Source: https://casetext.com/case/harkless-v-sweeny-ind-sch-dist-of-sweeny
Timestamp: 2019-08-19 03:58:45
Document Index: 137919174

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1343', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1343', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1343', '§ 1331', '§ 1985', '§ 1331', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981']

Harkless v. Sweeny Ind. Sch. Dist. of Sweeny, 554 F.2d 1353 | Casetext
Harkless v. Sweeny Ind. Sch. Dist. of Sweeny
554 F.2d 1353 (5th Cir. 1977)
Harklessv.Sweeny Ind. Sch. Dist. of Sweeny
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth CircuitJul 26, 1977
July 1, 1977. Rehearing Denied July 26, 1977.
Weldon S. Berry, Houston, Tex., Sandford D. Bishop, Jr., Columbus Ga., Jack Greenberg, James C. Gray, Jr., New York City, A.J. Cooper, Jr., Prichard, Ala., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Senior District Judge of the Northern District of Texas sitting by designation.
Plaintiffs in this action are ten black school teachers whose 1965-66 teaching contracts with the Sweeny Independent School District (S.I.S.D.) were not renewed for the 1966-67 school year. On May 23, 1966, they and two others who later withdrew from the suit filed an action against the S.I.S.D., its superintendent, and seven members of the school board. The superintendent and school board members were sued in both their official and individual capacities, but later, during the original trial, plaintiffs dropped their claim against these people in their individual capacities. Asserting 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) as the jurisdictional basis, plaintiffs claimed they had been discharged because of their race and sought reinstatement and back pay. A jury returned a verdict for defendants on, among other things, the issue of whether the defendants had not renewed the teaching contracts because of plaintiffs' race. After this verdict, the trial court dismissed plaintiffs' complaint, concluding that the school district and the defendants in their official capacities were not "persons" within the meaning of § 1983. On appeal, this Circuit reversed the district court, holding that it had erred in granting defendants a jury trial and in finding the defendants not to be § 1983 persons. Harkless v. Sweeney Independent School District, 427 F.2d 319 (5th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 991, 91 S.Ct. 451, 27 L.Ed.2d 439 (1971).
At oral argument, plaintiffs' counsel informed the Court that Velma Shelby, one of the ten, is deceased.
"The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person . . . [t]o redress the deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States or by any Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens or of all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States[.]"
In February, 1966, the superintendent requested the district's curriculum director to prepare an evaluation of Carver's teachers. No such evaluation was requested for the district's white teachers. The completed evaluation was submitted in anecdotal form and was laden with remarks that were what the trial court termed "not models of diplomatic composition." A stronger appellation might be given, despite the trial court's finding them not to be insulting, but a sampling of the remarks is the best way to give their true flavor. Cleo Grimes was described as having ". . . honest and realistic aspirations for her race." Margaret Gee was said to have "seen much more of the world than most; displays relatively racial and provincial facets." John P. Jones was termed "[a] real up-town, gold-toothed, yellow shod dude." Hilbert Simien was said to be "[r]easonably cultured by our standards . . ." There were numerous other references to race in a similar vein.
Returning to the main road, on March 1, 1966, the superintendent sent a memorandum to the principals of the S.I.S.D. schools requesting them to submit by March 7, 1966, two evaluations of the teachers in their respective schools. One evaluation was by means of a Steck Form. A Steck Form is a document on which an evaluator rates a teacher according to thirty eight characteristics which cover the areas of personal qualities, teaching abilities, routine and physical conditions, discipline, cooperation, professional growth, and social efficiency. Ratings for each characteristic are to be on a five point scale ranging from "excellent" to "unsatisfactory". The other evaluation was to be made by means of a notation on the Steck Form. The notation (or overall rating) was to be a number from 2 through 10. The higher the number, the better the teacher. No correlation between the Steck Form evaluation and the overall rating was required or discussed. Though the superintendent and curriculum director did not prepare Steck Forms, they did make overall ratings of the district's teachers. Under this two step process, each of the plaintiffs ranked lowest among his or her grade/subject matter group.
Due to illness, the principal of the all white elementary school prepared no Steck Forms. The evaluations from the previous year were used instead.
One of plaintiffs, Florence Jones, was not evaluated because she was a substitute teacher without a contract.
The process's culmination was reached on March 8 when, one day after the due date for the Steck Forms and overall ratings, the S.I.S.D. School Board accepted the superintendent's recommendations — to rehire 100% of the white teachers and only 30% of the black teachers.
The employment decisions purportedly were based on the results of the Steck Form evaluations and overall ratings, themselves contested, in which teacher comparisons were made on a district wide basis. The district court found the foregoing as fact. With the benefit of guidance from a recent Supreme Court decision, we reject such a finding as clearly erroneous, to the extent that it is a true finding of fact at all.
