Case Name: VALERIE LEWIS, by her Next of Kin, MRS. OLIVE LEWIS v. RUTH THOMAS, Principal, Charlotte Amalie High School, CHARLES TURNBULL, Acting Commissioner of Education, HAROLD C. HAIZLIP, Commissioner of Education, HONORABLE MELVIN H. EVANS, Governor of the Virgin Islands, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, Appellants
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1973-12-26
Citations: 10 V.I. 649
Docket Number: No. 73-1023
Parties: VALERIE LEWIS, by her Next of Kin, MRS. OLIVE LEWIS v. RUTH THOMAS, Principal, Charlotte Amalie High School, CHARLES TURNBULL, Acting Commissioner of Education, HAROLD C. HAIZLIP, Commissioner of Education, HONORABLE MELVIN H. EVANS, Governor of the Virgin Islands, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, Appellants
Judges: Before MARIS, GIBBONS and WEIS, Circuit Judges
Reporter: Virgin Islands Reports
Volume: 10
Pages: 649–650

Head Matter:
VALERIE LEWIS, by her Next of Kin, MRS. OLIVE LEWIS v. RUTH THOMAS, Principal, Charlotte Amalie High School, CHARLES TURNBULL, Acting Commissioner of Education, HAROLD C. HAIZLIP, Commissioner of Education, HONORABLE MELVIN H. EVANS, Governor of the Virgin Islands, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, Appellants
No. 73-1023
United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit
Argued at Charlotte Amalie December 7, 1973
Filed December 26, 1973
Curtis E. Tatar, Esq., Deputy Assistant Attorney General, St. Thomas, V.I., for appellants
Ronald T. Mitchell, Esq. (Mitchell & Hunter, Esqs.), St. Thomas, Y.I., for appellee
Before MARIS, GIBBONS and WEIS, Circuit Judges

Opinion:
OPINION OF THE COURT
MARIS, Circuit Judge
This is an appeal by the defendants from an order of the district court granting a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the attendance of the plaintiff in the 12th grade class at Charlotte Amalie High School during the school year 1971-1972 and ordering the defendants to expunge from their records all reference to the dismissal of the plaintiff and the failing grades given to her for the last semester of the school year 1970-1971.
It appears that pursuant to the injunction the plaintiff was permitted to complete the 12th grade and that she graduated from the high school in June 1972, prior to the taking of the appeal. The appeal is, therefore, moot and must be dismissed on that ground. While the dismissal of the defendants' appeal will allow the order of the district court to stand we note that under the law of the Virgin Islands, as set out in the Restatement of Judgments, § 69(2), the order will not be conclusive against the defendants in a subsequent suit on a different cause of action.
The appeal will be dismissed as moot.
Ҥ 69. Effect of Appeal or Inability to Appeal.
"(2) Where a party to a judgment cannot obtain the decision of an appellate court because the matter determined against him is immaterial or moot, the judgment is not conclusive against him in a subsequent action on a different cause of action." Restatement, Judgments § 69.
Under 1 V.I.C. § 4 this subsection of the Restatement states the common law rule in the Virgin Islands which is applicable to this case.