(DOWNLOAD) "Gulden v. Mccorkle" by Fifth Circuit United States Court Of Appeals " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Gulden v. Mccorkle
- Author : Fifth Circuit United States Court Of Appeals
- Release Date : January 21, 1982
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 57 KB
Description
Plaintiffs-Appellants Charles Gulden and Richard Sage appeal from an adverse decision of the trial court in their suit against Defendants-Appellees Monroe McCorkle, Director of the Dallas Public Works Department (the ""Department""), George Dickerson, Assistant Director, and the City of Dallas, Texas (hereinafter collectively the ""Defendants""). Sage and Gulden were discharged1 as employees of the Department after they refused to submit to polygraph exams requested by their Department superiors. They sued for reinstatement to their jobs and for damages. Gulden and Sage asserted that because the Defendants had failed to tender them immunity in regard to use of their polygraph answers in subsequent criminal proceedings, the Defendants had implicitly required them to waive such immunity in contravention of the fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. They alleged that they were then justified in refusing to take the polygraph exams and could not be discharged for so doing. We find that the Defendants did not require Gulden and Sage to waive, surrender or forfeit any protected fifth amendment rights, that, at all times, the relevant fifth amendment protections were available to Gulden and Sage and that they were therefore not protected from discharges premised on their refusals to submit to the exams. We affirm the judgment of the district court. I. Facts and Proceedings Below Gulden and Sage were employees of the Property Management Division of the Department. On the afternoon of August 14, 1978, the Dallas Employees Credit Union, another office located in the same building as the Department, received a bomb-threat. The bomb-threat forced the evacuation of the building and disrupted a retirement party for a Department employee. The bomb threat followed a series of pranks which had been played on various Property Management Division employees.