Update: This version includes more details from the complaint filing.

Ted Spring, former president of Cape Fear Community College, has filed a lawsuit against the CFCC Board of Trustees, his attorney announced Friday afternoon.

The civil suit, filed in New Hanover Superior Court at 3:13 p.m., by attorney Gary Shipman seeks "compensatory damages for breach of contract and deprivation of the Plaintiff's [Ted Spring] civil rights . . . specifically Plaintiff's Constitutional Right to Due Process," the document reads.

The former president is asking for reinstatement to his position at the college as well as damages of at least $25,000, plus attorney fees and trial by jury "on issues so triable," the court document states.

Reached Friday afternoon by telephone, board chairman Jason Harris said that the suit is "a legal matter. We'll address it as it comes." Other than that, he said he could not comment.

A lawsuit represents just one side, and the board has 30 days to respond to the complaint.

Spring resigned abruptly after a trustees meeting in January. Earlier this month, he requested to be reinstated in the post, alleging that the board had forced him into resigning.

The suit claims that the board breached its employment contract for Spring and denied his rights to procedural due process.

"As a direct and proximate result of the conduct of the CFCC Board, in wrongfully and unconstitutionally coercing Dr. Spring's involuntary resignation without due process, and terminating his employment without due process or valid cause, and in thereafter causing the dissemination of stigmatizing and misleading information about him, Dr. Spring has suffered damages stemming from his loss of employment, lost wages, lost opportunities, and stigmatized reputation," the suit states.

The court document traces Spring's pertinent employment prior to coming to CFCC and quotes positive comments made by members of the board in announcing his selection as CFCC's new head.

The document also mentions Spring's firing from Shelton State Community College in Alabama after he alerted authorities to academic fraud allegedly taking place at the college. Subsequently, a U.S. District Court Judge "directed a verdict in favor of Dr. Spring, finding that there was no dispute that he had been terminated by Shelton State's President for disclosing or attempting to disclose fraud and illegal activity," the document states.

The document also refers to agreements supposedly made between Spring and the trustees pertaining to work-related travel expenses for himself and his wife. It also refers to Spring's employment agreement, which stipulates that the president and board meet "no less than 90 days prior to the expiration of the Original Term" of the agreement "to discuss a new employment contract or an extension or renewal" of the contract.

In to a letter sent by Shipman to the board March 4, Shipman charged that Spring would not have submitted his resignation in January if the trustees had not threatened to fire him immediately if he did not. In making that threat, Shipman stated, the board deprived Spring of due process.

“The Board of Trustees could never have lawfully undertaken to terminate Dr. Spring on January 22, 2015, in open or closed session, as he had not been provided with the due process to which he was entitled, under the express provisions of his Employment Agreement and the law,” Shipman wrote.

Click here to read a copy of the filing.