Bell v. Board of Educ. of Albuquerque Public Schs.

• Decision Date: 29 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. CIV 06-1137 JB/ACT.,CIV 06-1137 JB/ACT.
• Parties: Chanselor BELL, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Mexico

652 F.Supp.2d 1211

Chanselor BELL, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Defendant.

No. CIV 06-1137 JB/ACT.

United States District Court, D. New Mexico.

August 29, 2008.

Tara Ford, Pegasus Legal Services, Gail S. Stewart, Albuquerque, NM, for Plaintiff.

Michael L. Carrico, Samantha Adams, Modrall Sperling Roehl Harris & Sisk PA, Albuquerque, NM, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES O. BROWNING, District Judge.

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on APS' Motion to Dismiss, or in the Alternative for Summary Judgment on Plaintiffs' Claims for Damages, filed July 18, 2006 (Doc. 82). The Court held a hearing on July 28, 2008. The primary issues are: (i) whether damages for emotional distress, are available under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act; and (ii) whether damages for emotional distress are available under Title VI for Bell. The Court has reviewed: (i) J. Lave, M. Sklar, and A. van der Zee, A Right Without a Remedy: An Analysis of the Decisions by the District Court and Eleventh Circuit in Sheeley v. MRI Radiology Network, P.A., and the Implication for Disabled Americans' Ability to Receive Emotional Damages Under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act, 4 Seton Hall Circuit Rev. 1 (2007)("Lave, Sklar, & van der Zee article"); (ii) Sheely v. MRI Radiology Network, P.A., 505 F.3d 1173 (11th Cir. 2007); (iii) the Honorable M. Christina Armijo, United States District Judge's Memorandum Opinion and Order in N.T. v. Espanola Public Schools, No. CIV 04-415 MCA/DJS, 2005 WL 6168483, filed June 21, 2005 (Doc. 55); and (iv) the Court's Memorandum Opinion and Order in Khan v. Albuquerque Public Schools, No. CIV-03-118 JB/RLP, filed December 31, 2003 (Doc. 39).¹ For the reasons stated at the hearing, and for reasons stated herein consistent with those already stated, the Court will grant APS' motion for summary judgment on Bell's claims for damages under Section 504 and Title VI.

The Court need not and will not repeat its analysis in Khan v. Albuquerque Public Schools, but will incorporate its discussion of damages for emotional distress therein by reference. There can be little dispute that damages for emotional distress are not generally available in a contract case. The authors of the Lave, Sklar & van der Zee article—who filed an amicus brief in Sheely v. MRI Radiology Network, P.A., advocate in their article for recognition of emotional damages in Section 504 cases, and are critical of the Court's decision in the Khan v. Albuquerque Public Schools—repeatedly concede that emotional damages are generally unavailable for contract claims. See Lave, Sklar & van der Zee article at 9 ("[T]he district court is correct that damages for emotional or mental distress are generally not available for breach of contract."). The caselaw and commentators support this observation. The Restatement (Second) of Contracts, in section 353, adopts the general rule prohibiting recovery of non-economic damages in contract cases unless the breach also caused bodily disturbance or the contract of the breach "is of such a kind that serious emotional disturbance was a particularly likely result." Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 353 (1981).

The courts have developed exceptions to the general rule. Some courts have looked to the nature of the contract and made exceptions where breach was particularly likely to result in serious emotional disturbance. "Other courts have looked to the nature of the breach and allowed damages for emotional disturbance on the ground that the breach of contract was reprehensible." Farnsworth on Contracts § 12.17 at 292-93 (3d ed. 2004). The question is whether the Supreme Court of the United States in Barnes v. Gorman, 536 U.S. 181, 122 S.Ct. 2097, 153 L.Ed.2d 230 (2002), when it stated that it had applied "the contract-law analogy" to define the scope of the available damages, id. at 187, 122 S.Ct. 2097, meant to adopt any exception that any court had ever adopted, generally recognized exceptions, or just the general rule, not the exceptions.

The Supreme Court in Barnes v. Gorman stated that "all contract-law rules" may not apply to a Title VI relationship. 536 U.S. at 186, 122 S.Ct. 2097 (emphasis in original). Given the way that the Supreme Court dealt with punitive damages—creating a general rule despite some cases that recognized punitive damages in contract cases—the Court is inclined to think that the contract-law analogy is most useful in creating an easily applied general rule—no damages for emotional distress—rather than pulling the entire body of contract law, including every case, wherever found, that has discussed contracts and damages for emotional distress together, into the analysis.

