Court Opinion

ID: 9658662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:07:38.897338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:57.230719
License: Public Domain

BUTZNER, District Judge
(dissenting) :
I regret that I cannot join my brothers’ view that we should abstain. I believe the federal questions raised in this action are independent and can be decided without resolution of state issues. Even if state law plays a crucial part, the defendants’ plea that we abstain overlooks the college’s argument that the state law is not ambiguous, that the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia has construed Virginia’s pivotal statute, and that its decision is binding upon this court. Under these circumstances abstention is not appropriate. Cf. Griffin v. County School Board, 377 U.S. 218, 229, 84 S.Ct. 1226, 12 L.Ed.2d 256 (1964).
The college may prosecute simultaneous in personam actions in state and federal courts until one results in a judgment which can be asserted as res judicata in the other. Kline v. Burke Const. Co., 260 U.S. 226, 43 S.Ct. 79, 67 L.Ed. 226 (1922). Abstention cannot be predicated on the defendants’ plea of res judicata. Section 8-99, Code of Virginia 1950, provides in part:
“In civil cases the court on motion of any party thereto shall, or of its own motion may, require the grounds of demurrer relied on to be stated specifically in the demurrer; and no grounds shall be considered other than those so stated, but either party may amend his demurrer by stating additional grounds, or otherwise, at any time before trial.”
The statute applies when the demurrant states his grounds voluntarily. Virginia & S. W. Ry. Co. v. Hollingsworth, 107 Va. 359, 58 S.E. 572 (1907).
One defendant demurred on three specific state — not federal — grounds. The state judge wrote two opinions, which he incorporated in his order by reference. Sweet Briar Institute v. McClenny, No. 1383, June 3, 1965, April 6, 1966 (opinions); May 25, 1966 (order). He scrupulously observed the statutory restrictions limiting the scope of the demurrer and sustained it on state— not federal — grounds. He did not adjudicate the federal questions which the college asserts here.
The state court order sustaining the demurrer allowed the college to amend and continued the cause. The college amended, reserving for federal decision the federal questions. The order is interlocutory. § 8-462, Code of Virginia 1950; Commercial Bank of Lynchburg v. Rucker, 2 Va.Dec. 350, 24 S.E. 388 (1896). Its lack of finality renders it insufficient to sustain the defendants’ plea of res judicata. “* * * it is familiar law that only a final judgment is res judicata as between the parties.” G. & C. Merriam Co. v. Saalfield, 241 U.S. 22, 28, 36 S.Ct. 477, 480, 60 L.Ed. 868 (1916).
The doctrine that a decree sustaining a demurrer decides every question which the parties might have litigated and had determined is not controlling. A federal court need not abstain from deciding a federal question when the demurrer *320and the interlocutory decree sustaining it are drawn to dispose of the case on state grounds only. The rule expressed in England v. Louisiana State Bd. of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 84 S.Ct. 461, 11 L.Ed.2d 440 (1964) does not encompass this situation.
The federal questions which must be decided are: Do the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit the state from enforcing the racially restrictive provisions of a will founding a private college? By enforcing the will, can the state compel the college officials, against their judgment, to exclude students on the basis of race ?
The parties accept the premise that in the absence of state action the Constitution and laws of the United States do not prohibit a person from establishing by will a private college for the benefit of one race. But when the state — and not the college — enforces racial restrictions found in a will, the impact of state action must be examined in light of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The pivotal issue is whether the discrimination is the product of state action. Griffin v. State of Maryland, 378 U.S. 130, 138, 84 S.Ct. 1770, 12 L.Ed.2d 754 (1964) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
Consideration of the stance of the parties places the state and federal questions in perspective.
The college acknowledges that the defendants are authorized by § 55-29, Code of Virginia 1950,1 to enforce the testamentary trust creating Sweet Briar. The college, however, asserts that the defendants, under the authority conferred by § 55-29, cannot constitutionally enforce the racially restrictive language of the will. The college insists that the state is so involved with its origin and operation that a racially restrictive admission policy is the product of state action contravening Sweet Briar’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The college’s primary thrust is against § 55-26, Code of Virginia 1950,2 which it contends validates bequests and devises for racially segregated schools only and leaves invalid bequests and devises for racially integrated schools.
A brief sketch of the history of charitable trusts in Virginia illustrates the college’s position. Gallego’s Ex’rs v. Attorney General, 30 Va. (3 Leigh) 450, *321462 (1832) held that an Act of the General Assembly (Acts of Va., ch. 79, Dec. 27, 1792) repealed, in Virginia, England’s Statute of Charitable Uses (1601), 43 Eliz. 1, c. 4, which permitted such devises for educational purposes. The common law of Virginia did not recognize the validity of charitable trusts in the absence of statute. Consequently, in Literary Fund v. Dawson, 37 Va. (10 Leigh) 147 (1839), a devise for educational purposes was held invalid.
In 1839 a statute, validating devises for the education of white persons, was enacted. Acts of Va., ch. 12, April 2, 1839. Not until 1873 were devises for the education of Negroes valid. Acts of Va., ch. 263, Mar. 28, 1873. These statutes have been codified in § 55-26.
In April 1899 when the will benefiting the college was written and in 1900 when the testatrix died, the statute, for all purposes pertinent to this case, was similar to § 55-26.
The college relies upon Triplett v. Trotter, 169 Va. 440, 193 S.E. 514 (1937), as a definitive interpretation of the statute. There a will establishing an educational trust without racially restrictive language was attacked by heirs on the ground that it did not meet the requirements of the statute. The court said at 193 S.E. 515:
“On their part [the heirs] contend that the gift [for an educational institution] is not validated by this section [§ 587, the predecessor to § 55-26], because, * * *:
“ * * * The will neither expressly nor impliedly shows whether the college is to be used for the education of white persons or colored persons, and such specification is required by the statute in the case of a trust for educational purposes.
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« * * * ipjjg wjjj faijs to specify whether the beneficiaries are white or colored persons, hence the trust is too indefinite to qualify under the statute as a gift for charitable purposes.
“With respect to their first contention appellants argue that the gift here, which is, in effect, for the purpose of aiding in the education of ‘all worthy and dependent young men,’ is not within the purview of section 587; that while the statute validates a gift for the ‘education of white persons’ or a gift for the ‘education of colored persons,’ as separate classes, it was not designed to validate a gift, such as this, which fails to specify which class is intended.
