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City of Orange Beach v. Duggan12/15/2000
The defendants -- the City of Orange Beach ("Orange Beach"); the Orange Beach Personnel Board (the "Board"); Orange Beach's director of personnel; and the chairman and four members of the Board -- petitioned this Court, pursuant to Rule 5, Ala. R. App. P., for permission to appeal from an interlocutory order of the Baldwin Circuit Court. The interlocutory order denied the defendants' motion for a summary judgment on the plaintiff Richard Duggan's claim that he was deprived of procedural due process, in violation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. This case involves the termination of Duggan's employment as a police officer with Orange Beach. We permitted the appeal. We reverse and remand.
I.
For the limited purpose of this appeal, we consider as correct the factual statements in the trial court's order denying the defendants' motion for summary judgment. On April 29, 1997, Duggan, while off duty, was driving in his automobile when he heard on his police radio that the police were looking for a DUI suspect. Shortly thereafter, Duggan was forced to swerve out of the path of an oncoming car that matched the description of the DUI suspect's car. Duggan began pursuit, and he, Sgt. Lyle Dodd, and another Orange Beach police officer ultimately stopped the suspect's car. During the arrest, animal control officer Sean Lacey and Sgt. Gina Long reported to the scene to assist the arresting officers. Officer Lacey said he saw Duggan take a $100 bill out of the suspect's purse. Officer Lacey notified Sgt. Long, who ordered Duggan to empty his pockets. Duggan refused. Both Sgt. Dodd and Officer Lacey said they saw Duggan then take money from his pocket and drop it into the suspect's car. Police Chief Robert Vinson was called to the scene; he ordered all the officers present to submit written statements. Chief Vinson then ordered Maj. Gerald Poe, the officer in charge of internal police investigations for Orange Beach, to investigate.
On May 9, 1997, at the conclusion of his investigation, Maj. Poe reported to Chief Vinson that his findings substantiated the allegations made against Duggan and he recommended that disciplinary action should be taken. That same day, Maj. Poe served Duggan with a notice of possible major disciplinary action and a copy of the written internal investigation notification. The internal investigation notification stated the charges against Duggan and stated the date set for a pretermination hearing.
On May 15, 1997, Duggan was afforded a pretermination hearing before Chief Vinson. At no time during this hearing did Duggan or his attorney object to Chief Vinson's conducting the hearing. Duggan was notified later that day of Chief Vinson's decision to terminate him. Duggan appealed to the Board on May 20, 1997. On June 10, 1997, the Board held a prehearing conference, at which scheduling issues and witness information were discussed. At the end of the conference, the director of personnel for Orange Beach provided Duggan a notebook containing copies of the written statements of Duggan, Sgt. Dodd, Officer Lacey, and Sgt. Long; a forensic report; a radio log; the internal investigation report; a "money trail"; and a property receipt and invoice. Copies of the notebook were also provided to Chief Vinson and to members of the Board. Duggan contends that he did not know that this notebook was being provided to the Board members and that supplying this information to the Board before the hearing violated his procedural-due-process rights.
On June 23, 1997, the Board held its hearing on Duggan's appeal. For the first time, Duggan contended that Chief Vinson was biased against him and objected to the Board's being provided the notebooks. He reque
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