586 F. App'x 292

Jeanette MOLEX, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 12-16847.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Nov. 19, 2014.

Filed Dec. 1, 2014.

Spencer Freeman Smith, Dow Wakefield Patten, Esquire, Smith Patten, San Francisco, CA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Ruth M. Bond, San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, San Francisco, CA, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before: NOONAN, FERNANDEZ and IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM *

Jeanette Molex appeals from the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the City and County of San Francisco (“San Francisco”) on her civil rights claim. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We affirm.

Molex asserts that San Francisco violated her due process rights1 when it terminated her from her position as a transit operator with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (“SFMTA”), because the process that she was accorded was insufficient to protect her property right2 in her position. We disagree.

Molex was accorded the detailed five-step process that was provided for in a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) between SFMTA and the Transport Workers’ Union, Local 250-A (9163), to which she belonged and which represented her throughout. The first step was the kind of hearing that, by itself, satisfies pre-termi-nation due process concerns,3 but there was much more. The second step gave her an evidentiary hearing before an Accident Review Board, which was much like an arbitration panel and which accorded *293trial-like rights. The next three steps provided for reviews where she could fully present her position regarding discipline.4 That was sufficient to satisfy due process concerns,5 unless Molex can point to substantial defects in the process as it was applied to her.6 She has not done so.

While she complains of the lack of streetcar maintenance records and about an incorrect statement that she had a prior avoidable accident, neither of those was relevant to the determinations at the hearings. The first was not relevant because her violation was following too close to another SFMTA streetcar, and she does not dispute that she was; the second was disregarded because unproven. She also asserts that the Executive Director (step 5) either delegated his authority to a person,7 who relied on evidence outside the record, or ratified the improper reliance by that person.8 However, she presented, at most, a scintilla of evidence to support her assertions;9 that did not suffice to preclude summary judgment.10

In short, Molex had all the process she was due under the Constitution.11

AFFIRMED.

Molex v. City of San Francisco
586 F. App'x 292

Case Details

Name
Molex v. City of San Francisco
Decision Date
Dec 1, 2014
Citations

586 F. App'x 292

Jurisdiction
United States

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