Lewis

MEMORANDUM **

Appellant Aaron Lewis appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Lyon County, the Lyon County Sheriffs Department, and the Lyon County Sheriff (“the County”), on his claim that he was denied his federal due process rights when he was discharged from his employment as a deputy sheriff. The facts are known to the parties and we need not repeat them here.

*473 The district court sua sponte held that Lewis was an at-will employee and, as such, that he did not have a protected property interest in his continuing employment. 1 In doing so, the district court plainly erred for two reasons. First, it raised the property-interest issue sua sponte, and did so without providing Lewis with the notice it was required to provide under O’Keefe v. Van Boening, 82 F.3d 322 , 324 (9th Cir.1996). Second, Article Eleven of Lewis’ Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department states that an employee cannot be terminated except for cause. Just cause provisions in collective bargaining agreements create protected property interests in employment. See Wheaton v. Webb-Petett, 931 F.2d 613, 616-17 (9th Cir.1991); Walker v. City of Berkeley, 951…