Opinion ID: 1611883
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiffs' Due Process Claim.

Text: Finally, we consider plaintiffs' contention that the method in which the board acted to invalidate the petitions denied them due process of law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. This allegation does state a violation of federal law ostensibly actionable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court concluded that the process under which the board rejected the petitions did not accord plaintiffs due process of law. The court found that plaintiffs were not offered a reasonable opportunity to refute the challenges lodged to various signatures contained on the petitions. The court concluded, however, that, because one of the class members was a member of the board of education and voted in favor of the resolution establishing the hearing procedure, the class as a whole waived any right to have a more favorable hearing process. In so ruling, the district court interpreted Vignaroli v. Blue Cross of Iowa, 360 N.W.2d 741, 746 (Iowa 1985), as saddling all members of a class with the actions of certain individual class members. We agree with plaintiffs that this interpretation of Vignaroli was incorrect. We stated in Vignaroli that the interests of a number of persons not present before the court are conclusively determined on the strength of the case made by the representative parties. However, that language refers to the binding effect of a judgment in the class action on all members of the class. It does not support an imputation to the entire class of the conduct of an individual class member bearing on the merits of that person's claim. We recognized in Hammer v. Branstad, 463 N.W.2d 86, 90 (Iowa 1990), that disposition of an individual representative's claim is not dispositive of the rights of the entire class. As a consequence of our finding that no waiver occurred, we conclude that the evidence supports the district court's finding that the board violated plaintiffs' procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Not only were plaintiffs not granted an opportunity to refute the allegations at the hearing, they were denied access to the identity of the signatures that were being challenged until it was too late to respond. Although the board claims that plaintiffs waived any right to challenge that denial of information by not going into court and requesting an order for its production, that claim is untenable. Plaintiffs were entitled to have the data they requested produced by the board of education, and the failure to produce it was a violation of their procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. In litigation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, there is no requirement that a plaintiff exhaust available state law remedies as a condition of seeking the remedy provided by the federal statute. Plough v. West Des Moines Cmty. Sch. Dist., 70 F.3d 512, 514 (8th Cir.1995). The board urges that any denial of procedural due process that may have occurred should not entitle plaintiffs to relief because for reasons that we have already found to exist the petitions were invalid on their face. Consequently, the board urges that it or any reviewing court was required as a matter of law to ultimately find that the petitions were invalid. This contention by the board is rendered untenable by the decision in Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978). The Court held in that case that plaintiffs who establish a violation of procedural due process in actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 are entitled to some damages irrespective of the fact that the contentions that they wish to have heard are lacking in legal merit. Carey, 435 U.S. at 266, 98 S.Ct. at 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d at 266 (Because the right to procedural due process is `absolute,' ... it does not depend upon the merits of a claimant's substantive assertions....). The board urges that the entitlement established in the Carey case does not extend to situations in which the parties who are denied procedural due process will ultimately be unable to prevail as a matter of law, as contrasted with those parties ultimately not prevailing on an interpretation of the facts. We do not believe that this distinction can be found in Carey. The distinction would be particularly inappropriate in the present case in which the board clearly sought to invalidate the petitions based on an absence of valid signatures as well as on the theory that the wording of the petitions was fatally flawed. Plaintiffs were entitled to procedural due process in resisting the former contention irrespective of the latter contention. Plaintiffs who establish procedural due process violations are entitled to recover out-of-pocket expenses and, in addition, damages for impairment of reputation, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering. Memphis Cmty. Sch. Dist. v. Stachura, 477 U.S. 299, 307, 106 S.Ct. 2537, 2543, 91 L.Ed.2d 249, 258 (1986). Plaintiffs who have established such violations are entitled to no less than an award of nominal damages. Carey, 435 U.S. at 266-67, 98 S.Ct. at 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d at 267. In anticipation that its decision as to liability might be overturned on appeal, the district court made a finding as to plaintiffs' damages. It found that, if plaintiffs were correct concerning their due process claims, they were entitled to only nominal damages. It based this finding on the conclusion that the adverse consequences that had befallen plaintiffs were the result of the legal invalidation of their petitions rather than the illegal procedures employed to reach that result. We are convinced that this finding has adequate support in the record. [2] The board urges that the district court's alternative-damage ruling in the event that liability was established on appeal only awarded nominal damages to the class as a whole. While the language of the court's order may be so interpreted, the issue turns on a proper application of the Carey holding to a class action in which the claims of the individual class members are individual in character and disparate in amount. This is an issue of law rather than an issue of fact, and we are not bound by the district court's conclusions. Under Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 42.15, [t]he court may award any form of relief consistent with the certification order to which the party in whose favor it is rendered is entitled including equitable, declaratory, monetary, or other relief to individual members of the class or the class in a lump sum or installments. (Emphasis added.) As we have noted, the damages that may be recovered for denial of procedural due process include out-of-pocket expenses, damages for impairment of reputation, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering. Those damages would differ among various members of the class. If class members had been damaged and the court was seeking to grant them relief, individualized determinations of damages would be proper if not impracticable because of the size of the class. Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1784, at 77 (1986). If it is impracticable to award discreet individual recoveries [c]ourts must use their discretion, and in many instances their ingenuity, to shape decrees or to develop procedures for ascertaining damages and distributing relief that will be fair to the parties but will not involve them in an unduly burdensome administration of the award. Id. § 1784, at 78. The goal in all instances is to determine the aggregate sum, which fairly represents the claims of the individual class members. De La Fuente v. Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., 713 F.2d 225, 233 (7th Cir. 1983); Samuel v. University of Pittsburgh, 538 F.2d 991, 995-96 (3d Cir. 1976). For that reason, we believe a single award of nominal damages for the class as a whole would be inappropriate because, it suing separately, each of the class members would be entitled to an award of nominal damages. On remand the district court shall enter judgment for nominal damages in favor of each of the members of the class. An award of nominal damages renders plaintiffs the prevailing parties in the litigation pursuant to the Court's holding in Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 112, 113 S.Ct. 566, 573, 121 L.Ed.2d 494, 504 (1992). Notwithstanding their attaining such status, plaintiffs' entitlement to fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 are dependent upon an application of various factors set forth in the Farrar decision. The district court shall consider the attorney-fee issue following remand. The district court's findings and conclusions that establish plaintiffs are only entitled to nominal damages is affirmed. Its judgment on the issue of liability is reversed on the procedural due process claims but affirmed on the other claims. The case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Given the peculiar attributes concerning entitlement to fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, we conclude that the taxation of costs on this appeal shall abide the district court's determination of cost entitlement following remand. The clerk of this court shall simply certify to the district court the gross amount of taxable costs, and that amount shall be allocated by the district court in its determination of the other issues involving fees and costs. AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED. All justices concur except LARSON and NEUMAN, JJ., who take no part.