High court upholds prof’s lawsuit against UNLV

Monday, Oct. 22, 2001 | 9:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has denied the appeal of the University and Community College System of Nevada in its fight to fire University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Richard Sutton.

The court, in a decision Friday, refused to delay the start of the trial set for Oct. 29 in Las Vegas.

Sutton, hired in 1974, had received satisfactory annual evaluations through 1989. But a peer review in 1990 and 1991 sharply criticized him.

The three-member peer group said Sutton was the "least effective" teacher in the Department of Public Administration and his performance is far below the standards of the department. The criticism of the teaching had been made for five years, the peer report said.

The evaluation said Sutton "has not presented a paper at a conference, done any substantive academic research or published a single article in a scholarly journal."

After those evaluations, UNLV sought to revoke Sutton's tenure and fire him. After a lengthy court battle, Sutton was ordered reinstated in 1999 as a $46,000-a-year professor. He was also awarded $221,025 in back pay plus $74,595 in interest plus attorney fees and court costs because the school failed to follow the proper guidelines in trying to dismiss him.

After he was reinstated, the university again sought to revoke his tenure and dismiss him. Sutton said the system is using the same 1990 and 1991 evaluations, and he has again sued.

The university system sought a pretrial summary judgment from District Judge Ron Parraguirre to stop the suit from going to trial. But Parraguirre refused and the Supreme Court supported his decision.