“ * * * Admittedly the language of the statute validates a gift for the education of either white or colored persons as separate classes. Here the testator leaves to the discretion of the self-perpetuating board of trustees the selection of the ‘worthy and dependent young men’ who are to be admitted to the college. They may select all applicants from one class, and reject all applicants from the other. So long as the trustees do this they are certainly carrying out the provisions of the trust. And just as certainly such a trust complies with the statute because it is a gift for the ‘education of white persons’ or for the ‘education of colored persons.’
“But it is said that the language of the will is broad enough to permit the trustees to admit to the college both white and colored persons, and that surely this was not the intention of the framers of Code, section 587. [55-26]
“The answer to this argument is that the will does not compel the trustees to make their selection from both classes. They may select applicants from either. And we have just seen that the statute validates a gift for the education of either white or colored persons as separate classes.
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“ * * * ‘ “In the construction of wills the object is not to seek flaws and declare them invalid, but to sustain them if legally possible, and the presumption is that the testator in*322tended a lawful rather than an unlawful thing. Therefore, where the language used in the will is reasonably susceptible of two different constructions, one of which will defeat, and the other sustain the provisions, the doubt is to be resolved in favor of the construction which will give effect to the will, rather than the one which will defeat it.” ’
“Applying this principle, the trust is validated when we adopt the interpretation that the testator intended that the applicants for the college should come from one of the two classos, either white or colored, and not from both.
“We therefore reach the conclusion ihat the gift to establish and maintain a college for the education of such ‘worthy and dependent young men’ as may be selected by a board of trustees designated or provided for in the will, and as the income of the trust will permit, is on its face a valid gift for educational purposes under Code, § 587.
“Having arrived at this conclusion, it becomes unnecessary that we discuss the admissibility and effect of the extrinsic evidence offered by appellees in support of their contention that the testator intended to benefit only white ‘worthy and dependent young men.’ ”
Bluntly stated, the college’s position is that § 55-26, as construed in Triplett, prevents a Virginia citizen from leaving his property to establish an educational institution as he sees fit. He must leave it for the education of white students or Negro students. Regardless of his wishes, he cannot provide that his estate shall educate both white and Negro students in the same institution. Even if his will states no preference, his trustees must elect whether the beneficiaries are to be white or Negro.
Buttressed by the interpretation placed upon § 55-26 in Triplett, the college relies upon Peterson v. City of Greenville, 373 U.S. 244, 83 S.Ct. 1119, 10 L.Ed.2d 323 (1963) and Mr. Justice White’s concurring opinion in Evans v. Newton, 382 U.S. 296, 302, 86 S.Ct. 486, 15 L.Ed.2d 373 (1966), to sustain its contention that the restrictive language in the will must be deemed the product of Virginia law in effect at the testatrix’s death.
As a further evidence of state action, the college points to § 140 of the Virginia Constitution 3 prohibiting integrated schools, the Sweet Briar charter granted by Act of the General Assembly4 imposing racial restrictions in accordance with the language of the will, and miscellaneous statutes pertaining to colleges in general.5
Finally, the college relies upon §§ 202, 203, 204 and 207 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.6
The defendants deny that § 55-26 compelled the testatrix to insert the racially restrictive provision in her will. They point out that Triplett v. Trotter, 169 Va. 440, 193 S.E. 514 (1937), was not decided until more than a third of a century after the will was written.
The defendants deny that they seek to enforce § 55-26, which they characterize as merely a declaratory statute validating charitable trusts.
The defendants assert that § 140 of the Constitution refers to public, not private, schools. They deny that the Act of the Assembly chartering the college *323and the miscellaneous statutes pertaining to colleges significantly involve the state in the affairs of the college.
The defendants characterize the will as private action founding a private college by a private individual for the members of a particular race. In urging that such a will violates no constitutional provision, they cite Mr. Justice Douglas’ statement in Evans v. Newton, 382 U.S. 296, 300, 86 S.Ct. 486, 489, 15 L.Ed.2d 373 (1966):
“If a testator wanted to leave a school or center for the use of one race only and in no way implicated the State in the supervision, control, or management of that facility, we assume arguendo that no constitutional difficulty would be encountered.”
Although the defendants do not rely on § 140 of the Virginia Constitution or § 55-26, Code of Virginia 1950, the threat of state control over the admission policies of the college is real and imminent. After the college officials expressed their determination to admit Negroes, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Amherst County moved a state court to cite the Board of the College for contempt. In April 1966 the state court denied the motion. The state judge’s opinion indicates, however, that the motion was denied because the college had not yet put into effect its proposed change in admission policy.
A state court has ruled that the language of the will is clear and unambiguous. For the purpose of this action, neither party alleges any ambiguity in the will. Both plaintiff and defendants are in agreement that the defendants are state officials charged by statute, § 55-29, with the responsibility of enforcing the trust creating the college.
The defendants, by claiming authority under § 55-29 to enforce the racial restrictions in the will without reliance upon § 140 of the Virginia Constitution and § 55-26, eliminate questions concerning the validity and application of these constitutional and statutory provisions. The defendants’ position places in stark relief the federal questions that must be decided. Only if the state by enforcing the racially restrictive provisions of the will is empowered to compel the college officials against their judgment to exclude students on the basis of race need this court pursue the allegations that the racial restrictions found in the’will originated in state action repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment.
The principles governing this case have been stated by the Supreme Court of the United States in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Board of Directors of City Trusts, 353 U.S. 230, 77 S.Ct. 806, 1 L.Ed.2d 792 (1957):
“Stephen Girard, by a will probated in 1831, left a fund in trust for the erection, maintenance, and operation of a ‘college.’ The will provided that the college was to admit ‘as many poor white male orphans, between the ages of six and ten years, as the said income shall be adequate to maintain.’ The will named as trustee the City of Philadelphia. The provisions of the will were carried out by the State and City and the college was opened in 1848. Since 1869, by virtue of an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, the trust has been administered and the college operated by the ‘Board of Directors of City Trusts of the City of Philadelphia.’ * * *
