Rwm Consultants v. Centro De Gestion Unica

491 F.Supp.2d 245

RWM CONSULTANTS, INC., Plaintiff, v. CENTRO DE GESTION UNICA DEL SUROESTE, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 01-2234(RLA).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

June 21, 2007.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Fernando L. Gallardo, Esq., Woods & Woods, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiff.

María S. Piñeiro-Soler, San Juan, PR, Grisselle González-Negron, Luis E. Pabón-Roca, Faccio & Pabon Roca, San Juan, PR, Idza Díaz-Rivera, PR Dept. of Justice, San- Juan, PR, Orlando Duran-Medero, San Juan, PR, Jorge Martnez Luciano, Juan P. Rivera Román, Ponce, PR, for Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

ACOSTA, District Judge.

Defendants have filed various dispositive motions seeking dismissal of the claims asserted against them. The Court having reviewed plaintiff's oppositions thereto as well as the evidence submitted by the parties in support of their respective motions hereby rules as follows.

BACKGROUND

This action was instituted by RWM Consultants, Inc. ("RWM") against the Southwestern Consortium ("Consortium")¹ as well as the ten municipalities composing it² and their respective mayors in their individual and official capacities³ alleging that the termination of its contracts as well as the failure to pay outstanding invoices was due to political discrimination. PEDRO LLUCH, former Executive Director of the P.R. Department of Labor office responsible for the Centers established throughout Puerto Rico for the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 ("WIA") programs, was also named as a defendant.

The Consortium is currently operating under the WIA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 2801-2945, which provides for employment and training opportunities paid with federal funds. The statute specifically indicates that its purpose "is to provide workforce investment systems, that increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by participants, and, as a result, improve the quality of the workforce [and] reduce welfare dependency ..." 29 U.S.C. § 2811. Employment and training opportunities offered in accordance with the WIA may be furnished either through public or private entities. Pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 2841 "one stop delivery systems" may be established as part of the program whereby the services provided in accordance with the statute are made available to participants in a single location. The Centro is one such eligible provider of services as defined in 29 U.S.C. § 2801(12) and operates as a one-stop delivery system. The Board of Mayors which the appearing parties belong to serves as the governing body for the Consortium.

The complaint asserts violations of 42 U.S.C.1983 as well as local causes of action. The complaint seeks both compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Rule 56(c) Fed. R. Civ. P., which sets forth the standard for ruling on summary judgment motions, in pertinent part provides that they shall be granted "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Sands v. Ridefilm Corp., 212 F.3d 657, 660-61 (1st Cir.2000); Barreto-Rivera v. Medina-Vargas, 168 F.3d 42, 45 (1st Cir.1999). The party seeking summary judgment must first demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact in the record. De-Novellis v. Shalala, 124 F.3d 298, 306 (1st Cir.1997). A genuine issue exists if there is sufficient evidence supporting the claimed factual disputes to require a trial. Morris v. Gov't Dev. Bank of Puerto Rico, 27 F.3d 746, 748 (1st Cir.1994); LeBlanc v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 6 F.3d 836, 841 (1st Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1018, 114 S.Ct. 1398, 128 L.Ed.2d 72 (1994). A fact is material if it might affect the outcome of a lawsuit under the governing law. Morrissey v. Boston Five Cents Say. Bank, 54 F.3d 27, 31 (1st Cir.1995).

"In ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the court must view `the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, drawing all reasonable inferences in that party's favor.'" Poulis-Minott v. Smith, 388 F.3d 354, 361 (1st Cir.2004) (citing Barbour v. Dynamics Research Corp., 63 F.3d 32, 36 (1st Cir.1995)).

Credibility issues fall outside the scope of summary judgment. "`Credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge.'" Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 150, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)). See also, Dominguez-Cruz v. Suttle Caribe, Inc., 202 F.3d 424, 432 (1st Cir.2000) ("court should not engage in credibility assessments."); Simas v. First Citizens' Fed. Credit Union, 170 F.3d 37, 49 (1st Cir.1999) ("credibility determinations are for the factfinder at trial, not for the court at summary judgment."); Perez-Trujillo v. Volvo Car Corp., 137 F.3d 50, 54 (1st Cir.1998) (credibility issues not proper on summary judgment); Molina Quintero v. Caribe G.E. Power Breakers, Inc., 234 F.Supp.2d 108, 113 (D.P.R.2002). "There is no room for credibility determinations, no room for the measured weighing of conflicting evidence such as the trial process entails, and no room for the judge to superimpose his own ideas of probability and likelihood. In fact, only if the record, viewed in this manner and without regard to credibility determinations, reveals no genuine issue as to any material fact may the court enter summary judgment." Cruz-Baez v. Negron-Irizarry, 360 F.Supp.2d 326, 332 (D.P.R.2005) (internal citations, brackets and quotation marks omitted).

