Case Title: HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASS'N v. Scaffidi

Citation: 564 So. 2d 910

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1990-05-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
564 So. 2d 910 (1990)
ALABAMA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, et al.
v.
John SCAFFIDI, a minor, By and Through his father and next friend, Fred SCAFFIDI.
88-657.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 25, 1990.
Oakley Melton, Jr. of Melton, Espy & Williams, Montgomery, and Paul W. Brock and Stephan L. McDavid of Hand, Arendall, Bedsole, Greaves & Johnston, Mobile, for appellants.
Richard L. Seelman, Mobile, for appellee.
ADAMS, Justice.
This Court's opinion of March 30, 1990, is withdrawn and the following is substituted therefor:
On December 22, 1988, John Scaffidi, a minor, acting by and through his father and next friend, Fred Scaffidi, sued the Alabama High School Athletic Association ("AHSAA"), Herman L. Scott, executive director of the AHSAA, and Jimmie L. Cal, associate executive director of the AHSAA, requesting injunctive relief.
During the 1987-88 school year, John was a student in the ninth grade at McGill-Toolen School, a private/parochial school in Mobile. At that time, his family's house was located in the Baker public school district. However, during that school year, a federal court order in a school desegregation case redrew school lines; under the new order, John's house was in the Davidson public school district. After learning about the modification of the districts, John and his parents decided that he should attend Davidson School, and he transferred from McGill-Toolen to Davidson. His transfer was purely voluntary and was not the result of athletic recruiting.
As a result of the federal court order moving some students from the Baker school district to the Davidson school district, the AHSAA determined that those students who had attended Baker in the 1987-88 school year and were rezoned to Davidson would not lose their athletic eligibility upon a transfer to Davidson.
Before the commencement of the 1988-89 school year, the principal of Davidson requested an eligibility ruling concerning John's eligibility status from Herman L. Scott, the executive director of the AHSAA. Scott's ruling denied John athletic eligibility for one year after his transfer to Davidson, because he had voluntarily transferred from a private school serving the entire City of Mobile to a public school in the City of Mobile and had not transferred *911 as the result of the rezoning of the public school districts. Scott's ruling was appealed to the AHSAA's First District Board. The First District Board held a hearing and upheld Scott's ruling. That ruling was then appealed to the Central Board of Control of the AHSAA. The Central Board held a hearing and likewise ruled that John was ineligible to participate in interscholastic athletics at Davidson for one year.
After exhausting all of his administrative remedies, John filed his complaint for injunctive relief. He sought an order enjoining the defendants from enforcing the ineligibility ruling. He argued that his change of public school districts from Baker to Davidson fell within Rule 1, Section 11, Exception 3, of the AHSAA 1988-89 Handbook, and that the AHSAA had arbitrarily failed to consider the applicability of this exception in his case when making its ruling.
The AHSAA, a voluntary organization comprised of 656 public and private schools, regulates the athletic eligibility of 73,000 students. Pursuant to the regulation purposes of the AHSAA, its members have developed by-laws, rules, and regulations. These rules and regulations are published annually in the Handbook. The transfer rule found in Section 11 of the Handbook reads as follows:
The two exceptions to the transfer rule are:
The handbook also contains certain "Notes and Cases" with reference to the transfer rule:
After a hearing, the trial court issued an order enjoining the defendants from denying John's immediate eligibility. The trial court's order stated in part:
In Scott v. Kilpatrick, 286 Ala. 129, 237 So. 2d 652 (1970), we set forth the standard of review regarding a court's jurisdiction in a high school athletic association's determination of the eligibility of amateur athletes:
286 Ala. at 132, 237 So. 2d  at 655 (citations omitted) (emphasis added). See generally Annot., Validity of Regulation of Athletic Eligibility of Students Voluntarily Transferring from One School to Another, 15 A.L.R. 4th 885 (1982).
The test set forth in Kilpatrick has been continually reaffirmed. In Alabama High School Athletic Ass'n v. Rose, 446 So. 2d 1 (Ala.1984), we stated:
446 So. 2d  at 5. See also Alabama High School Athletic Ass'n v. Medders, 456 So. 2d 284 (Ala.1984).
The case of Bruce v. South Carolina High School League, 258 S.C. 546, 189 S.E.2d 817 (1972), best addresses the AHSAA's claim that the application of the transfer rule to John is not arbitrary:
258 S.C. at 548, 189 S.E.2d  at 819-20 (emphasis added).
We agree with the analysis of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and thus hold that the AHSAA's ruling declaring John ineligible was not arbitrary. The trial court based its decision on the fact that John was "identically situated [to those students transferring from Baker to Davidson] except for his attendance at McGill-Toolen." This finding by the trial court was in error.
John's argument is based on the fact that the federal court order changed the public school zones in Mobile. Because of that change, the AHSAA permitted public school students who were affected by the rezoning to retain their eligibility upon transferring from Baker, a public school, to Davidson, another public school. While some students who were attending Baker prior to this action had the option to either remain at Baker, a public school, or voluntarily transfer to Davidson, another public school, those students who had never attended Baker and whose houses were located in the new Davidson zone were required to attend Davidson because of the federal court order. The federal court order applied exclusively to public school students. The fatal flaw in John's argument and in the holding of the trial court is that John's situation is not identical to that of those students. John voluntarily changed to a public school from a private school serving the entire city of Mobile.
Because we hold that the AHSAA's actions were not arbitrary, the order of the circuit court granting injunctive relief was in error.
ORIGINAL OPINION WITHDRAWN; OPINION SUBSTITUTED; APPLICATION OVERRULED; REVERSED AND JUDGMENT RENDERED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, ALMON and STEAGALL, JJ., concur.