Deanel Chism and Perry H. Thompson v. Ted R. Price

This is a direct appeal from an order granting the defendants-appellees’ motion for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The order as drawn provides that “the complaint of the plaintiffs ... be and the same is hereby dismissed.” C.R. 959-60. However, neither the appellants nor the ap-pellees have questioned but that the action itself was dismissed. The appellants treated it as a final judgment and so described it in their notice of appeal and both parties have addressed them selves to the merits on this appeal. We do likewise and affirm the action of the district court.

From 1961 to 1967, Chism and Thompson, who were members of an Arizona State Highway maintenance crew, engaged in a series of personal but job related disputes and arguments with a fellow worker, Ted Price, the principal defendant in this action. Price had seniority over the plaintiffs. When the crew foreman was to be retired in 1967, the plaintiffs and others on the crew recommended someone other than Price in a letter to the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. The Department supervisory personnel appointed Ted Price as foreman in January 1968, and a second series of incidents occurred…