In cases where the non-movant party bears the ultimate burden of proof, he must present definite and competent evidence to rebut a motion for summary judgment, Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. at 256-257, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202; Navarro v. Pfizer Corp., 261 F.3d 90, 94 (1st Cir.2001); Grant's Dairy v. Comm'r of Maine Dep't of Agric., 232 F.3d 8, 14 (1st Cir.2000), and cannot rely upon "conclusory allegations, improbable inferences, and unsupported speculation". Lopez-Carrasguillo v. Rubianes, 230 F.3d 409, 412 (1st Cir.2000); Maldonado-Denis v. Castillo-Rodriguez, 23 F.3d 576, 581 (1st Cir.1994); Medina-Muñoz v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 896 F.2d 5, 8 (1st Cir.1990).

THE FACTS

We find the following facts uncontested.

On July 3, 2000, RMW signed contract No. 2001CS0000004 with Centro effective that date through June 30, 2001.

On July 3, 2000, RMW signed contract No. 2001CS0000005 with Centro effective that date through June 30, 2001.

Pursuant to the Second Clause of Contract 2001CS0000004, plaintiff was to furnish Centro consulting and professional services in the fiscal area of the Administrative Operations by providing "technical assistance in the areas of finance and budgeting, management, administrative affairs, public policy, public relations and communications, as well as in special projects requested by [Centro]."⁴

Pursuant to the Second Clause of Contract 2001CS0000005, plaintiff was to furnish Centro consulting and professional services in the fiscal programmatic area in the Administrative Operations by providing "intensive services, training services, for the provision of technical assistance ... in the areas of finance and budgeting, management, administrative affairs, public policy, public relations and communications, as well as in special projects requested by [Centro]."⁵

These contracts were signed by ROBERTO MEJILL TELLADO as President of RMW and GILBERTO PEREZ VALENTIN as President of the Board of Mayors at the time.

Both contracts had an identical termination at will clause allowing for a 15-day advance rescission notice. The clause further provided for RMW's duty to conclude pending work and its right to receive payment for services rendered up until the termination of the contract.

As a result of the November 2000 elections, the Popular Democratic Party ("PDP") had a majority on the Board of Mayors and RIVERA-TORO, also a PDP member, was named Board President.

By letter dated January 10, 2001, plaintiff was given written notice of termination of Contract No. 2001CS0000005 by the Board of Mayors through its then president, FRANCISCO J. RIVERA TORO. The letter further indicated that on January 9, 2001, a new Board of Mayors — composed of the mayors of the corresponding municipalities elected during the last electoral event — had been constituted and MR. RIVERA-TORO was named its President.

SECTION 1983

Plaintiff alleges that the termination of its contracts as well as the failure to pay outstanding invoices was due to political discrimination because RWM's sole shareholder, ROBERTO MEJILL TELLADO, was an active New Progressive Party ("NPP") member.

Section 1983 does not create substantive rights but is rather a procedural mechanism for enforcing constitutional or statutory rights. Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 114 S.Ct. 807, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994); Cruz-Erazo v. Rive ra-Montañez, 212 F.3d 617, 621 (1st Cir.2000). The statute i.e., § 1983 "`is not itself a source of substantive rights, but a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred ... by the United States Constitution and federal statutes.'" Rodriguez-Garcia v. Municipality of Caguas, 354 F.3d 91, 99 (1st Cir.2004) (citing Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 144 n. 3, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979)). Hence, it is plaintiffs' burden to identify the particular underlying constitutional or statutory right that is sought to be enforced via judicial proceedings.

In order to prevail in a § 1983 claim plaintiff must bring forth evidence that (1) defendant acted "under color of state law" and (2) deprivation of a federally protected...