“In February 1954, the petitioners Foust and Felder applied for admission to the college. They met all qualifications except that they were Negroes. For this reason the Board refused to admit them. They petitioned the Orphans’ Court of Philadelphia County for an order directing the Board to admit them, alleging that their exclusion because of race violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. * * * The Orphans’ Court rejected the constitutional contention and refused to order the applicants’ admission. * * * This was affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. [In re Girard’s Estate,] 386 Pa. 548, 127 A.2d 287.
*324“The Board which operates Girard College is an agency of the State of Pennsylvania. Therefore, even though the Board was acting as a trustee, its refusal to admit Foust and Felder to the college because they were Negroes was discrimination by the State. Such discrimination is forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment. * * * ”7
Application of the holding in the Girard College case may be found in Griffin v. State of Maryland, 378 U.S. 130, 136, 84 S.Ct. 1770, 1773, 12 L.Ed.2d 754 (1964), which concerned the exclusion of Negroes from a private amusement park. The Court said :
“The Board of Trusts [Girard College] case must be taken to establish that to the extent that the State undertakes an obligation to enforce a private policy of racial segregation, the State is charged with racial discrimination and violates the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The Supreme Court held in Board of Trusts that agents of the state, serving as trustees, could not constitutionally enforce the racially restrictive provisions of the will establishing Girard College. The case provides precedent for holding that state officials cannot enforce the racially restrictive provisions of the will establishing Sweet Briar College by compelling the Board, through threat of contempt, or otherwise, to admit only white students. Racial exclusion achieved by these means is the product of state action and is forbidden. Section 55-29 is not unconstitutional upon its face. However, the Fourteenth Amendment renders impermissible the use of this section 4» enforce racial segregation at the college.
The court must also consider the college’s alternative ground for relief under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Cf. Paul v. United States, 371 U.S. 245, 83 S.Ct. 426, 9 L.Ed.2d 292 (1963); United States v. Georgia Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 371 U.S. 285, 83 S.Ct. 397, 9 L.Ed.2d 317 (1963); Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Jacobsen, 362 U.S. 73, 80 S.Ct. 568, 4 L.Ed.2d 568 (1960).
Pertinent sections of this Act provide:
Section 202 (42 U.S.C. § 2000a-1):
“All persons shall be entitled to be free, at any establishment or place, from discrimination or segregation of any kind on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin, if such discrimination or segregation is or purports to be required by any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, rule, or order of a State or any agency or political subdivision thereof.
Section 203 (42 U.S.C. § 2000a-2):
“No person shall (a) withhold, deny, or attempt to withhold or deny, or deprive or attempt to deprive, any person of any right or privilege secured by section 2000a or 2000a-1 of this title,, or (b) intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten or coerce any person with the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by section 2000a or 2000a-1 of this title, or (c) punish or attempt to punish any person for exercising or attempting to exercise any right or privilege secured by. section 2000a or 2000a-1 of this title.”
Section 204 (42 U.S.C. 2000a-3[a]):
“Whenever any person has engaged or there are reasonable grounds to believe that any person is about to en*325gage in any act or practice prohibited by section 2000a-2 of this title, a civil action for preventive relief, including an application for a permanent or temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order, may be instituted by the person aggrieved * * * ”
Section 207 (42 U.S.C. 2000a-6[a]):
“The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction of proceedings instituted pursuant to this subchapter and shall exercise the same without regard to whether the aggrieved party shall have exhausted any administrative or other remedies that may be provided by law.”
The legislative history indicates that Section 202 of the Act covers any establishment or place when discrimination is state imposed. Section 202 is not limited to places of public accommodation. This limitation is found only in Section 201.
H.R.Rep.No. 914, 88th Cong., 2d Sess. pp. 2391, 2396 (1964) states:
“Section 202 requires nondiscrimination in all establishments and places whether or not within the categories described in section 201, if segregation or discrimination therein is required or purports to be required by any State law or ordinance.”
The breadth of Section 202 was recognized in the Minority Report upon Proposed Civil Rights Act of 1963, Committee on Judiciary Substitute for H.R. 7152, 88th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 2431, 2444 (1964):
“3. There was added in the reported bill section 202 which did not appear in any previous version of the bill. This section would make unlawful ‘discrimination or segregation of any kind on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin’ ‘at any establishment or place,’ if either purports to be required by any rule, order, etc., of any State or any agency or political subdivision thereof. This section is not limited to public places or facilities. As hereinafter pointed out, under the penal provisions of section 203, this amounts to an unconstitutional abridgement of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and attempted Federal control of State and municipal judges and law enforcement officers.”
The hallmark of Section 202 is the source of the discrimination, not the kind of establishment. The Bureau of National Affairs commented upon Section 202 in The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Text, Analysis, Legislative History (1964), 85:
“When segregation or discrimination ‘is or purports to be required’ by state or local law or by order of state or local officials, then Title II’s prohibition comes into play regardless of the public or private character of the facility involved and regardless of the type of service it renders or the type of clientele it serves. Section 202 prohibits discrimination in ‘any establishment or place’ where it is required by state law. Here seems to be implementation of the Fourteenth Amendment in its fullest scope. There is no requirement that the ‘place’ be one of ‘public accommodation,’ that it be a place of business, or even that it not be a private club.”
Section 202 of the Act frees the college and its students from state imposed discrimination. Section 203 forbids the defendants’ attempt to punish by contempt the college officials for exercising the rights granted by Section 202. Section 204 authorizes injunctive relief. This court must exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon it even though the plaintiff may have other remedies. Section 207 expresses a Congressional command that prohibits abstention.

