Opinion ID: 204874
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pending Federal Litigation

Text: The present federal litigation commenced on June 9, 2004. At that time, plaintiff education association members and parents of school-aged children in Ohio filed a Complaint in the district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio Board of Education, and Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Tave Zelman, challenging OCSA under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Defendants moved to dismiss on June 30, 2005. Plaintiffs thereafter voluntarily dismissed all defendants except Zelman on August 11, 2005, [3] and filed an Amended Complaint on October 6, 2005. In a decision not issued until September 20, 2007, the district court denied the motion to dismiss as to all but one claim, which alleged a denial of the right to vote because the OCSA does not permit citizens to determine the number or members and the organization of a public school board of education ... within a city, as guaranteed by the Ohio Constitution. On October 1, 2004, during the pendency of the motion to dismiss, White Hat Management, LLC (White Hat), a firm that provides a full spectrum of services, from management to financial and curriculum assistance, for many community schools, sought intervention as a matter of right and of discretion. (White Hat Mot. at 1, 3.) The district court denied White Hat's application on September 26, 2005, reasoning that as to intervention of right, White Hat had not demonstrated that the parties would not adequately represent White Hat's interests in this litigation. The court further held that permissive intervention was inappropriate because it would cause undue and unnecessary delay in the form of the duplication and expansion of the litigation, thus requir[ing] the Plaintiffs and the Court to invest a significant amount of time and effort in response. White Hat appealed. On September 5, 2006, this Court affirmed the denial of White Hat's application to intervene. See Blount-Hill v. State of Ohio, 195 Fed.Appx. 482, 487. As to intervention of right, we affirmed on the alternative grounds that White Hat's economic interest in the continuation of its contracts with community schools was insufficient to comprise a substantial legal interest for purposes of Rule 24(a) intervention. Id. at 485. This was because White Hat's interest did not concern the constitutional and statutory violations allegation in the litigation, but rather an interest in the economic component. Id. at 488 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). With regard to permissive intervention, we held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that intervention would cause undue delay. The Supreme Court thereafter denied White Hat's petition for a writ of certiorari. On September 20, 2007, upon Plaintiffs' application, the district court stayed the instant proceedings to permit settlement negotiations. The parties failed to settle, and on June 30, 2008, Plaintiffs filed a Third Amended Complaint, which added two additional plaintiffs, substituted one existing plaintiff, and revised and expanded certain factual allegations, but did not significantly amend Plaintiffs' legal claims. Defendant filed a second motion to dismiss on August 29, 2008. On November 21, 2008, during the pendency of this second motion to dismiss, proposed Intervenors sought to intervene as a matter of right and permissively, and alternatively sought to appear as amici curiae. On March 30, 2009, the district court dismissed the Third Amended Complaint except as to one claim, which alleged intentional discrimination in the allocation of school funding, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. On July 30, 2009, the district court denied proposed Intervenors' application to intervene, reasoning that as to intervention of right, proposed Intervenors failed to show inadequate representation by Defendant; and as to permissive intervention, undue delay and prejudice would result to the existing parties. The district court also permitted proposed Intervenors to appear as amici curiae. Proposed Intervenors then appealed.