Appellate Law

CA1: 6(b) motions and tenure termination hearings

By S. COTUS

Jackson v. Norman, No. 07-2382 (unpublished) grants a summary disposition in a 1983 case in which the plaintiff claims that ?his termination from employment as a tenured professor at the Massachusetts Bay Community college ("MBCC") violated his due process and equal protection rights.?  The First looks at the procedures employed by the college, and says they looked good enough.  There is an issue of ?notice? but the plaintiff seems to be making the argument that since the hearing officer found that he wasn?t entirely clear ?on notice? as to what his duties were, he didn?t have ?notice? in the due process sense of the word.  Obviously these are different issues.

An equal protection ?class of one? argument is rejected, since there was a rational reason to terminate him.

But, there are a couple of civil procedure issues.  The state filed its answer late.  He moved for default.  The District Court let them do this under FRCP 6(b) calling the neglect excusable. 

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).