. Code of Virginia 1950, § 55-29. Appointment of trustees to hold such gifts, etc.; suits 6y and against them; settlement of their accounts and enforcement of the execution of the trust.— When any such gift, grant or will is recorded and no trustee has been appointed, or the trustee dies or refuses to act, the circuit court of the county or the circuit or corporation court of the city in which the trust subject or any part thereof is, in the case of a gift or grant, or in which the will is recorded, may, on motion of the attorney for the Commonwealth in such court (whose duty it shall be to make such motion), appoint one or more trustees to carry the same into execution. * * * In enforcing the execution of any such trust a suit may be maintained against the trustees in the name of the Commonwealth when there is no other party capable of prosecuting such suit. * * * ”

. Code of Virginia 1950, § 55-26. Validity. — Every gift, grant, devise or bequest which, since April second, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, has been or at any time hereafter shall be made for literary purposes or for the education of white persons, and every gift, grant, devise or bequest which, since April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, has been or at any time hereafter shall be made for literary purposes or for the education of colored persons, and every gift, grant, devise or bequest made hereafter for charitable purposes, whether made in any case to a body corporate or unincorporated, or to a natural person, shall be as valid as if made to or for the benefit of a certain natural person, except such devises or bequests, if any, as have failed to become void by virtue of the seventh section of the act of the General Assembly passed on April second, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, entitled “an act concerning devises made to schools, academies, and colleges.” Nothing in this section shall be so construed as to give validity to any devise or bequest to or for the use of any unincorporated theological seminary. (Code 1919, §. 587; 1954, c. 145.)

