State ex rel. West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission v. Oakley

• Decision Date: 17 December 1968
• Docket Number: No. 12761,12761
• Citation: 164 S.E.2d 775,152 W.Va. 533
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. WEST VIRGINIA SECONDARY SCHOOL ACTIVITIES COMMISSION et al., etc. v. The Honorable Harvey OAKLEY, etc., Judge, et al., Edward Lee, etc., et al.

Page 775

164 S.E.2d 775

152 W.Va. 533

STATE ex rel. WEST VIRGINIA SECONDARY SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

COMMISSION et al., etc. v. The Honorable Harvey OAKLEY, etc., Judge, et al., Edward

Lee, etc., et al.

No. 12761.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted Oct. 29, 1968.

Decided Dec. 17, 1968.

Syllabus by the Court

1. 'Moot questions or abstract propositions, the decision of which would avail nothing in the determination of controverted rights of persons or of property, are not properly cognizable by a court.' Pt. 1, syllabus, State ex rel. Lilly v. Carter, 63 W.Va. 684 (60 S.E. 873).

2. As a general rule courts should not interfere with the internal affairs of school activities commissions of associations.

3. 'The writ of prohibition lies as a matter of right when the inferior court does not have jurisdiction of the subject matter in controversy, or having such jurisdiction, exceeds its legitimate powers.' Pt. 6, syllabus, W.Va. Sec. School Activities Comm. v. Wagner, Judge, 143 W.Va. 508 (102 S.E.2d 901).

4. In the absence of statutory power or of circumstances such as fraud, a court has no jurisdiction to determine a controversy regarding the eligibility of an athlete suspended from competition under rules promulgated by an association to which the secondary school in which he was a student at the time of suspension voluntarily belonged.

Jack L. Miller, Parkersburg, Jackson, Kelly, Holt & O'Farrell, John L. McClaugherty, Louis S. Southworth, II, Charleston, for relators.

W. Bernard Smith, Logan, for respondents.

BERRY, President:

This is an original proceeding in prohibition instituted in this Court September 3, 1968, in which the petitioners, the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission and the officers and members of the Board of Appeal and Board of Review, individually and as members of the Boards seek to prohibit the respondents who are a judge and two litigants from proceeding with and from hearing and considering a purported appeal from an order of the 'Board of Appeals' of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission finding that the respondent Edward Lee was ineligible to play football for the Logan Senior High School because of his age, in which appeal a stay was granted against both the 'Board of Appeals' and the 'Board of Review' of said Commission and to prohibit the respondent the Honorable Harvey Oakley, the duly elected and acting judge of the Circuit Court of Logan County, West Virginia, from hearing any matters in connection with this purported appeal and from continuing in any way to prosecute contempt proceedings against the executive 'secretary' of the Commission and 'members' of its Board of Appeals, which had grown out of the stay granted in the lower court.

No evidence was taken in this proceeding but voluminous pleadings were filed consisting of a petition, a demurrer to the petition, an answer by respondents, a demurrer to the answer, and a replication to the answer, with numerous exhibits attached and made a part of the pleadings.

A rule was issued September 3, 1968, returnable October 8, 1968, and continued to October 29, 1968, at which time the case was submitted on briefs for the decision of this Court during the September 1968 Regular Term.

Inasmuch as the respondent Edward Lee was graduated from the Logan Senior High School at Logan, West Virginia, in June, 1968, the question attempted to be submitted by him to the Circuit Court of Logan County on appeal is moot. However, the contempt proceeding instituted by the Circuit Court of Logan County for an alleged failure to comply with the orders of said Court must be disposed of in this proceeding.

It is the contention of the petitioners that the Circuit Court of Logan County is without jurisdiction to entertain any appeal in connection with the matters involved herein, and that the contempt proceedings have no bearing on the matter which was attempted to be appealed to the Circuit Court of Logan County. As the result of the ruling as to the eligibility of the respondent Edward Lee to play football, the petitioners suspended the Logan Senior High School, which had allowed Lee to play, from participating in certain athletic contests and from the playing of football with other member schools during the 1968 season. The Logan Senior High School was not a party to the attempted appeal to the Circuit Court. Therefore, the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction over any matters pertaining to it in the attempted appeal before it.

It appears that since 1916 the Association dealing with West Virginia Secondary School Activities has been in existence in this State. It was an entirely voluntary Association until January, 1967, at which time it was incorporated under the name of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, Incorporated, continuing to allow eligible secondary schools to become members thereof and be governed by its rules and regulations. Later, the West Virginia Legislature passed an act which became effective March 11, 1967, and is found in Code, 18--2--25, as amended, providing for such incorporation of the Association which had formerly been a purely voluntary Association without any statutory status. Under the charter obtained in January, 1967, before the act was passed, a five member Board of Appeals was provided for who were also the officers and directors of the corporation and the charter also provided for an executive secretary. The member schools were to elect the Board from their principals who were to have full supervision over extracurricular activities of the member schools. The corporation was a non-stock, non-profit organization. The statute later passed placed in the hands of the local county boards of education the power of supervision over all interscholastic athletic events and other extracurricular activities and provided that the local boards could delegate the power with regard to interscholastic athletic events and band activities to the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission which was to be composed of principals of secondary schools which the local boards of education had elected to place under the Commission for the purposes stated above. The Commission was authorized, with the consent of the State Board of Education, to incorporate as a non-profit, non-stock corporation. Private and parochial schools could also elect to become participating members and provisions were made for the members to pay dues. The statute required that rules and regulations be promulgated in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 29--A of the Code of West Virginia, as amended, which is the administrative procedure act, and that proper review procedure and review board be provided for, but it was not enacted that review be in accordance with said act. The rules and regulations were to be approved by the State Board of Education and to be filed with the Secretary of State before becoming effective.

It might be noted here that when the Commission was voluntary or a voluntary corporation it had a 'Board of Appeals'. When the statute was passed it used the term 'Board of Review'. The Commission by its rules then superimposed a 'Board of Review' on its 'Board of Appeals' and thus provided for appeal by an athlete or school to the 'Board of Appeals' followed by a review by the 'Board of Review'.

The only question involved in this proceeding is whether the Circuit Court of Logan...