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Lawrence v. Rawlins1/30/2001
These consolidated appeals involve a challenge to the policy of the educational institutions within the State University and Community College System to deny grievance hearings to non-tenured support personnel terminated for poor job performance. After their respective terminations, six employees of four educational institutions filed separate petitions for review or for a common-law writ of certiorari in the Chancery Court for Davidson County alleging that their employers had acted arbitrarily and illegally by terminating them without affording them a grievance hearing. Two chancellors held that Tenn. Code Ann. ยง 49-8-117 (1996) required the educational institutions to make grievance hearings available to non-tenured employees terminated for poor job performance and directed the institutions to provide the employees with hearings. We consolidated these appeals and now concur with the chancellors that these employees have a statutory right to a grievance hearing.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeals of Right; Judgments of the Chancery Courts Affirmed
William C. Koch, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Henry F. Todd, P.J., M.S., and William B. Cain, J., joined.
OPINION
During 1997, two chancellors of the Chancery Court for Davidson County heard six cases challenging the decisions of four educational institutions within the State University and Community College System to deny grievance hearings to six non-tenured support personnel who had been terminated between December 1995 and October 1996. The terminations were unrelated, but the grounds for each termination involved the employee's conduct at work or job performance. Each person was employed pursuant to an at-will contract, and each institution had a grievance procedure in place when the terminations occurred. Each employee made a timely request for a grievance hearing, and each of these requests were denied.
George Lawrence, Jr. had been employed as a roofer at the University of Memphis for approximately nine years. On November 15, 1995, he was informed that he was being suspended for "knowingly violat University safety policy regarding work in an unsafe manner" and refusing to follow his supervisor's instructions. Thereafter, the Associate Director of Physical Plant and Planning recommended that Mr. Lawrence be terminated because he had been"abusive to his supervisor" and because he had failed to "follow instructions when requested by his supervisor and others to discontinue work that he was performing in an unsafe manner." Accordingly, the University of Memphis terminated Mr. Lawrence effective December 11, 1995, and denied his December 19, 1995 request for a hearing. On February 15, 1996, Mr. Lawrence filed suit in the Chancery Court for Davidson County seeking a hearing and reinstatement. He filed an amended complaint on May 6, 1996, seeking a common-law writ of certiorari to review the process to terminate him.
Danny J. Leath worked as a stock clerk for the University of Memphis for over ten years. He was suspended and then terminated effective February 15, 1996, because a co-worker complained about his job performance. The University of Memphis denied his request for a hearing. Mr. Leath filed suit in the Chancery Court for Davidson County on April 9, 1996, requesting a hearing and reinstatement. On May 6, 1996, he filed an amended complaint seeking a common-law writ of certiorari to review his termination.
Joseph Perry was employed as a security officer at Tennessee State University from 1978 until 1996, except for a brief period during the mid-1990s. In a letter dated October 4, 1996, Tennessee State University requested Mr. Perry to resign because of
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