Court Opinion

ID: 9563161
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:37:23.349565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:45.499799
License: Public Domain

RANSOM, Justice (specially concurring). I concur that the rights of Swinney are encompassed in an express written contract. Governmental immunity is a .false issue. Also, State Department of Education Regulation 89-1 is applicable only to “discharge” and I consequently do not see that the specific notice, opportunity to correct performance, and hearing provisions of that regulation are impliedly made applicable to administrative personnel in regard to “termination.” Despite the fact I am at odds with the majority of this Court in my belief that there is an ambiguity in the employment contract that should have foreclosed dismissal on the pleadings, I can specially concur in the result of the Court’s opinion. While an administrator does not have a termination-for-good-cause-only expectancy, I see no reason why an administrator may not contract for the right to notice and an airing of the termination decision. I do not agree that the contractual grant of such a right would be ultra vires and void. Subsection (B) of Section (C)(17) of the Official Manual, however, by specific reference to NMSA 1978, Section 22-10-14 (termination of certified school instructors ), makes ambiguous whether notice of “reason for termination and procedures for appeal” are applicable to the administrative employees included within “all school personnel.” Because of the reference to Section 22-10-14, I am inclined to resolve the ambiguity by limiting the termination-for-good-cause-only and the procedural provisions of Subsection (B) to certified school instructors. Section 22-10-11(E) and those that follow show that the parties did not intend for a termination-for-good-cause-only limit on termination of administrative personnel, and I believe the notice and hearing provisions of Subsection (B)(3) deal with the certified school instructors to which the termination-for-good-cause-only provisions are limited.