Court Opinion

ID: 9691020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:02:20.995772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:09.177564
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, dissenting. The parents of the s ^suspended students in this case (the Browns) bypassed the administrative remedies provided by the school district and, instead, rushed immediately into circuit court to obtain a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the suspension. In issuing the TRO, the circuit judge, without question, exceeded his authority when administrative remedies provided by the school district were still available for the Browns to pursue. I would grant the school district’s petition for certiorari and require that the school district’s remedies first be exhausted before a complaint is filed in circuit court. Not to do so affirms the circuit judge’s error in wading into the high risk area of school discipline before the school district had finally decided the matter. The majority opinion says the school district should have appealed the decision rather than petition for extraordinary relief and for that reason denies the petition. This, of course, has the effect of allowing the Brown children to attend school within the school district. I could not disagree more. This is a situation that cries out for immediate resolution so as not to further hamper discipline within the school district and the education of the Brown children. The majority’s decision, which requires an appeal, denigrates the necessity for a speedy decision. The keystone of the majority opinion is that an appeal is an adequate remedy that should have been pursued by the school district. It certainly is not an adequate remedy now, because the appeal time for appealing the TRO has expired. Beginning a new appeal after a final order is entered will only delay matters more and unduly thwart the objectives of both the school district and the Browns. This court has defined an adequate, alternative remedy to extraordinary relief as follows: “the alternative remedy must be ‘plain and complete and as practical and efficient to the ends of justice and its proper administration as the remedy invoked.’ ” Axley v. Hardin, 353 Ark. 529, 536, 110 S.W.3d 766, 770 (2003) (quoting Hanley v. Arkansas State Claims Comm’n, 333 Ark. 159, 970 S.W.2d 198 (1998)); see also 55 C.J.S. Mandamus § 19 (2006) (other remedy to mandamus must be equally convenient, beneficial, and effectual). Again, appealing a final order at some point down the line is woefully inefficient and does not come close to being adequate. The question then is whether the school district should have appealed the TRO back in November 2006, rather than petitioning for certiorari after the circuit judge granted a TRO. In analyzing this point, the time frame is important. The TRO was issued on October 31, 2006, and stayed by this court at the request of the school district on November 9, 2006. The school district’s petition for emergency relief was filed one day earlier on November 8, 2006, and included the necessary pleadings as attachments and a prayer for expedited consideration. A response was filed by the Browns on November 21, 2006. The time for appeal of the TRO expired on November 30, 2006. No doubt, speed was a critical consideration for the school district. There is also no question but that an appeal, even when expedited, is a more cumbersome process. A record must be filed to start the appeal process, and a motion to expedite must be filed by the appellant with time allowed for the appellee to respond. I cannot say the school district erred by putting this case on the emergency track with a petition for certiorari. The school district’s goal was to have the matter resolved before commencement of school in January. A petition for certiorari, not surprisingly, appeared to be the appropriate route to take. Cases cited by the majority in defense of dismissing this matter and delaying resolution are not apposite. In Weaver v. Simes, 365 Ark. 289, 229 S.W.3d 15 (2006), we dismissed the petition for emergency relief because the petitioner had also appealed the matter. We correctly observed that the petitioner had an alternative, adequate remedy — an appeal — and that he was pursuing it. In a later case, Sims v. Circuit Court of Pulaski County, 368 Ark. 498, 247 S.W.3d 493 (2007), we similarly observed that the petitioner had asked for extraordinary relief while also appealing a related case that raised the same issue. We correctly observed again that an adequate remedy in the form of an appeal was available to the petitioner, and that he was pursuing it. That is not the situation in the case before us. There is another point that needs to be highlighted. This is not a case where a petitioner seeks emergency relief in the form of certiorari after he has allowed his appeal time to expire. We have denied such efforts in the past. See, e.g., Gran v. Hale, 294 Ark. 563, 567, 745 S.W.2d 129, 131 (1988) (“Certiorari will not be used for the correction of mere error where the right of appeal has been lost due to the fault of the petitioner.”); Ricci v. Poole, 253 Ark. 324, 485 S.W.2d 728 (1972). Here, the petition for certiorari was filed well within the appeal time. The Browns in their response did mention that the school district had an alternative remedy on November 21 but never moved to dismiss the petition on that basis. Nor did this court advise the school district that it was limited to an appeal. Instead, the appeal time expired while this court set an expedited briefing schedule on the petition for certiorari. Now this court says the school district should have appealed the TRO. It occurs to me that this court should have denied the petition for certiorari before the appeal time ran if that is the basis on which we are now dismissing the school district’s petition. This court has been assiduous in the past in avoiding intervention by the courts in matters best left to school authorities. We said as much two years ago. See Johnson v. Hargrove, 362 Ark. 649, 210 S.W.3d 79 (2005). We also have been quick to allow extraordinary relief where to wait for an appeal would cause the demise of what is sought to be protected. See Mears v. Hall, 263 Ark. 827, 838, 569 S.W.2d 91, 96 (1978) (“Utilizing the remedy of appeal would probably result in the demise of the public defender system while that remedy was being pursued.”). Here, by the time a final order is entered and an appeal pursued, the one-year period of the suspension may well have expired. The parties deserve a decision in this case. I would grant the school district’s petition. Hannah, C.J., joins this dissent. MARCH 15,2007 Rieves, Rubens & Mayton, by: Kent J. Rubens, for petitioners.