Moreover, the contract between the federal government and the State of New Mexico does not apply merely to highschool basketball players, but to a vast array of students. In Guardians Association v. Civil Service Commission of New York, 463 U.S. 582, 103 S.Ct. 3221, 77 L.Ed.2d 866 (1983), the Supreme Court emphasized the consensual nature of the contract.

We have also indicated that make whole remedies are not ordinarily appropriate in private actions seeking relief for violations of statutes passed by Congress pursuant to its power under the Spending Clause to place conditions on the grant of federal funds.... This is because the receipt of federal funds under typical Spending Clause legislation is a consensual matter: the State or other grantee weighs the benefits and burdens before accepting the funds and agreeing to comply with the conditions attached to their receipt.

463 U.S. at 596, 103 S.Ct. 3221. The Court doubts that states contemplate, when entering into the funding arrangement with the federal government, that damages for emotional distress will generally not be available, but are available in certain situations. The more likely expectation is that emotional damages are available when there is a breach or they are not available at all, and that the rule in each case will not turn on exceptions to the general rule.

Even if, however, the Court were to conclude that some of the major, universally recognized exceptions should be pulled into the federal analysis, the major exceptions do not apply to this case. "Recovery for emotional disturbance will be excluded unless ... the breach is of such a kind that serious emotional disturbance was a particularly likely result." Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 353, (1981). "[N]umerous cases allowing the recovery of emotional distress damages for breach of contract exists, invariably dealing with what might be called peculiarly sensitive subject matter, or noncommercial undertakings or both." Williston on Contracts § 64.7, at 74-75 (4th ed. 2002). While the Court does not minimize the importance of making his high school basketball team during his senior year to a young man who may have the ability to play Division I basketball, the Court does not think this disappointment is the serious emotional disturbance or peculiarly sensitive subject matter that the case law has generally had in mind.

There are, of course, cases that go further and find damages for emotional distress whenever they would reasonably or foreseeably result from the breach. The Court is reluctant to pull this exception into the federal analysis, because it tends to blur the distinction between tort damages and contract-law damages. The Court believes that, if it adopts this exception, the exception could easily swallow the general rule and undercut the Supreme Court's contract-law analogy, which the Court believes was intended to assist the Court in developing a general rule applicable in all federal cases. In the end, the Court is concerned that recognition of emotional damages is not true and faithful to the Supreme Court's analysis and language.

The Lave, Sklar & van der Zee article is particularly concerned that the recovery of emotional damages is necessary to ensure optimal deterrence. There are at least three responses. First, this argument is a policy concern that should be addressed to Congress, not to the inferior federal courts. If Congress wants the courts to award damages for emotional distress, it can so legislate. A lower court must, however, be faithful to the Supreme Court's analysis and language, setting aside its views of what might be optimal.

Moreover, Congress certainly has not thought it necessary to allow damages for violations of the IDEA, which, being in the educational context, may be more similar to Section 504 cases in the educational context, than contracts for funeral services. There is no claim for money damages under the IDEA. See, e.g., Diaz-Fonseca v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 451 F.3d 13, 28 (1st Cir.2006)("It is black letter law that punitive damages—indeed money damages of any sort—are not available in a private suit under the IDEA"); Ortega v. Bibb County School District, 397 F.3d 1321, 1325 (11th Cir.2005)(stating that tort-like damages are not available under the IDEA); Polera v. Bd. of Educ. of Newburgh Enlarged City Dist, 288 F.3d 478, 481 (2d Cir.2002)(noting that the purpose of the IDEA is to provide educational services, not compensation for personal injury; that the availability of damages would undercut the IDEA's carefully structured procedure for administrative remedies; and that monetary damages are not available under the IDEA); Crocker v. Tennessee Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass'n, 980 F.2d 382, 386-87 (6th Cir. 1992)("We do not find case authority interpreting [the predecessor to the IDEA] to allow an award of general damages for emotional injury or injury to a dignitary interest."). Second, such damages should not be available unless Congress specifically puts the funding recipient on notice that it may be subject to such damages. See Barnes v. Gorman, 536 U.S. at 187, 122 S.Ct. 2097.

Third, this case indicates, if anything, that the recognition of...