Court Opinion

ID: 9658485
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:01:33.83462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:55.719611
License: Public Domain

MORGAN, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent.
As I read Judge Jones’ Judgment of October 28,1980, after reversing the cease and desist order as overly broad, he found the balance of the Order of the Department of Labor to be moot:
“and that [sic] rest and remainder of the order in its entirety and any issues arising therefrom are hereby declared to be moot.”
I agree with the judgment inasmuch as the order was not entered until May 2,1980, after the negotiations and offer of the new contracts. Since the order is moot, however, appellant has nothing to complain about. None of the parties addressed the issue from this viewpoint. Instead, they treated it as though the order, other than the cease and desist portion, was left standing and had some deleterious effect on the school district which could not be reached if the appeal was moot. That simply is not the case.
If the Department of Labor wants their decisions to have any effect, they should not take over eleven months to process, hear and decide the case. There was almost a four-month delay between petition and hearing, and then a five and one-half month delay until a decision was made.
I would affirm the judgment.