Court rejects UNLV appeal in professor’s firing

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004 | 8:45 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A tenured professor at UNLV who has been battling for his job for more than a decade has won a decision from the Nevada Supreme Court.

The court Tuesday upheld a District Court jury that in 2002 ordered UNLV to re-hire Richard Sutton in the Department of Public Administration. The jury awarded Sutton $137,075 in back pay and $33,750 in compensatory damages.

The court, in a unanimous decision, rejected UNLV's appeal that argued that there were numerous errors made during the trial. The ruling was written by District Judge Michelle Leavitt who was named to the court to hear the case, replacing her late father Justice Myron Leavitt.

Daniel Marks, attorney for Sutton, called the case a "12-year epic." He said Sutton was put back to work in 2002 after the District Court ruled in his favor.

Sutton, who gained tenure as a professor in 1978, received consecutive unsatisfactory annual evaluations in 1990 and 1991. A complaint was filed in 1992 against the professor.

A settlement was reached, but Sutton filed suit alleging UNLV had breached the settlement. A jury agreed, and Sutton was given six years of back pay and reinstated as a tenured professor.

UNLV in 1999 offered an employment contract to Sutton, as ordered by the court, but it then resurrected the allegations made in 1990 and 1991 against Sutton and moved to fire him.

A faculty committee conducted a hearing and recommended that Sutton be fired. UNLV President Carol Harter upheld the recommendation effective Dec. 21, 1999.

Sutton went back to District Court with a new lawsuit, and the jury found he had been wrongfully fired.

The Supreme Court said UNLV breached the prior court-approved settlement with Sutton and singled out Harter.

"We conclude that UNLV's president erroneously concluded that UNLV could proceed anew on the original 1992 complaint," wrote Leavitt.

The court said that former District Judge Mark Gibbons, now on the Supreme Court, was correct at trial in allowing a breach of contract claim to go forward. It rejected the claim of UNLV that the court was limited as to what could be considered at trial.

UNLV at the trial claimed it terminated Sutton in 1999 because of his successive poor evaluations in 1990 and 1991, poor student evaluations and his failure to publish a paper.

"However, the jury heard evidence that for the years 1990 and 1991 neither the College of Business nor the Department of Administration ever adopted a publication requirement," Leavitt noted in her ruling.

"The jury further received evidence that Sutton had in fact prepared a research paper. Sutton's former department chairman testified that the paper was superbly written."

The court said there was also evidence that UNLV indicated to Sutton's department chairman in 1999, even before the committee hearing had convened, that Sutton would not be around to teach in the spring.