Norwalk Core v. Norwalk Board of Education, Civ. No. 12624.

• Decision Date: 17 September 1968
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 12624.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: NORWALK CORE, a/k/a Norwalk Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality and Roodner Court Fair Rent Association, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, v. NORWALK BOARD OF EDUCATION, a/k/a the Board of Education of the City of Norwalk, Connecticut, Defendant.

298 F. Supp. 208

NORWALK CORE, a/k/a Norwalk Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality and Roodner Court Fair Rent Association, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, v. NORWALK BOARD OF EDUCATION, a/k/a the Board of Education of the City of Norwalk, Connecticut, Defendant.

Civ. No. 12624.

United States District Court D. Connecticut.

September 17, 1968.

Jonathan W. Lubell, of Lubell & Lubell, New York City (Stephen L. Fine, Westport, Conn., on the brief), for plaintiffs.

Robert H. Rubin, Sp. Corp. Counsel of the City of Norwalk, South Norwalk, Conn., for defendant.

Jack Waltuch, Norwalk-Stamford-Danbury Regional Legal Services, Inc., Stamford, Conn., for applicant intervenors.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION DENYING APPLICANTS' MOTION TO INTERVENE AS DEFENDANTS

TIMBERS, Chief Judge.

Applicant intervenors ("applicants") by motion seek to intervene as of right as parties defendant in the present action. Their motion is based on the pleadings, exhibits, briefs and oral argument of counsel on September 16, 1968. After due consideration of the foregoing, the Court holds that applicants' motion to intervene as of right pursuant to Rule 24(a)(2), Fed.R. Civ.P., should be denied.

FACTS

This is a class action wherein plaintiffs claim that defendant Norwalk Board of Education's policy in maintaining neighborhood schools in white neighborhoods but not in Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods "denies to plaintiffs and others similarly situated the equal protection of the laws, in violation of federally protected rights." Basically plaintiffs seek injunctive and declaratory relief so that integration is achieved not only in white neighborhood schools (by busing children out of the Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods), but by integrated schools in all neighborhoods of Norwalk. Neither party to this action opposes integration; however, plaintiffs allege that the means utilized by the Board to achieve integration by abandoning neighborhood schools in the ghetto areas deny the class which they represent equal protection of the laws.

Plaintiffs allege that they represent the class of Black and Puerto Rican citizens who are directly injured by this policy of the Board. In their motion to intervene as of right pursuant to Rule 24(a)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P., applicants allege that they "seek to intervene as a class on behalf of themselves and all other Black and Puerto Rican low income families and elementary school students in the City of Norwalk whose rights to attend racially integrated schools or to have their children attend such schools will be deprived by the policy of racial segregation demanded by the plaintiffs in their complaint in this action."

OPINION

If the interest for the asserted right to intervene is found to be without relevance to the instant controversy, the application to intervene must necessarily be denied. Since there is nothing in plaintiffs' complaint which can be construed as requesting the Court to impose a "policy of racial segregation", it is difficult to see in what respect applicants' stated interest is inadequately represented by the present parties, neither of which proposes or supports such a policy.

In the context of the instant...