Allen v. Alabama State Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 03 July 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 81-697-N.
• Citation: 612 F. Supp. 1046
• Parties: Margaret T. ALLEN, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, Board of Trustees for Alabama State University; and Eria P. Smith, Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. The ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

612 F. Supp. 1046

Margaret T. ALLEN, etc., et al., Plaintiffs Board of Trustees for Alabama State University; and Eria P. Smith, Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. The ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 81-697-N.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, N.D.

July 3, 1985.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Donald V. Watkins, Watkins, Carter & Knight, Montgomery, Ala., James U. Blacksher, Gregory B. Stein, Blacksher, Menefee & Stein, Mobile, Ala., Solomon S. Seay, Jr., Terry G. Davis, Seay & Davis, Montgomery, Ala., for plaintiffs.

Charles Coody, Gen. Counsel, State Bd. of Educ., T.W. Thagard, Jr., David Boyd, Balch & Bingham, Montgomery, Ala., for Alabama State Bd. of Educ., Tyson, Creel, Cherry, Higginbotham, Poole, Martin, Allen, Roberts and Teague.

Algert Agricola, Patrick Robinson, Rosa Davis, Asst. Attys. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for Bd. of Educ. and Teague.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

The plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors, four black teachers and a predominantly black state university, have brought this class-action lawsuit charging, among other things, that the State of Alabama's teacher certification tests impermissibly discriminate against black persons seeking state certification. The defendants are the Board of Education for the State of Alabama, its members, and the State Superintendent of Education.

This lawsuit is now before the court on the plaintiffs' and plaintiff-intervenors' motions to enforce conditionally a settlement agreement drafted and agreed to, but not signed, by counsel for all parties. For reasons that follow, the court concludes that the motions should be granted.

I.

On December 15, 1981, Margaret T. Allen, Yolanda F. Lamar and Beverly K. Jones, three black teachers, filed this lawsuit challenging the Alabama State Board of Education's requirement that applicants for state teacher certification pass certain standardized tests administered under the Alabama Initial Teacher Certification Testing Program. On October 14, 1983, the court certified a class, represented by Allen, Lamar and Jones, consisting of all black persons who have been or will be denied any level teacher certification because they failed to pass the tests administered under the program. On June 13, 1984, the court allowed the Board of Trustees of Alabama State University, a predominantly black university, and Eria P. Smith, a black teacher, to intervene.

Plaintiffs Allen, Lamar, and Jones and plaintiff-intervenors Smith and the Board of Trustees of Alabama State University have presented several claims. These claims are, among others, that the teacher certification tests penalize black students who had to acquire all or part of their education in racially segregated public schools and state institutions of higher learning; that the tests have an "adverse racial impact" on black students and predominantly black colleges, have no relationship to job performance, and are culturally biased; that the tests evaluate students on matters the students were not taught in the classroom; and that the tests were implemented without adequate prior notice to students and colleges. The plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors rest their claims on the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution and on various civil rights statutes, including 20 U.S.C.A. § 1703 and 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1981, 1983, 1988, 2000d to 2000d-6, and 2000e to 2000e-17. They seek, among other things, declaratory and injunctive relief, backpay and frontpay, and attorney fees and costs.

II.

Beginning in June 1984, attorneys for the parties met several times to discuss settlement of this lawsuit. Also present at some of these meetings were some of the parties' experts and some of the defendants themselves, including the state superintendent and a member of the state school board. In December 1984, the lawyers for the parties concluded that they were unable to reach a settlement and so notified the court. The court then set a trial date of April 22, 1985.

In early 1985, settlement discussions resumed. During these renewed negotiations, Donald Watkins, the attorney for the plaintiffs, Gregory Stein, the attorney for the plaintiff-intervenors, and Charles Coody, the attorney for the defendants, exchanged eight to ten proposed settlement agreements in the form of consent decrees. Finally, on April 3, after working late into the night the previous day, Coody and Watkins drafted a consent decree that they believed would be acceptable to all parties.

The state board had previously passed a resolution authorizing the state superintendent to settle all litigation involving the board, with one exception not applicable to the circumstances here.¹ Although Superintendent Teague believed the final draft reached by Coody and Watkins was acceptable, he considered the settlement too important to accept without the approval of the board. Teague and Coody therefore called a meeting of the board to discuss the proposed consent decree and to secure approval from the board.

