OPINION
Plaintiff Bryan Braswell, a firefighter employed by Defendant Shoreline Fire Department (“Shoreline”) who formerly practiced as a paramedic with Shoreline under Defendant Gary Somers’ medical license, filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff alleges that he had a property interest in his employment with Shoreline and a liberty interest in pursuing his profession as a paramedic and that Defendants deprived him of those interests without due process when they removed him from his paramedic position without providing adequate notice and a hearing. Plaintiff also alleges that Dr. Somers tortiously interfered with his employment. The district court granted summary judgment to Defendants. Reviewing de novo,
Dietrich v. John Ascuaga’s Nugget,
Plaintiff was first employed by Shoreline in 1987 as a firefighter. In 2002, he applied to Shoreline’s paramedic training program. Plaintiff became certified as a paramedic in 2003. This certification qualified him to practice as a paramedic. Wash. Rev.Code § 18.71.200(3). The certificates are valid for three years, after which time a paramedic must recertify.
Id.
§ 18.71.205(2), (3); Wash. Admin. Code § 246-976-141(3). Washington law provides that, even though an individual is certified as a paramedic, he or she cannot
Paramedics employed by Shoreline work under the medical license of Dr. Somers, a Program Medical Director for King County Emergency Medical Services who is in charge of the Shoreline area. Plaintiff worked as a paramedic for Shoreline from 2003 until December 2005, when the incident occurred that gave rise to this litigation.
On November 30, 2005, Plaintiff and his paramedic partner were dispatched to the residence of Tommy Davis, who had called emergency services complaining of chest pain. As part of the examination, Plaintiff asked whether Mr. Davis had used any recreational drugs that evening. Mr. Davis became agitated. Plaintiff administered a lung exam and instructed Mr. Davis to breathe deeply. However, Mr. Davis either would not or could not comply. Plaintiff bent down and spoke directly into Mr. Davis’ face, instructing him repeatedly to breathe deeply. After several requests, Mr. Davis became angry and asked Plaintiff what his problem was. Plaintiff repeated his instructions and asked Mr. Davis to give him “a little less attitude.”
The exchange between Plaintiff and Mr. Davis led to a verbal altercation. Mr. Davis stood up and threw a file folder on a desk so forcefully that papers and objects flew off the desk. Mr. Davis told the paramedics to leave. Plaintiff asked Mr. Davis to fill out a release form stating that he did not consent to treatment. Mr. Davis replied, using profanities, that he would not sign the form. In the course of the altercation, Plaintiff asked whether he should call the police, and Mr. Davis responded that he would give Plaintiff a reason to throw him in jail. Feeling physically threatened and suspecting that Mr. Davis, who was rummaging through desk drawers, might be looking for a weapon, Plaintiff and his partner left without treating Mr. Davis or obtaining a release form.
The next day, Plaintiff met with his fire department supervisors and two union representatives to discuss the incident. Several days later, Plaintiff met with the chief of the fire department, the deputy chief, and Dr. Somers. Dr. Somers, after having reviewed written statements from witnesses, stated that Plaintiff had an anger management problem, that he failed to identify medically significant symptoms in Mr. Davis, and that he abandoned Mr. Davis. Dr. Somers told Plaintiff that Plaintiff was no longer authorized to practice paramedicine under Dr. Somers’ medical license.
Because Dr. Somers had revoked Plaintiffs ability to practice under his medical license, Plaintiff could not legally practice paramedicine with Shoreline. See Wash. Rev.Code §§ 18.71.030(13), 18.71.205(6). For that reason, Shoreline reassigned Plaintiff from a paramedic position back to a firefighter position. Shoreline froze Plaintiffs salary at the higher paramedic level until his firefighter salary caught up to that level. Plaintiffs paramedic certification was not revoked, but it lapsed in 2007 when Plaintiff failed to seek recertification. Plaintiff brought this action, alleging that Defendants violated his due process rights. The district court dismissed Plaintiffs claims on summary judgment after holding that Plaintiff had neither a property nor a liberty interest in his job and that, as a matter of law, Dr. Somers did not commit tortious interference. Plaintiff timely appeals.
Plaintiff first argues that, as a certified paramedic, he has a protected property interest in his employment as a paramedic with Shoreline. Specifically, Plaintiff claims a property right
both
in his param
The United States Supreme Court has defined the boundaries of a “property interest” in the context of the Fourteenth Amendment:
To have a property interest in a benefit, a person clearly must have more than an abstract need or desire for it. He must have more than a unilateral expectation of it. He must, instead, have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it....
Property interests, of course, are not created by the Constitution. Rather, they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law — rules or understandings that secure certain benefits and that support claims of entitlement to those benefits.
Bd. of Regents of State Colls. v. Roth,
Plaintiff fails to demonstrate that Washington law creates a property interest in the statutorily required supervision by Dr. Somers. Plaintiff points to no Washington statute or regulation that limits a medical director’s discretion to revoke a paramedic’s permission to practice under his or her license. Without such a limit on a medical director’s authority to revoke a paramedic’s permission to practice, Plaintiff could not have a “legitimate claim of entitlement” to that permission.
Plaintiff argues, however, that because he has a property interest in his paramedicine certificate, he also has a property interest in any position he obtains with that certificate. This does not follow. In support of his argument, Plaintiff cites two Washington Supreme Court cases,
Nguyen v. State,
Because Plaintiffs paramedic certificate did not give him a protected property interest in his particular employment as a paramedic with Shoreline, and because we find no state law that did, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants with regard to that issue.
Plaintiff also argues that Defendants violated his liberty interest in pursuing his profession as a paramedic when they revoked his permission to practice in a way that damaged his reputation, thereby effectively precluding him from ever finding other employment in his field. On this issue, we reverse the grant of summary judgment and remand for further proceedings.
A person “has a liberty interest in employment protected by the Due Pro
Finally, Plaintiff argues that Dr. Somers tortiously interfered with his employment relationship with Shoreline by “failing to provide due process rights and recommending immediate removal ... from his [p]aramedic position.” Under Washington law, to prove tortious interference, one must show: “(1) a business expectancy, (2) knowledge of the relationship, (3) intentional interference which results in the termination of the expectancy, (4) improper purpose or means, and (5) damage.”
Woody v. Stapp,
Plaintiff points to no evidence, and we find none in the record, that Dr. Somers had an improper purpose or used wrongful means. Dr. Somers was charged with ensuring appropriate care to King County through his oversight of Shoreline’s paramedics. No evidence suggests that Dr. Somers had any improper or wrongful motivation for his decision. Thus, we affirm the district court’s holding that Plaintiffs tortious interference claim fails as a matter of law.
In summary, there is a triable issue of fact as to whether Plaintiff was deprived of a liberty interest. We therefore remand that claim for further proceedings. 2 As to the remaining claims, we affirm.
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part and REMANDED. The parties shall bear their own costs on appeal.
Notes
. A person's liberty interest is also implicated if "the dismissal is for reasons that might seriously damage his standing in the community.”
Merritt v. Mackey,
. We note that the district court concluded only that Plaintiff had no constitutional right and that Dr. Somers did not tortiously interfere with Plaintiff's employment. It did not consider whether Dr. Somers might be entitled to qualified immunity on the remaining federal claim on the ground that the law was not clearly established, nor did the court rule on other legal issues that the parties raised. Those issues remain open on remand.