Jacksonville Branch, N.A.A.C.P. v. Duval County School Bd.

• Decision Date: 11 December 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-3894,91-3894
• Parties: 78 Ed. Law Rep. 659 JACKSONVILLE BRANCH, NAACP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The DUVAL COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, a body corporate, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1574

978 F.2d 1574

78 Ed. Law Rep. 659

JACKSONVILLE BRANCH, NAACP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The DUVAL COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, a body corporate, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 91-3894.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Dec. 11, 1992.

Michael H. Sussman, Sussman & Sussman, Goshen, N.Y., Rodney G. Gregory, Jacksonville, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.

Steven Rohan, Jacksonville, Fla., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before ANDERSON, Circuit Judge, MORGAN and JOHNSON ^*, Senior Circuit Judges.

JOHNSON, Senior Circuit Judge:

This case arises on appeal following the district court's denial of the Jacksonville Branch of the NAACP's motion to change the method by which the Duval County School Board is implementing the consent agreement between the parties on reducing segregation in the county's public schools. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court's decision in part, but remand several of the issues raised by the NAACP back to the district court for further consideration.

I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

A. Factual Background

In July 1990, after prolonged litigation over the desegregation of Duval County's public school system, ¹ the Jacksonville Branch of the NAACP ("the NAACP") and the Duval County School Board ("the Board") entered into a consent agreement entitled "Corrected Stipulation and Agreement" ("CSA"), terminating their latest round of litigation. ² The CSA was designed to continue the Board's desegregation process while allowing the Board and the community more flexibility in achieving integration. The primary method by which these objectives were to be achieved was through a rezoning of the county's schools, supplemented by the creation of "magnet" programs at racially imbalanced schools. ³ In addition, the CSA contained a number of other provisions designed to ensure continued progress toward desegregation. The agreement prohibited the Board from guaranteeing students that they could attend their neighborhood schools, committed the Board to achieving racial balance in staff assignments, obligated the Board to guarantee free transportation to students attending magnet programs outside their zones, provided for the creation of a "facilities committee" to study each school's educational programs and facility needs, and committed the Board to operating its programs "to achieve the maximum practicable desegregation."

Under the terms of the CSA, the Board was to begin implementation of the desegregation program in the 1991-92 school year. By June 1991, the NAACP claims that it realized that the Board's system of implementation would significantly increase, rather than decrease, segregation in the county's elementary schools and in some junior and senior high schools as well. Specifically, the NAACP alleges that in early 1991, the Board sent each student a letter assigning the student to his or her nearest neighborhood school. According to the NAACP, the letter violated the CSA by in effect guaranteeing students the right to attend their nearest neighborhood school if they so chose. The NAACP claims that the letter is responsible for the Board's surprisingly poor showing in its efforts to recruit students to the magnet programs in the 1991-92 school year. In addition, the NAACP claims that the Board violated the consent agreement by (1) failing to remedy racial imbalances in staff assignments, (2) informing black citizens that black children would not be offered free transportation to schools outside of their zone, and (3) prematurely disbanding the CSA's "facilities committee" in November 1990.

In response, the Board claims that it is making significant progress toward desegregation through its implementation of the plan, considering that it is recruiting for magnet programs with no proven track record. The Board also claims that it has significantly improved the racial balance in its staff assignments, and that the CSA in any event requires the parties to bargain before litigating over the achievement of racially balanced staffs. In addition, the Board argues that the NAACP has presented no reliable evidence that the Board intends to operate its free transportation policy in a discriminatory fashion. Finally, the Board claims that the clear terms of the agreement allowed it to disband the study committee in November 1990.

B. Procedural History

In June 1991, the NAACP filed a motion in the Middle District of Florida entitled, "Motion to Change the Method by Which Defendant Is Implementing the Corrected Stipulation and Agreement." In its memorandum supporting the motion, the NAACP submitted figures showing that the 1991-92 enrollment in the Board's elementary school magnet programs, and some of the county's junior and senior high school magnet programs, were drastically below the estimates the Board had provided to the United States Department of Education earlier in the year. ⁴ The NAACP alleged that the Board's implementation would result in significant resegregation, particularly in the elementary schools, for the 1991-92 school year. To remedy this problem, the NAACP asked the district court to require the Board to implement a system of "controlled choice" ⁵ for the district's elementary schools or, in the alternative, to stay any implementation measures until the Board showed that desegregation would be achieved through its implementation. In addition, the NAACP asked the court for equitable relief compelling Board compliance with the consent agreement's provisions on staff assignments, free transportation, and the execution of the facilities committee's functions.

