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Here’s Alyssa’s writeup of what happened in the Speth case Friday:

2/2/09 – UM asks court to dismiss lawsuit
Alyssa Schnugg
Staff Writer

Attorneys for the University of Mississippi are asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a professor of pharmacology who claims the university made his life “miserable” after he alerted the department heads of possible misuse of grant funds.

The suit was filed in December by Robert C. Speth, who is still currently a professor at the Research of Pharmaceutical Science at UM, in the U.S. District Court in Oxford.

Speth alleges the university and several department heads denied any misuse of funds and covered it up by engaging in a series of retaliatory acts against him designed to “humiliate him” and “set him up for termination.”

On Friday, attorneys for the university filed a motion to dismiss or to stay proceedings in the suit, claiming the 11th amendment to the Constitution bars Speth from suing the university and the other defendants in their official capacities for money damages and that the federal court lacks jurisdiction over Speth’s state-law claims.

Under the university’s Faculty Grievance Procedure, a hearing was heard in September. The committee failed to find support for Speth’s claims. Speth appealed the decision to Chancellor Robert C. Khayat who denied the appeal in October. According to Mississippi law, Speth should have then filed an appeal with the Lafayette County Circuit Court, not the U.S. Federal Court.

Attorneys for the university and the other defendants are asking the court that should the motion to dismiss be denied, they are asking the court to stay — or hold — the proceedings until Speth files the appeal in the Circuit Court.

According to the motion, the Mississippi Tort Claims Act bars Speth’s claims because he failed to exhaust administrative remedies; the defendants are immune under the discretionary function exemption and because no defendant may be individually liable under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act and punitive damages cannot be awarded under the act.

The motion also points out the that the individuals listed in the suit are not “final decision-makers” and could not grant Speth the relief he sought.

The other defendants listed in the suit are: Robin C. Buchanon, assistance vice chancellor of research; Beverly M. Butts, senior business manager of the School of Pharmacy; Alice M. Clark, vice chancellor for research; Charles D. Hufford, assistant dean for research for the School of Pharmacy; Nina L. Jones, director of accounting; Thomas W. Lombardo, director of research, integrity and compliance; Anthony J. Verlangieri, interim chair for the Department of Pharmacology; and Barbara Wells, dean of the School of Pharmacy.

In 2006, Speth helped to secure a $11 million grant from the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence to be used for specific purposes authorized in the grant.

In 2007, Speth claims he discovered some of the grant funds were not being used for those authorized purposes and brought it to the university’s attention. Speth claims he discovered the grant funds were being used for research work unrelated to the authorized purpose and use of grant funds to pay individuals who were working on projects not authorized under the grant.

UM attorney Lee Tyner said the university looked at Speth’s claims and found no basis for any of them.

“We have a great track record in managing grants with honesty and integrity,” Tyner said. “We have well-trained professionals who manage new grants every month and have been doing so for years with no problems.”

Speth claims that after he notified the defendants he received negative employment reviews and was dismissed as the chairman of the Department of Pharmacology.

Speth is suing for loss of wages, to be reinstated as the chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, to be re-appointed “principal investigator” for the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence grant and for a 5 percent raise.