Opinion

Meadows v. Board of Trustees

Court
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Filed
Jun 11, 1997
Status
Unpublished
Cited by
0 cases
Authority
More cited than 27.9%

The opinion

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

GROVER MEADOWS,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

No. 96-2694

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF PRINCE

GEORGE'S COMMUNITY COLLEGE,

Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore.

William G. Connelly, Magistrate Judge.

(CA-95-972-PJM)

Submitted: May 29, 1997

Decided: June 11, 1997

Before NIEMEYER, LUTTIG, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

_________________________________________________________________

COUNSEL

Erroll D. Brown, Landover, Maryland, for Appellant. Douglas F.

Murray, WHITEFORD, TAYLOR & PRESTON, L.L.P., Baltimore,

Maryland, for Appellee.

_________________________________________________________________

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See

Local Rule 36(c).

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Grover Meadows appeals from the district court's* orders granting

summary judgment in favor of Defendant, dismissing his discrimina-

tion action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (1994), and denying his Fed.

R. Civ. P. 59(e) motion. Meadows alleged discrimination on the basis

of his race, based on his expulsion from Prince George's Community

College (PGCC), and Defendant's pursuit of criminal trespass actions

against him for entering onto PGCC property following his dismissal

and expulsion.

Our review of the record and the magistrate judge's opinion dis-

closes that this appeal is without merit. The magistrate judge properly

found that Meadows failed to demonstrate "purposeful and systematic

discrimination," particularly given his deposition testimony. See

Albert v. Caravano, 851 F.2d 561, 573 (2d Cir. 1988) (quoting

Birnbaum v. Trussell, 347 F.2d 86, 90 (2d Cir. 1965)).

On appeal, Meadows claims that the district court failed to address

his claims that he had a right to enter campus as a student for the pur-

pose of filing a discrimination claim, as a non-student to go to his

place of employment, and as a member of the general public to attend

a cultural arts festival. We find that even assuming, arguendo, that

Meadows had a legal right to go onto campus after he was notified

not to, he still failed to demonstrate any fact which would support a

finding of racial discrimination under § 1981. Accordingly, we cannot

say that the district court's finding of non-discrimination was in error.

Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985).

Moreover, because the district court properly dismissed Meadows'

underlying case on the merits, we find that it did not abuse its discre-

tion in denying Meadows' Rule 59(e) motion. See Collision v. Inter-

national Chem. Workers Union, 34 F.3d 233, 236 (4th Cir. 1994). We

therefore affirm the district court's orders. We dispense with oral

_________________________________________________________________

*Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c) (1994), the parties consented to hav-

ing a magistrate judge conduct the proceedings, including the entry of a

final judgment.

2

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately pres-

ented in the materials before the Court and argument would not aid

the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

3

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