Five of the eight board members met on April 4. A sixth board member attended briefly but left before the meeting ended. At this meeting, Teague and Coody informed the board members, in substance, that counsel for the parties had drafted a consent decree and that they, Teague and Coody, wanted the board's approval of the decree. Teague and Coody handed out copies of the decree to the board members, explained its major provisions, and answered questions. During the meeting, Teague and some board members expressed displeasure with various specific provisions in the decree; however, none of the board members voiced objections to settlement according to the terms in the decree. At the end of the meeting, Harold Martin, the presiding officer, told Teague to "go ahead" with the settlement. There was no objection from the other members of the board. The evidence reflects that Teague, Coody and the five board members present at the meeting left the meeting with the understanding that they had approved the settlement as embodied in the decree. They further understood that Coody would immediately inform plaintiffs' and plaintiff-intervenors' counsel and the court that the decree was acceptable to the board and the superintendent and that the lawsuit was settled.² Later the same day, Coody so informed Watkins and asked Watkins to inform Stein. Watkins did.

On April 8, Coody and Watkins met with the court in-chambers. They presented the court with a copy of the decree they had drafted, and they informed the court that the case had been settled by all parties according to the terms in the decree. Stein could not be present for the meeting and had authorized Watkins to speak for the plaintiff-intervenors. The court informed Coody and Watkins that the settlement was acceptable, subject to the court's approving the decree for the plaintiff class pursuant to Rule 23(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court also informed Coody and Watkins that a Rule 23(e) hearing would be set for June 28, 1985. The court continued the April 22 trial date.

A few days later, the Attorney General for the State of Alabama publicly attacked the settlement. Then, on April 11, 1985, in response to public criticism of the settlement, the board voted five to three to inform the court that the lawsuit was not settled.

The plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors then filed the present motions seeking to enforce the settlement the attorneys for the parties had reached, subject to the court's determining later whether the settlement should be approved for the plaintiff class. The parties were allowed to engage in discovery on the motions; and on April 19 and May 6, 1985, the court held evidentiary hearings to resolve disputed issues of fact.

III.

Settlement of claims brought before courts is a favored means of resolving disputes. Bennett v. Behring Corp., 737 F.2d 982, 986 (11th Cir.1984). Indeed, a settlement agreement is "as binding, final, and as conclusive of rights as a judgment" when the settlement is not illegal or against public policy and is fairly arrived at and properly entered into, that is knowingly and voluntarily and not by fraud or coercion. Thomas v. State of Louisiana, 534 F.2d 613, 615 (5th Cir.1976) (footnote omitted); see also United States v. City of Alexandria, 614 F.2d 1358, 1362 (5th Cir. 1980); Fulgence v. J. Ray McDermott & Co., 662 F.2d 1207, 1209-10 (5th Cir.1981) (per curiam). Here, the defendants have presented an array of challenges to the enforceability of the settlement reached by counsel for all parties. None of the challenges has merit.

A.

The defendants contend that the court lacks jurisdiction to enforce the settlement. This contention is meritless. Without question, a federal district court has jurisdiction to enforce a settlement agreement reached in a case pending before it, Cia Anon Venezolana de Navegacion v. Harris, 374 F.2d 33, 35 (5th Cir. 1967); see also Mid-South Towing Co. v. Har-Win, Inc., 733 F.2d 386, 389 (5th Cir. 1984), including a case involving government officials. See, e.g., Thomas, supra; see also United States v. McInnes, 556 F.2d 436 (9th Cir.1977). Cf. Village of Kaktovik v. Watt, 689 F.2d 222, 230 (D.C. Cir.1982) ("when the Government attempted to withdraw from the agreement, plaintiffs could have enforced it by requesting the district court to enter the appropriate order") (footnote omitted).³

The defendants' reliance on Fairfax Countywide Citizens v. Fairfax County, 571 F.2d 1299 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1047, 99 S.Ct. 722, 58 L.Ed.2d 706 (1978), is misplaced. There, the plaintiffs dismissed their lawsuit without having the federal district court incorporate the terms of the parties' settlement into a court order. Three years later, the plaintiffs requested that the district court re-open the case pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(6), vacate the dismissal, and enforce the settlement agreement. The district...