S-1 v. Spangler
| Citation | 832 F.2d 294 |
| Decision Date | 02 November 1987 |
| Docket Number | P-1 and P-2,No. 87-2521,S-1 and S-2,B,87-2521 |
| Parties | 42 Ed. Law Rep. 717 y and Through their parents and Guardians Ad Litem;;, individually, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. C.D. SPANGLER, Jr., Chairman, State Board of Education of North Carolina; The State Board of Education of North Carolina; C.D. Heidgerd, Hearing Officer, Asheboro City Board of Education, Defendants-Appellants, and The Asheboro City Board of Education; Mary Smitherman, Defendants. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) |
Edwin Marion Speas, Jr., Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen. (Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen., Laura E. Crumpler, Asst. Atty. Gen., Kaye R. Webb, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, N.C., on brief), for defendants-appellants.
David B. Puryear, Jr. (A. Frank Johns, Booth, Harrington, Johns & Campbell, Greensboro, N.C., on brief), for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before PHILLIPS, ERVIN, and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges.
This Sec. 1983 action by parents of handicapped children challenges the North Carolina State Board of Education's refusal to allow hearing officers appointed under the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400 et seq., to award tuition reimbursement as a remedy for violations of the Act. Because the underlying controversy has now been mooted by events, we vacate the district court's order and remand to that court with directions to dismiss the action as moot, except for an ancillary claim for costs and attorney's fees.
S1 and S2 are handicapped children enrolled in the Asheboro, North Carolina city schools. In the fall of 1983, after notifying the principal at the children's public school of their intentions, their parents enrolled them at their own expense in a private school for one-half of each school day to receive special education services.
The following school year, the parents demanded that the Asheboro City Board of Education (City Board) provide the children with an individualized education program comparable to that provided at the children's private school or, alternatively, provide transportation and tuition for the children to continue at the private school for the 1984-85 school year. The parents premised their demand on the EHA, which the parents claimed the City Board was violating by failing to provide their children with the "free appropriate public education" guaranteed by the Act, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1412(1). The parents also demanded tuition reimbursement for the 1983-84 school year, claiming that the city schools failed to notify them during that school year of their federal right to receive free special education services as required by the EHA.
The City Board eventually placed the children appropriately in the city school system, but the City Board refused the parents' tuition reimbursement claim for the 1983-84 school year and for the period during the fall of 1984 before the City Board and parents negotiated a placement. When the City Board denied their tuition reimbursement claim, the parents demanded a "due process hearing" pursuant to N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 115c -116, a statute enacted pursuant to the EHA, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1415(b)(2). The appointed hearing officer, however, declared that he lacked authority to award tuition reimbursement, or make findings of fact attendant to a tuition reimbursement claim, and so refused to hear the parents' complaint. The parents then petitioned the North Carolina State Board of Education (State Board) to rule either that the hearing officer had authority to hear their claim or, alternatively, to amend the state regulations enacted pursuant to the EHA to confer such authority on him. The State Board denied the parents' petition.
The parents then instituted this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against the City Board, the State Board and the Chairman of the State Board, C.D. Spangler, Jr., alleging the deprivation of procedural rights secured by the EHA and applicable federal regulations, 34 C.F.R. Sec. 104.31 et seq. Relying primarily on Burlington School Committee v. Massachusetts Department of Education, 471 U.S. 359, 105 S.Ct. 1996, 85 L.Ed.2d 385 (1985), the parents alleged that the City Board, acting by and through its duly appointed hearing officer, had deprived them of procedural rights secured by federal law when it refused to decide their tuition reimbursement claim. The parents further alleged that the State Board and Chairman Spangler had deprived them of federally guaranteed procedural rights when it refused to interpret or amend state regulations to permit the hearing officer to decide their tuition reimbursement claim. The parents sought to recover tuition expenses from the City Board or, in the alternative, the following: a declaration that the state rules preventing hearing officers from deciding tuition reimbursement claims violated the parents' rights under federal law, an order enjoining Spangler and the State Board from promulgating and enforcing these rules, and an order compelling the City Board and its hearing officer to conduct a hearing on this particular reimbursement claim. The parents also sought costs and attorney's fees from all defendants, under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 and 29 U.S.C. Sec. 794a.
On December 31, 1986, the district court granted the parents' motion for summary judgment on the claims for injunctive and declaratory relief, concluding that the EHA required a state administrative hearing at which parents could receive tuition reimbursement as appropriate relief for violations of the Act. S1 v. Spangler, 650 F.Supp. 1427 (M.D.N.C.1986). On the same day, the district court issued an order directing the City Board and its administrative hearing officer to conduct a hearing on the parents' claim for reimbursement, enter findings of fact and conclusions, and, if appropriate, award reimbursement; and enjoining Spangler and the State Board from further interpreting North Carolina law in a manner inconsistent with the court's interpretation of the EHA. Spangler, the State Board, the City Board, and the administrative hearing officer here appeal the district court's decision.
