Amos v. Board of School Directors of City of Milwaukee, Civ. A. No. 65-C-173.
Citation | 408 F. Supp. 765 |
Decision Date | 19 January 1976 |
Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 65-C-173. |
Parties | Craig AMOS et al., Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS OF the CITY OF MILWAUKEE et al., Defendants. |
Court | United States District Courts. 7th Circuit. United States District Court of Eastern District of Wisconsin |
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Lloyd A. Barbee, Milwaukee, Wis., for plaintiffs.
L. C. Hammond, Jr., Ross R. Kinney, Ronald E. Klipsch, James P. Brennan and Carl F. Kinnel, Milwaukee, Wis., for defendants.
Curry First and Richard P. Perry, Milwaukee, Wis., and Wayne Schwartzman, Acting Gen. Counsel, Wisconsin Ed. Assoc. Council, Madison, Wis., for Wisconsin Ed. Assoc. Council, amicus curiae.
DECISION AND ORDER
(Including Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law)
In this school desegregation case, plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief against acts of the defendants allegedly violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
On March 28, 1968, plaintiffs were granted leave to file an amended complaint. The amended complaint names forty-one minor plaintiffs who bring the action by their parents and next friends on behalf of themselves and two classes. Named as defendants are the Board of School Directors of the City of Milwaukee and sixteen individuals sued in their official capacities as members or servants and agents of the defendant Board. Federal jurisdiction is invoked under 28 U.S.C. § 1343, the jurisdictional counterpart of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The amended complaint claims that the defendants have acted to create and maintain unlawful racial segregation in the Milwaukee public school system. I have concluded that segregation exists in the Milwaukee public schools and that this segregation was intentionally created and maintained by the defendants. Such segregation is violative of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed to all Americans by the Fourteenth Amendment and cannot lawfully be allowed to continue. I shall accordingly order that the Milwaukee school system be integrated; that the defendants forthwith begin the formulation of plans to effectively achieve that goal; and that a master be appointed to make recommendations to the Court with respect to the question of an appropriate remedy. In addition, the Court has determined that this action may be maintained as a class action on behalf of two plaintiff classes, and has concluded that these classes should be represented in all further proceedings by appointed counsel.
The amended complaint alleges that thirty of the minor plaintiffs are socio-economically disadvantaged Negroes and members of a class which they seek to represent, described in the amended complaint as "Negro students attending certain public schools of the City of Milwaukee * * * who are subjected to socio-economic disadvantages, and who are denied their rights to equal educational opportunity by virtue of defendants' practices, rules, and regulations which bar the maintenance of racially integrated schools." The remaining eleven minor plaintiffs are alleged to be socio-economically favored non-Negroes and members of a class which they seek to represent, described in the amended complaint as "non-Negro students attending certain public schools of the City of Milwaukee * * * who are being denied their rights to equal educational opportunity by virtue of defendants' practices, rules, and regulations which bar the maintenance of racially integrated schools."
The amended complaint in this action was filed over seven years ago. Neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants, however, have ever made a Rule 23(c)(1) motion for a determination of whether or not the action can be maintained on behalf of the alleged classes. This oversight on the part of counsel and the Court with respect to the question of class action certification is unfortunate; at this juncture in the proceedings, however, such a determination is both necessary and appropriate. Jeffery v. Malcolm, 353 F.Supp. 395, 396 (S.D.N.Y. 1973).
In light of the rather substantial passage of time since the filing of the amended complaint, the Court made inquiries of counsel with respect to the issue of mootness. See generally, Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975), and Indianapolis School Commissioners v. Jacobs, 420 U.S. 128, 95 S.Ct. 848, 43 L.Ed.2d 74 (1975). In response to the Court's inquiry, counsel for the plaintiffs filed three affidavits on December 2, 1975. On December 29, 1975, the Court received a letter from the defendants' counsel reciting the results of an examination of the school system's records. From the affidavits and letter, the following appears: Of the 30 black plaintiffs, 5 are presently enrolled in the Milwaukee public school system, 10 have graduated from the system, 1 has moved out of the system, and the present enrollment statuses of 14 are unknown. Of the 11 nonblack plaintiffs, 3 are presently enrolled in the Milwaukee public school system, 1 has graduated, 1 has moved out of the system, and the present enrollment statuses of 6 are unknown.
It is well established that class certification is appropriate in cases challenging segregation in public schools. See e. g., Vaughns v. Board of Education of Prince George's County, 355 F.Supp. 1034 (D.Md.1972), supplemented, 355 F.Supp. 1038 (D.Md.1972), remanded on other grounds, 468 F.2d 894 (4th Cir. 1972), on remand, 355 F.Supp. 1044 (D.Md.1972); Potts v. Flax, 313 F.2d 284 (5th Cir. 1963). Such suits are particularly appropriate for certification under the provisions of Rule 23(b)(2) which is available in situations where "the party opposing the class has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the class, thereby making appropriate...
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