Since the finding is clearly erroneous, we need not discuss its characterization as either a "true" fact or an "ultimate" fact, the latter being a question of law.
The Supreme Court decision is Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977), and the guidance it provides is in our inquiry into whether there was intentional racial discrimination in this case. We find that there was. In Arlington Heights the Supreme Court held that "[p]roof of racially discriminatory intent or purpose is required to show a violation of the Equal Protection Clause." 429 U.S. at 265, 97 S.Ct. at 563, 50 L.Ed.2d at 464. See also Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976). It is true that Arlington Heights differed from this case in certain respects. In Arlington Heights a statute neutral on its face was under attack. Here, an administrative action purportedly racially neutral is involved. Arlington Heights dealt with the fourteenth amendment's equal protection clause. This case deals with statutes enacted under the enforcement provisions of the thirteenth amendment as well as the fourteenth amendment. Nonetheless, Arlington Heights provides useful guidelines for determining the mental state accompanying a decision alleged to be intentionally discriminatory such as the decision not to retain these plaintiffs. A list, acknowledged to be incomplete, of six standards for guiding "a sensitive inquiry into such circumstantial and direct evidence as may be available" is provided in the Arlington Heights opinion. The standards are: (1) the impact of official action, though this is usually not determinative; (2) the historical background of the decision; (3) the specific sequence of events leading up to the challenged decision; (4) departures from the normal procedural sequence; (5) substantive departures; and (6) the legislative or administrative history. 429 U.S. at 266-267, 97 S.Ct. at 564-565, 50 L.Ed.2d at 465-66.
In their original Complaint, filed on May 23, 1966, plaintiffs prayed for reinstatement and back pay and allowances. (Since allowances are part of any recoverable back pay, the term "back pay" will be used to describe the whole package of retroactive monetary relief.) Throughout the next eleven years, they have sought the same relief from the same defendants, with one exception. That exception is that during the original trial before a jury plaintiffs dropped their claims against the individual defendants in their individual capacities. In that original complaint and in two subsequent amended complaints, plaintiffs asserted a cause of action under § 1983 and jurisdiction under § 1343(3). No other statutes were asserted as applicable to these proceedings. Understandably, the impact of Kenosha and its Fifth Circuit progeny was unforeseen.
See, e. g., Sterzing v. Fort Bend Independent School District, 496 F.2d 92 (5th Cir. 1974); Adkins v. Duval County School Board, 511 F.2d 690 (5th Cir. 1975); Vick v. Texas Employment Commission, 514 F.2d 734 (5th Cir. 1975); and Muzquiz v. City of San Antonio, 520 F.2d 993 (5th Cir. 1975), aff'd, on rehearing en banc, 528 F.2d 499 (1976), U.S. appeal pending. The Supreme Court has pending a case, Monell v. Department of Social Services, 532 F.2d 259 (2d Cir. 1976), cert. granted, 429 U.S. 1071, 97 S.Ct. 807, 50 L.Ed.2d 789 (1977), which should provide further guidance on what a § 1983 "person" is.
At oral argument, plaintiffs' counsel agreed that, if the amendment relating to § 1981 and its jurisdictional counterpart § 1343(4) was allowed, consideration of the amendment relating to § 1331 was unnecessary from his point of view. The portions of the motion to amend relating §§ 1985 and 1988 were not urged at oral argument. Given our disposition of the issue, we pretermit discussion of matters pertaining to §§ 1331, 1985, and 1988.
"The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person . . . [t]o recover damages or to secure equitable or other relief under any Act of Congress providing for the protection of civil rights, including the right to vote."
For eleven years plaintiffs, alleging the same facts, have sought the same relief from the same defendants. The requested amendments add nothing substantively new to their claim, though, their claim proven, a new form of relief — one thought to be available under § 1983 at the filing of the original complaint — becomes appropriate.
We add that adding § 1981 as a statutory cause of action presents no problem concerning whether the statute of limitations might have run on the § 1981 action. Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 421 U.S. 454, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975), contrary to defendants' position, is not applicable to this case. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c) is. In pertinent part it reads: "Whenever the claim . . . asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth . . . in the original pleading, the amendment relates back to the date of the original pleading." "The purpose of [Rule 15(c)] is accomplished if the initial complaint gives the defendant fair notice that litigation is arising out of a specific factual situation." Longbottom v. Swaby, 397 F.2d 45, 48 (5th Cir. 1968). Such is precisely the situation here. The complaint was filed just over three months after the complained of action. No statutory limitation period had run.