The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (Simandle, C.J.) granted today the Firm’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ lawsuit brought against our client, the state District Superintendent of the state-operated Camden City School District. Plaintiffs, four former principals and vice principals in the District, alleged that the District Superintendent fraudulently induced their retirement/resignation by misrepresenting the fact that a District evaluator did not hold the appropriate license to conduct plaintiffs’ performance evaluations. According to plaintiffs, the District evaluator’s negative reviews of plaintiffs constructively forced their resignations/retirement because they led to actual/impending tenure charges. Plaintiffs argued their “involuntary” resignations deprived them of their due process right to continued tenured employment in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 because it was based on an allegedly material misrepresentation that the District evaluator held the appropriate license to conduct such evaluations. Plaintiffs also asserted various common law tort claims. Following extensive briefing, the Court granted our motion to dismiss the action because, as we argued, the District Superintendent is a State officer sued in his official capacity, and therefore entitled to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity. The Court also found that contrary to plaintiffs’ argument, the District evaluator was not required to hold the license alleged by plaintiffs, and thus there was no misrepresentation regarding the evaluator’s credentials.
A copy of the Court’s decision can be found here.
