Employment & Labor Law
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Janice Akins, Debra Blount, Natalie Revell v. Fulton County, Georgia, John Gates
18 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C857a
Plaintiffs, three public employees, sought review of a summary judgment from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granting in favor of defendant supervisor on the basis of qualified immunity with respect to plaintiffs' action alleging First Amendment retaliation.
Plaintiffs alleged that the supervisor subjected them to adverse employment actions after they met with a county commissioner to report irregularities in the county purchasing department's process for bidding and contracting.
This court held that the district court erred in granting the supervisor qualified immunity on the ground that the law regarding constructive discharge and protected speech was not clearly established. The court found the facts sufficiently similar to prior case law to support a finding of a constructive discharge adverse employment action as to the two employees who resigned. The employee who transferred to a different position, however, was not able to establish an adverse employment action. This court also found that the employees' speech involved a public concern, that the speech played a substantial part in the supervisor's actions, and that the supervisor would not have acted in the same manner absent the employees' speech.
Using the United States Supreme Court's Hope standard, the court held that prior case law put the supervisor on notice that plaintiffs' speech as whistleblowers was protected by the First Amendment. The Eleventh Circuit Court reversed the summary judgment with respect to the two employees who resigned. However, this court affirmed the summary judgment with respect to the employee who transferred to a different position. Because plaintiffs abandoned their claims against two other defendants--the county and another employee-the court affirmed the grant of summary judgment as to those defendants.
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