Opinion ID: 1611868
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Before the Court of Civil Appeals

Text: The Court of Civil Appeals reversed, with a lead opinion authored by Judge Crawley in which he expressed the opinion that the lead opinion in McLeod I had no precedential value and that the FDA did not apply to McLeod. However, he further concluded that, even if the FDA did apply to McLeod, the evidence required a finding that McLeod had not worked the necessary hours for him to acquire tenured status under § 36-26-100 of the FDA (Full time employees include ... employees whose duties require 20 or more hours in each normal working week of the school term, employing board holidays excepted.). Only Judge Thompson joined Judge Crawley's opinion. Young v. McLeod, 841 So.2d 245 (Ala.Civ.App.2001). Presiding Judge Robertson and Judges Yates and Monroe concurred in the resulta holding that McLeod had not acquired tenure. They expressed the opinion that the FDA did apply; however, they agreed with Judge Crawley that, even under an application of the FDA, the evidence would require a finding that McLeod had not worked the hours necessary for him to acquire tenured status. Thus, although the five Judges on the Court of Civil Appeals could not agree on whether the FDA applied, they all agreed that McLeod had not satisfied the requirements of § 36-26-100. In one portion of his opinion, Judge Crawley, assuming for the sake of argument that the FDA applied, reasoned that under the FDA the employer, not the employee, established the requirement for the number of hours to be worked. He then defined the 20-hour-per-week standard as regularly scheduled working hours, relying upon Carter v. Baldwin County Bd. of Educ., 532 So.2d 1017, 1018 (Ala.Civ.App.1988), and Ex parte Green, 689 So.2d 838, 839 (Ala.1996). Judge Crawley also concluded that regularly scheduled working hours are the hours set by the employer, citing Ledbetter v. Jackson County Bd. of Educ., 508 So.2d 244 (Ala.1987). As previously noted, during the quarters when McLeod was claiming full-time status, the college required only that he show up and teach his classes, and it is undisputed that McLeod did not spend 20 hours per week discharging that responsibility. Judge Crawley observed that if the court accepted McLeod's argument that a teacher can define for himself what hours should be counted toward the status of full-time employment and thereby determine when he has achieved tenure, then there would not be many part-time teachers in Alabama. The Court of Civil Appeals unanimously concluded that, even if the FDA applied, McLeod had had only six quarters of full-time employment; this conclusion made it unnecessary to deal with Justice Almon's concern as to whether the three-year probationary period must be served by teaching for three consecutive years. Because the Court of Civil Appeals unanimously rejected the proposition that the FDA applied to out-of-class activities, it did not address the trial court's findings as to the reasonableness of McLeod's out-of-class activities.