peer review process. The court held, however, that a state agency does not create property interests for its independent contractors simply by instituting performance review procedures. Assuming independent contractors can ever have constitutionally protected property interests in their positions, they must have an affirmative grant of tenure or a guarantee from the government that terminatin can occur only for cause to have such a property interest.
The court also rejected the nurse's argument that the poor recommendation violated her property interest without due process. Liberty interests protected by the 14th Amendment are implicated only when the government's stigmatizing statemetns effectively exclude the employee completely from her profession. The nurse did not allege facts showing that she was prevented from working for a department other than the Department of Corrections.
Finally, the court held that the nurse had failed to plead plausible facts supporting her allegation that the Chief Medical Officer had directed the other defendants' actions.
Comments