Court Opinion

ID: 9525258
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:01:24.627977+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:14:04.763846
License: Public Domain

VAIDIK, Judge,
dissenting
This appeal represents yet another attack on the IHSAA’s unpopular restitution rule. The majority’s ruling ignores the direction of our supreme court by disguising a challenge to the validity of the restitution rule as a contempt issue.
Our supreme court has previously determined that it is an abuse of discretion for a trial court to enjoin enforcement of the restitution rule. See, Indiana High School Athletic Ass’n, Inc. v. Carlberg, 694 N.E.2d 222 (Ind.1997); Indiana High School Athletic Ass’n, Inc. v. Reyes, 694 N.E.2d 249 (Ind.1997). The court found that application of the rule against a student athlete “would not be ^willful and unreasonable’ ...” finding “there is an interest in restitution and fairness to schools which and athletes who compete against ineligible students.” Carlberg at 235. Additionally, the court concluded that the restitution rule did not engender disrespect for the judiciary and does not “impinge on the judiciary’s function.” Carlberg at 235. Further, the rule “does not purport to authorize interference with any court order during the time it remains in effect, but authorizes restitutive penalties when a temporary restraining order is ultimately dissolved and the challenged eligibility remains undisturbed.... ” Id. at 236 (quoting Cardinal Mooney High School v. Mich. High School Athletic Ass’n, 437 Mich. 75, 467 N.W.2d 21, 24 (1991)). Thus, the supreme court put to bed the issue of whether a trial court may preliminarily enjoin the IHSAA from enforcing its restitution order. The court resoundingly answered no.
In the present case, a trial court was asked by a student athlete to preliminarily enjoin the IHSAA from enforcing its restitution rule. The trial court, recognizing its limitations under the Carlberg decision, ordered instead that the IHSAA was enjoined from attempting to enforce its eligibility decision either directly or indirectly. The initial order made no mention of the restitution rule. Only after the trial court found the IHSAA in contempt did the court allow the IHSAA to purge itself of contempt by waiving the restitution rule. Whether a trial court enjoins the enforcement of the restitution rule initially or allows the IHSAA to purge itself of con*774tempt by waiving the restitution rule, the result is the same — the court is ordering the IHSAA to refrain from enforcing its restitution rule. This is in contravention of the dictates of our supreme court. In other words, proceeding under a contempt action does not make this any less an attempt to enjoin the enforcement of the restitution rule.
Even if this is only just another contempt case, the IHSAA should still win. In order to be punished for contempt, there must be an order commanding the accused to do or refrain from doing something. Clark v. Clark, 404 N.E.2d 28, 37 (Ind.Ct.App.1980). As the majority notes, a party must willfully disobey a lawfully entered court order of which the party had notice, and a party may not be held in contempt for failing to comply with an ambiguous or indefinite order. Op. at 766 (citing Meyer, 707 N.E.2d at 1031 and Rendon, 692 N.E.2d at 896). Further, an order which fails to include “[an] express command or prohibition cannot provide the foundation for contempt proceedings.” Nicholas v. Nicholas, 482 N.E.2d 770, 771 (Ind.Ct.App.1985).
In this case, before the contempt finding, the trial court failed to explicitly delineate the conduct that the IHSAA was refrained from doing or not doing. Particularly, the court’s initial order did not order the IHSAA to waive its restitution order as to Martin or her school. As a result, before the contempt finding, the IHSAA could not have reasonably known that the court’s order required it to waive its restitution order. This is even more convincing when it is clear that Martin, in her complaint, asked the court to enjoin the IHSAA from enforcement of the restitution rule yet the court, apparently in compliance with Carlberg, did not specifically do so. Instead the trial court generally ordered the IHSAA from directly or indirectly enforcing its eligibility decision. The court’s initial order was simply not clear as to what action or inaction would violate the order, consequently, the IHSAA did not willfully disobey this order. The majority contends that the order was sufficiently clear because the IHSAA was given the opportunity to purge itself of contempt by waiving its restitution order. But, this reasoning ignores the fact that the IHSAA was found in contempt before the court allowed waiver of the restitution rule as a means to avoid further contempt. Put differently, at the time of the contempt finding, the order was unclear as to what was expected of the IHSAA and only became clear after the fact.
Furthermore, it is evident that the initial order was ambiguous because there is no agreement as to what conduct of the IHSAA was contemptuous. The majority concludes alternatively that the contemptuous conduct was either the IHSAA’s failure to waive its restitution order or the IHSAA’s failure to “energetically” ensure that Martin was allowed to participate in varsity basketball at Luers. Op. 769, 771. Under either theory, the contemptuous conduct occurred at the time of the court’s initial order. Yet, the trial court ordered the penalty of $500 per day to be imposed not at the time of the court’s initial order but rather at the time the IHSAA initiated its appeal of the trial court’s decision.13 This leads to the inference that the trial court determined the contemptuous conduct was the filing of the appeal.
Under the cloak of a contempt action, this appeal really represents another challenge to the restitution rule. The concerns about the restitution rule should be addressed in the political arena and not in the judicial forum. See Ind. High Sch. *775Athletic Ass’n, Inc. v. Vasario, 726 N.E.2d 325, 333 (Ind.Ct.App.2000), trans. denied.14

. I agree with the majority that a party may not be held in contempt for appealing a court’s order,

. Our legislature has addressed these concerns by establishing an administrative review panel in the IHSAA to better scrutinize eligibility decisions. See IND. CODE § 20-5-63-1 et seq.