A lawsuit filed by Tallapoosa Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Laura Lundy Wheale came to a close on Tuesday with an order filed by the court granting Polk and Haralson County and the State of Georgia their motions to dismiss the case.

A Federal District Court Judge agreed with the defendants and overruled objections filed by Judge Wheale’s legal team seeking to keep the case going onward toward a trial.

With the order filed by Judge Timothy Batten, the Chief US District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia in the Newnan Division, the case that began months after the appointment of Judge Wheale to her seat as the Juvenile Court Judge for both counties based on her assertion that as a first-time judge, she should have equal pay to that of her predecessor, now Superior Court Judge Mark Murphy.

Here’s the full 23-page filing on the dismissal of Judge Wheale’s case.

She additionally alleged in the lawsuit that officials from both counties had kept her out of the loop on budget discussions, was not given access to computers, and wasn’t given proper funding to hire an assistant. Judge Wheale had previously filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the counties. She also added the State of Georgia to the proceedings as well alleging that both were involved in sexual discrimination against her, without giving the state the opportunity to defend itself in the EEOC complaint.

Federal Magistrate Court Judge Russell G. Vineyard’s final report had previously recommended that the lawsuit against the counties and state be dropped since Judge Wheale had not met the criteria of showing “a claim will survive a motion to dismiss only if the factual allegations in the complaint are “enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.”

“While all well-pleaded facts must be accepted as true and construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, Powell v. Thomas, 643 F.3d 1300, 1302 (11th Cir. 2011), the Court need not accept as true the plaintiff’s legal conclusions, including those couched as factual allegations. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678.,” the filing concluded in its review of Judge Vineyard’s previous recommendation.

Judge Wheale had filed objections to the recommendation to dismiss the case, based on the claims she had made that she was an employee under Title VII rules jointly between the counties and the state, along with other issues she found with the court’s assertions.

However, Judge Batten’s order in reviewing the objections and the facts brought before him that “The Court finds that Wheale has failed to sufficiently plead a
violation of her constitutional rights, and thus judgment on the pleadings for the Counties is proper.”

The filing continued later on to state further that: “Wheale has failed to plead any facts that—taken as true—would tend to indicate, directly or circumstantially, a discriminatory intent by the Counties. In her objections, she alleges that her amended complaint adequately averred “discriminatory actions . . . in funding her position.” at 24. The Court disagrees. That she was paid less than her long-tenured, male predecessor is not sufficient evidence to support an inference of discriminatory intent. Nor is the claim that her judicial assistant position was underfunded. See Am. Dental Ass’n v. Cigna Corp., 605 F.3d 1283, 1290 (11th Cir. 2010) (“ourts may infer from the factual allegations in the complaint ‘obvious alternative explanation,’ which suggest lawful conduct rather than the unlawful conduct the plaintiff would ask the court to infer.”) (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 682). In the absence of facts in her pleading tending to show discriminatory intent by the Counties, Wheale’s § 1983 claim based upon the Counties’ budget allocations similarly must fail.”

With her objections overruled, Judge Batten’s order granting the dismissal for the counties and the state brings a conclusion to the discrimination lawsuit filed in November 2020.

Judge Wheale, appointed to the bench in March 2019, continues to serve in her role as the Juvenile Court Judge for the Tallapoosa Circuit.