. Va.Const. art. 9, § 140. Mixed schools prohibited. — White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school.

. Va.Acts of Assembly, Extra Sess.1901, ch. 123, at 125, 128, includes a provision that the school or seminary is “to be known as the ‘Sweet Briar institute,’ for the education of white girls and young women.”

. Code of Virginia 1950, §§ 23-9, 25-46.-6, 58-12, 58-128, 19.1-28, 42-57, 22-221, 15.1-139, 55-27, 55-28, 55-30, 55-31, and 55-34, and Va.Const., art. 13, § 183.

. 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000a-1, 2000a-2, 2000a-3, and 2000a-6.

. Upon remand, the Philadelphia County Orphans’ Court substituted trustees who were not officials of the City of Philadelphia. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed. In Re Girard College Trusteeship, 391 Pa. 434, 138 A.2d 844 (1958). The United States Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and denied certiorari, sub nom. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Board of Directors of City Trusts, 357 U.S. 570, 78 S.Ct 1383, 2 L.Ed.2d 1546 (1958). The new trustees continued the exclusion of Negroes. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Joseph S. Lord, III, J.) recently held that the Pennsylvania Public Accommodations Act, prohibiting racial discrimination, was applicable to Girard College. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Brown, E.D. Pa., Sept. 2, 1966, 260 F.Supp. 323.