Baker v. City of Iowa City

• Decision Date: 30 May 2008
• Docket Number: No. 05-1833.,05-1833.
• Parties: John BAKER, Appellant, v. CITY OF IOWA CITY, Iowa, and Iowa City Human Rights Commission, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

750 N.W.2d 93

John BAKER, Appellant, v. CITY OF IOWA CITY, Iowa, and Iowa City Human Rights Commission, Appellees.

No. 05-1833.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 30, 2008.

Michael J. Pitton of Martinek & Pitton, Iowa City, for appellant.

Susan M. Dulek, Assistant City Attorney, Iowa City, for appellees.

TERNUS, Chief Justice.

The plaintiff, John Baker, appeals the district court's entry of summary judgment for the appellees, City of Iowa City, Iowa, and Iowa City Human Rights Commission, based on the court's conclusion the plaintiff's claims were moot. In addition, Baker contends the court erred in failing to rule as a matter of law that the City's ordinances exceed its home rule powers in two particulars: (1) the prohibition of discrimination by small employers; and (2) the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of marital status. Baker also challenges the district court's quashing of his subpoena seeking production of the assistant city attorney's records.

On appeal, the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed the rulings of the district court. Upon our further review, we conclude two of the plaintiff's claims are not moot, that the district court should have entered summary judgment for the plaintiff on his constitutional challenge to the Iowa City ordinance prohibiting employment discrimination by small employers, and that the plaintiff has waived his challenge to the district court's ruling on the defendants' motion to quash. Accordingly, we vacate the court of appeals' decision, reverse in part and affirm in part the district court's judgment, and remand the case for further proceedings.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

The plaintiff owns a home located in Iowa City. Because he lives out of state, he employs a resident manager for the property. In 2003 Baker advertised for a new manager and later rejected a female applicant because she failed to provide the requested references and because she indicated she intended to have her eleven-year-old son perform outside property maintenance, which Baker believed was unsafe and might also violate child labor laws. The applicant later filed a complaint with the Iowa City Human Rights Commission, claiming discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of marital status, race, and sex.

The Commission is a municipal civil rights commission, established by ordinance of the City of Iowa City, in part, to protect persons aggrieved by discrimination within the corporate limits of Iowa City. After investigating the woman's complaint, the Commission's staff found probable cause existed that discrimination had occurred based upon race and marital status, both in the area of employment and housing. This finding of probable cause was based on an alleged violation of city ordinances, not state law. See Iowa City City Code §§ 2-3-1, 2-5-1. Efforts at conciliation were unsuccessful, so the matter was set for hearing.

Prior to the hearing scheduled on the discrimination complaint, Baker filed this action against the City and the Commission. Baker's petition consisted of four counts: (1) count I requested a declaratory judgment that the city ordinances were inconsistent with and in conflict with state law and therefore unconstitutional; (2) count II sought damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on the City's enforcement of the ordinances, the investigation undertaken, and the commencement of the administrative proceedings; (3) count III sought a writ of certiorari on the ground the defendants exceeded their proper authority and acted illegally in conducting the investigation and commencing the administrative proceeding; and (4) count IV requested a stay of the administrative proceeding until a determination of the validity of the ordinances was made.

Baker's constitutional claim focused on two aspects of the city ordinances: (1) the City's employment discrimination ordinance includes all employers within its prohibitions, whereas state law exempts employers having fewer than four employees from its prohibition of unfair employment practices; and (2) the City's ordinance prohibits discrimination on the basis of marital status, a prohibition not found in state law. Compare Iowa City City Code § 2-1-1 (defining "employer" in part as "all entities, wherever situated, who employ one or more employees within the City"), with Iowa Code § 216.6(6)(a) (2003) (excluding from employment discrimination prohibition "[a]ny employer who regularly employs less than four individuals"); compare Iowa City City Code § 2-3-1 (prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of marital status), with Iowa Code § 216.6(1)(a) (prohibiting employment discrimination on several bases, but not mentioning marital status); compare Iowa City City Code § 2-5-1 (prohibiting discrimination in housing on the basis of marital status), with Iowa Code § 216.8 (prohibiting discriminatory housing practices on several bases, but not including marital status). Based on these differences, Baker claimed the City's ordinances are beyond the City's constitutional home rule authority because they conflict with state law.