On September 24, 1987, while this appeal was pending, the parents and the City Board agreed to a partial settlement of the case. Under the terms of this settlement agreement, which the district court approved by order entered the same day, the parents agreed to a voluntary dismissal with prejudice of all their claims against the City Board, in return for the City Board's agreement to pay their accrued tuition expenses. The State Board and its Chairman were not parties to the settlement agreement, and the parents did not dismiss any of their claims against them. In light of this change in circumstances, we hold that this appeal is now moot.
Because the question of mootness implicates our jurisdiction over this appeal, we are obligated to consider it as a preliminary matter even though neither party asserts mootness. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Barry, 438 U.S. 531, 537, 98 S.Ct. 2923, 2927, 57 L.Ed.2d 932 (1978). Without doubt, the complete settlement of the underlying dispute between the parents and the City Board has mooted the appeal as between those parties. See Lake Coal Co. v. Roberts & Schaefer Co., 474 U.S. 120, 106 S.Ct. 553, 88 L.Ed.2d 418 (1985). The settlement's impact on the parents' action against the State Board and its Chairman, however, is a more difficult question. But we need not decide whether this development moots the case in strict constitutional case or controversy terms, because we conclude that we should treat this appeal as moot for prudential reasons. See United States v. (Under Seal), 757 F.2d 600 (4th Cir.1985).
The discretionary power to withhold injunctive and declaratory relief for prudential reasons, even in a case not constitutionally moot, is well established. See United States v. W.T. Grant, 345 U.S. 629, 73 S.Ct. 894, 97 L.Ed. 1303 (1953); A.L. Mechling Barge Lines, Inc. v. United States, 368 U.S. 324, 82 S.Ct. 337, 7 L.Ed.2d 317 (1961). See generally 13A C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction (2d ed. 1984 & Supp.1987) Sec. 3533.1. The prudential concerns that lead us to withhold such relief here are threefold.
First, and most fundamentally, we think the specific relief sought here no longer has sufficient utility to justify decision of this case on the merits. The parents do not seek monetary relief from the State Board and Spangler, but simply injunctive and declaratory relief against their promulgation and enforcement of rules forbidding state hearing officers to decide tuition reimbursement claims. As their pleadings make clear, the parents seek this relief only as an alternative to their reimbursement, by the City Board, for past tuition expenses. They have now obtained this reimbursement--which is indeed the ultimate object of their action for injunctive and declaratory relief against the State Board and Spangler--through settlement with the City Board. They therefore have no present need for remedial relief from the federal courts. 1
To be sure, the settlement has not completely eliminated the possibility that the State Board and its Chairman may, if confronted with another tuition reimbursement claim from these particular parents, again prevent administrative determination of their claims. As the City Board has now placed their children in appropriate programs within the public school system, however, we do not think that...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Ctr. for Constitutional Rights v. Lind, Civil Action No. ELH–13–1504.
...this clear. Nevertheless, there is a significant question as to whether this matter is prudentially moot. In S–1 and S–2 v. Spangler, 832 F.2d 294, 297 (4th Cir.1987), the Fourth Circuit recognized that, even in a case that is not constitutionally moot, a court, in its discretion, has the p......
-
Brock v. International Union, United Auto., Aerospace & Agr. Implement Workers of America, (UAW)
...of a claim for an award of ancillary costs does not avert the mootness of underlying substantive issues. See, e.g., S-1 v. Spanger, 832 F.2d 294, 297 n. 1 (4th Cir.1987) ("The fact that the [parties] still assert a claim for costs and attorney's fees against [another party] does not avert m......
-
Leaders of A Beautiful Struggle v. Balt. Police Dep't
..."the specific relief sought here no longer has sufficient utility to justify decision of this case on the merits." S-1 v. Spangler , 832 F.2d 294, 297 (4th Cir. 1987). The fact that the majority is opining on the law without the prospect of a tangible remedy to the plaintiffs strongly indic......
-
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Rambus, Inc.
...of sunk costs." Id. See also Tunik v. Merit Systems Protection Bd., 407 F.3d 1326, 1331 (Fed.Cir.2005) (same). In S-1 v. Spangler, 832 F.2d 294, 298 (4th Cir.1987), our Court of Appeals made clear that a pending claim for attorney's fees did not avert the consequence of mootness of a compro......
-
Using Promised Out-Of-Court Relief To Defeat Class Actions: The 10th Circuit Reinforces Courts' Discretion To Dismiss, On Prudential Mootness Grounds, Putative Class Suits Seeking Already-Promised Remedies
...there was no conceivable government involvement. Blanciak v. Allegheny Ludlum Corp., 77 F.3d 690, 700 (3d Cir. 1996); cf. S-1 v. Spangler, 832 F.2d 294, 297 (4th Cir. 1987) (same in non-class action Accordingly, class action litigators should consider advising their clients on the import of......