Civil Rights: Termination-Retaliation for First Amendment Exercise-Qualified Immunity

Staff Report//August 29, 2019

Plaintiff filed suit against defendants, alleging they terminated him without due process and in retaliation for the exercise of his free-speech rights; plaintiff also asserted a state-law, wrongful-termination claim. The district court denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds.

Where plaintiff’s safety complaints concerning his police vehicle were not protected speech because they were made pursuant to plaintiff’s official duties, the district court erred in denying the individual defendants qualified immunity

Judgment is affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part.

Mogard v. City of Milbank (MLW No. 73732/Case No. 18-2730 – 10 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Benton, J.) Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of South Dakota, Kornmann, J. (Lisa Marso, of Sioux Falls, SD for appellant; Mitchell W. O’Hara, of Sioux Falls, SD on brief) (Thomas K. Wilka, of Sioux Falls, SD for appellee; Sara E. Schroeder, of Sioux Falls, SD on brief)

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