After bringing this action, Baker served subpoenas duces tecum on several city employees, including the assistant city attorney Susan Dulek. The defendants filed a motion to quash, which the district court sustained as to Dulek based on the attorney-client privilege.

Before the administrative hearing on the civil rights complaint was held, Baker settled with the complainant. As a result, the discrimination complaint was dismissed with prejudice.

Subsequently, Baker filed a motion for partial summary judgment on count I in the present case, claiming the city ordinances were facially unconstitutional because they conflicted with state law. The defendants resisted Baker's motion for partial summary judgment and filed a cross-motion for summary judgment as to counts I and II. In his resistance, Baker agreed count I should be determined as a matter of law, but contended count II—his § 1983 claim—rested on issues of disputed fact and was not suitable for summary resolution. The defendants then filed a second motion for summary judgment, asserting that, because the discrimination complaint had been dismissed, with the exception of an "as-applied" procedural due process claim asserted in count II, all of the plaintiff's claims were moot.

After hearing, the district court ruled all the issues raised by the plaintiff were rendered moot by settlement of the underlying discrimination claim. The court granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment and dismissed the plaintiff's action in its entirety.

The plaintiff appealed the district court's dismissal of counts I, II, and III, as well as the district court's quashing of the subpoena seeking records from assistant city attorney Dulek. The appeal was transferred to the court of appeals. That court held that, "[w]ith the dismissal of the discrimination complaint, the controversy that precipitated the [plaintiff's] lawsuit was eliminated." For this reason, the court of appeals concluded the district court was correct in dismissing this case as moot; it did not reach the propriety of the district court's ruling with respect to the subpoena. We granted the plaintiff's application for further review.

II. Scope of Review.

Summary judgment rulings are reviewed for correction of errors of law. Hallett Constr. Co. v. Meister, 713 N.W.2d 225, 229 (Iowa 2006). "To obtain a grant of summary judgment on some issue in an action, the moving party must affirmatively establish the existence of undisputed facts entitling that party to a particular result under controlling law." Interstate Power Co. v. Ins. Co. of N. Am., 603 N.W.2d 751, 756 (Iowa 1999).

District court rulings regarding the discovery process are reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Exotica Botanicals, Inc. v. Terra Int'l Inc., 612 N.W.2d 801, 804 (Iowa 2000); State ex rel. Miller v. Nat'l Dietary Research, Inc., 454 N.W.2d 820, 822 (Iowa 1990). An abuse of discretion will be found when the district court exercises its discretion on grounds or for reasons that are clearly untenable or to an extent that is clearly unreasonable. Nat'l Dietary Research, 454 N.W.2d at 822.

III. Mootness.

On occasion a claim will become moot when facts or governing laws change after an action is commenced. "A case is moot if it no longer presents a justiciable controversy because the issues involved are academic or nonexistent." Perkins v. Bd. of Supervisors, 636 N.W.2d 58, 64 (Iowa 2001). Issues are academic when an opinion would be of no force or effect in the underlying dispute. Id. A second aspect of the mootness doctrine is known as the "personal stake requirement." U.S. Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 396, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 1208, 63 L.Ed.2d 479, 490 (1980).

The "personal stake" aspect of mootness doctrine also serves primarily the purpose of assuring that . . . courts are presented with disputes they are capable of resolving. One commentator has defined mootness as "the doctrine of standing set in a time frame: The requisite personal interest that must exist at the commencement of the litigation (standing) must continue throughout its existence (mootness)."

Id. at 397, 100 S.Ct. at 1209, 63 L.Ed.2d at 491 (quoting Henry P. Monaghan, Constitutional Adjudication: The Who and When, 82 Yale L.J. 1363, 1384 (1973)); accord Iowa Civil Liberties Union v. Critelli, 244 N.W.2d 564, 567-68 (Iowa 1976) ("Standing may, of course, be lost if the claim on which it is based becomes moot.").

The district court believed Baker's settlement with the complainant rendered the issues in this case academic. Baker does not disagree with this assessment as to count IV in which he sought to stay the administrative proceeding. Given the dismissal of the administrative proceeding, any dispute with respect to whether that proceeding should be stayed is nonexistent.

We think the same is true with respect to count III, in which...