Patrice Ann McGraw v. City of Huntington Beach Charles Thompson and Earl Robitaille

Patrice Ann McGraw timely appeals from a summary judgment in favor of her employer, the City of Huntington Beach, and two individual city officials, in an action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , seeking damages for an alleged deprivation, under color of state law and without due process of law, of her property right to continued public employment. McGraw, who was continuously employed by the City of Huntington Beach from August 1980 until she was summarily terminated in November of 1984, contends that the district court erred in ruling that she was a “probationary employee” with no property interest that would be protected by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. We reverse.

I

McGraw was hired in August, 1980 as a half-time Police Clerk with the Records Division of the Huntington Beach Police Department (“HBPD”), in the City of Huntington Beach, California (“Huntington Beach” or “the City”). On December 1, 1980, appellant began to work part-time as a Clerk in the HBPD Training Division. McGraw started to work a full-time schedule with the HBPD beginning in December of 1981, passed her probationary period in June of 1982, and thus attained the status of a “permanent…