Court Opinion

ID: 9781219
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 16:23:43.846336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:21.511340
License: Public Domain

Justice PLEICONES.
I respectfully dissent, and would affirm the circuit court’s order.
I agree that a public school teacher must be afforded procedural due process before she can be dismissed from employment. I would hold that S.C.Code Ann. § 59-19-110 (2004) permits respondent (Board) “to designate one or more of its members to conduct any hearing in connection with any responsibility of the board and to make a report on this hearing to the board for its determination.” Finally, I agree that due process entitled appellant to (1) adequate notice; (2) adequate opportunity for a hearing; (3) the right to introduce evidence; and (4) the right to confront and cross-examine ■witnesses. E.g., In re Vora, 354 S.C. 590, 582 S.E.2d 413 (2003). As I understand this case, appellant was afforded all these rights at her committee hearing. See also S.C.Code Ann. § 59-25-470 (2004).
The majority reverses the circuit court order upholding appellant’s dismissal based upon a finding that the committee’s oral report to the Board was inadequate to permit the Board to make a dismissal decision consonant with due process. I disagree. In Pettiford v. South Carolina State Bd. of Educ., 218 S.C. 322, 62 S.E.2d 780 (1950), this Court adopted the circuit court order finding a teacher had been afforded due process before having her teaching certifícate revoked. That order notes:
As pointed out by Mr. Chief Justice Wolfe, there has been considerable misconception of the doctrine announced in Morgan v. United States, 298 U.S. 468, 56 S.Ct. 906, 912, 80 *312L.Ed. 1288 [ (1936) ]. The Morgan case does not hold, as it is sometimes cited as holding, that the administrative agency which renders a decision, in a quasi-judicial proceeding, must actually hear the evidence and see the witnesses. It does hold that the administrative agency which makes the findings must address itself to the evidence, and upon the evidence before it must conscientiously reach a conclusion which it deems such evidence to justify. In announcing this rule, however, the Supreme Court of the United States, speaking through Mr. Chief Justice Hughes, says: ‘This necessary rule does not preclude practicable administrative procedure in obtaining the aid of assistants in the department. Assistants may prosecute inquiries. Evidence may be taken by an examiner. Evidence thus taken may be sifted and analyzed by competent subordinates. Argument may be oral or written. The requirements are not technical. But there must be a hearing in a substantial sense. And to give the substance of a hearing, which is for the purpose of making determinations upon evidence, the officer who makes the determinations must consider and appraise the evidence which justifies them’.
As I construe the doctrine, due process requires that an administrative board, or body, when acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, must consider all the evidence before rendering its decision upon any particular question. This does not mean that this administrative board, or body, must itself hear the evidence, but it must have the evidence before it, and consider such evidence when rendering its decision.
Pettiford, at 344-346, 62 S.E.2d at 790-791.
Here, the Board’s minutes show that the Board was in executive session for twenty minutes to discuss two personnel matters before voting to uphold the hearing committee’s recommendation not to renew appellant’s teaching contract. The majority concludes that because there was no written transcript of the hearing at the time the Board met, that because the minutes do not use the word ‘report,’ and because neither appellant nor her counsel were there to represent her interests, “the Board could not have properly considered the evidence.” This conclusion ignores the circuit court judge’s finding that, based upon these same minutes, “a report and *313recommendation were presented____” We may not overturn this factual finding which is supported by substantial evidence in the record. E.g., Risher v. South Carolina Dep’t of Health and Enviro. Control, 393 S.C. 198, 712 S.E.2d 428 (2011) (scope of review in APA appeals).
The majority further finds that the Board’s written order stating its decision was made “[ajfter considering the evidence presented and the arguments of counsel.... is a disingenuous representation of the procedure that actually took place.” (emphasis removed). Unlike the majority, I have no special insight into what the Board considered during its executive session when it received the hearing committee’s report, but would take it at its word that it considered both the evidence and the legal arguments.
Appellant was afforded procedural due process at her evidentiary hearing. The Board represents it considered the evidence and arguments during its executive session, at a meeting for which proper public notice was given,8 and I, like the circuit court, accept their statement as true. See Felder v. Charleston Cty. School Dist., 327 S.C. 21, 489 S.E.2d 191 (1997) (“school board members are clothed with a presumption of honesty and integrity in the discharge of their decision-making responsibilities”). I would therefore affirm the circuit court order.
KITTREDGE, J., concurs.

. S.C.Code Ann. § 30-4-80 (2007). I am unaware of any special notice requirements applicable to appellant or her attorney.