On August 5, 1991, the district court issued an order denying the NAACP's motion. The district court found that the NAACP had failed to demonstrate that the Board's proposed implementation of the CSA would result in resegregation because the NAACP failed to submit overall attendance figures showing the estimated racial composition of each school for the 1991-92 school year. ⁶ The district court held that even if the NAACP could establish a resegregative impact in the 1991-92 school year, the NAACP would not be entitled to relief "so long as the long-term desegregative goals of the stipulation are being furthered." The Court found that the Board's implementation plan had not been given sufficient opportunity to work its intended purpose, and therefore the NAACP had not established sufficient grounds for modification of the consent agreement. The district court also held that none of the other alleged violations of the CSA entitled the NAACP to equitable relief.

The district court's findings and legal conclusions were based solely on the parties' motions and briefs, without benefit of an evidentiary hearing. The NAACP now appeals the district court's decision denying it relief, challenging both the factual findings and conclusions of law made by the district court.

II. ANALYSIS

For enforcement purposes, consent agreements are interpreted under the principles of contract law. See United States v. ITT Continental Baking Co., 420 U.S. 223, 238, 95 S.Ct. 926, 935, 43 L.Ed.2d 148 (1975); Paradise v. Prescott, 767 F.2d 1514, 1525 (11th Cir.1985), aff'd, 480 U.S. 149, 107 S.Ct. 1053, 94 L.Ed.2d 203 (1987). Although a consent agreement may be enforced by judicial sanctions, see Paradise, 767 F.2d at 1525, the obligations required of each party to a consent decree must be found "within its four corners, and not by reference to what might satisfy the purposes of one of the parties to it." United States v. Armour & Co., 402 U.S. 673, 682, 91 S.Ct. 1752, 1757, 29 L.Ed.2d 256 (1971). The NAACP charges that the district court erred in refusing to recognize at least four instances in which the Board violated its duties under the CSA. We will consider each alleged violation in turn, reviewing the district court's interpretation of the consent agreement de novo, but accepting the district court's factual findings unless they are shown to be clearly erroneous. See Turner v. Orr, 759 F.2d 817, 821 (11th Cir.1985) ("Turner I "), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 3332, 92 L.Ed.2d 738 (1986), cf. Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573-76, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511-12, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (holding that clearly erroneous standard applies even when the district court's findings are based solely on documentary evidence).

After examining each of the alleged CSA violations, we will address the NAACP's argument that the district court erred in denying its proposal to modify the consent decree. For the purposes of modification, consent decrees are not governed by contract law, but are treated as judicial acts, akin to injunctions. See United States v. Swift & Co., 286 U.S. 106, 114-15, 52 S.Ct. 460, 462, 76 L.Ed. 999 (1932); Williams v. Butz, 843 F.2d 1335, 1337-38 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 956, 109 S.Ct. 392, 102 L.Ed.2d 381 (1988). Therefore, the district court's decision denying the NAACP's request for a modification of the CSA is reviewable only for an abuse of discretion. See Wright v. Council of City of Emporia, 407 U.S. 451, 470-71, 92 S.Ct. 2196, 2207, 33 L.Ed.2d 51 (1972).

A. The Board's "Neighborhood School " Letter

The NAACP argues that the Board violated the terms of the CSA by sending a letter to all elementary school students in early 1991 assigning each student, at least preliminarily, to his or her neighborhood school for the 1991-92 school year. The NAACP argues that this letter violated the Board's duty under the consent agreement to "not guarantee to any student living in, or moving into, the assigned attendance area of such school that (s)he shall be assigned to or permitted to attend such school." CSA, p 14(c).

The district court held that although it found the possible existence of the letter "somewhat disturbing," it did not constitute grounds for relief. In explaining its decision, the district court first...