Bronson v. BOARD OF EDUC. OF CITY SCHOOL DIST.

• Citation: 578 F. Supp. 1091
• Decision Date: 10 January 1984
• Docket Number: No. C-1-74-205,C-1-82-1545.,C-1-74-205
• Parties: Mona BRONSON, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the CITY OF CINCINNATI, et al., Defendants. Charles R. BEATY, II, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

578 F. Supp. 1091

Mona BRONSON, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the CITY OF CINCINNATI, et al., Defendants.

Charles R. BEATY, II, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Defendant.

Nos. C-1-74-205, C-1-82-1545.

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, W.D.

January 10, 1984.

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Thomas I. Atkins, Reginald C. Govan, NAACP Special Contribution Fund, Brooklyn, N.Y., Trudy D. Rauh, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Bronson, plaintiffs.

Robert W. Blackmore, Cincinnati, Ohio, for plaintiff Beaty.

John A. Lloyd, Jr., Sally Conley Lux, Glen Weissenberger, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant City of Cincinnati School Dist.

A. David Nichols, Metzger, Phillips & Nichols Co., LPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, Mark O'Neill, Weston, Hurd, Fallon, Paisley & Howley, Cleveland, Ohio, for State of Ohio; Special Counsel to Attorney General, State of Ohio; represents State Bd. of Educ.

James W. Farrell, Jr., Mark A. Vander Laan, Dinsmore, Shohl, Coates & Deupree, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendants Deer Park City School Dist., Madeira City School Dist., Mariemont City School Dist., North College Hill City School Dist., Norwood City School Dist., St. Bernard-Elmwood Place City School Dist., Reading Community City School Dist.

Bruce I. Petrie, Sr., John B. Pinney, Graydon, Head & Ritchey, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Indian Hill Exempted Village School Dist.

George E. Roberts, III, Ennis & Roberts, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Lockland City School Dist.

Michael E. Maundrell, Rendigs, Fry, Kiely & Dennis, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Princeton City School Dist.

Lawrence McTurnan, McTurnan & Meyer, Indianapolis, Ind., for defendants Finneytown Local School Dist., Forest Hills Local School Dist., Northwest Local School Dist., Three Rivers Local School Dist., Hamilton County School Dist.

John C. Elam, Suzanne K. Richards, Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, Columbus, Ohio, for defendant Wyoming City School Dist.

James W. Harper, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Oak Hills Local City School Dist.

Arnold Morelli, Bauer, Morelli & Heyd, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Green-Hills Forest Park City School Dist.

William E. Santen, William B. Singer, Santen, Santen & Hughes Co., LPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, for defendant Sycamore City School Dist.

ENTRY SETTING FORTH DETAILED REASONING BEHIND DECISIONS AND ENTRIES OF DECEMBER 19, 1983, SUSTAINING MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT FILED BY SUBURBAN SCHOOL DISTRICT DEFENDANTS AND THE HAMILTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION DEFENDANTS

RICE, District Judge.

On December 19, 1983, the Court filed seven separate Decisions and Entries wherein the Court sustained the motions for summary judgment filed by the various suburban school district Defendants¹ and the Hamilton County Board of Education Defendants.² At a conference, held on that same date, the Court informed the parties of its rulings and indicated that a subsequent entry, wherein the Court consolidated its response to those Defendants' motions, would be forthcoming. This entry, therefore, serves the purpose of drawing together into a single opinion the various reasons why the Court found these Defendants' motions to be well taken.

I. The Issues Vis-a-Vis the Suburban Defendants

At the outset, the Court must stress that the instant proceeding, though properly grouped within the generic category of school desegregation cases, is not what could be viewed as a typical or traditional case of that nature. The distinctive nature of the instant proceeding stems from three basic realities, or facts, which have imposed considerable constraints upon the breadth of the issues the Plaintiffs herein may properly raise against the various named Defendants.

The first limiting factor is that this is not the first school desegregation case to be brought seeking an order to desegregate the school system in the City of Cincinnati. On November 11, 1963, a class action was filed against the Cincinnati Board of Education on behalf of "Negro minors within the school district of Cincinnati ...." The ensuing Deal v. Cincinnati Board of Education litigation³ resulted in a finding that the Cincinnati Defendants had not, prior to July 26, 1965, the date of the rendering of the initial opinion in Deal, acted with segregative intent in bringing about the racial imbalance in the Cincinnati school system. Having failed to demonstrate that the distribution of black and white students within the Cincinnati schools was the result of any intentionally segregative conduct by the Cincinnati Defendants, Plaintiffs were denied the desegregative relief they sought. Deal I, 244 F.Supp. at 582.

Subsequently, the complaint in the instant proceeding was filed, not only against the Cincinnati Board of Education but also against the State Board of Education, the Hamilton County Board of Education, and the Suburban School Districts within Hamilton County. The filing of the instant action led to a series of decisions⁴ wherein the collateral estoppel effect of the prior rulings in Deal I and II on the scope of the issues capable of litigation herein was determined. As a result of these decisions, a sizable chunk of the Bronson Plaintiffs' action was carved away, leaving what could be described as a gaping hole in the case they sought to prosecute. Foreclosed from litigation in the present proceeding, because of Deal I and II as explained by the Sixth Circuit in Bronson I and II, is the question of whether the Cincinnati Defendants "did prior to July 26, 1965, act with segregative intent or that the actions, inactions or policies of the Cincinnati Board prior to that date violated the constitutional rights of minority pupils or their parents. These issues have been decided and under the issue preclusion application of collateral estoppel may not be reopened." Bronson I, 525 F.2d at 349; Bronson II, 687 F.2d at 843.

As a result, to the extent Plaintiffs seek to prove that the present racial distribution in the Cincinnati schools is the result of intentionally segregative actions and/or in-actions taken prior to July 26, 1965, Plaintiffs are placed in the position of having to make their case against the State and/or Suburban and/or Hamilton County Defendants, because they are foreclosed from relitigating whether the actions or inactions of the Cincinnati Defendants prior to that date were constitutionally violative. Moreover, in attempting to establish the liability of any one or more or all of the non-Cincinnati Defendants for the pre-July 26, 1965 conditions in Cincinnati, Plaintiffs cannot pursue a theory of liability against these Defendants that asserts that any one or more or all of them acted in concert with the Cincinnati Defendants in intentionally creating the racial imbalance in the Cincinnati schools prior to July 26, 1965, or that any one or more or all of the non-Cincinnati Defendants failed to take action or to counteract the segregative activity of the Cincinnati Defendants prior to July 26, 1965. Clearly, as the Cincinnati Defendants' conduct has been judicially determined to be free of segregative intent prior to that date, no other Defendants' liability can be premised upon a theory that presumes or presupposes the contrary.

The second fact which imposes a significant limitation of Plaintiffs' cause of action herein is the composition of the Plaintiffs' class as certified. The only Plaintiffs currently named as parties in the present action are certain named students (and their parents) who were attending schools in the Cincinnati school system when this suit was filed. When Judge Porter certified the class that these Defendants could represent, he found

Plaintiffs herein represent a class consisting of all students presently attending or who will attend schools in the public school system of the City of Cincinnati and the parents of such children.

Opinion Re Class Certification, July 18, 1978 (Porter, J.). Plaintiffs have never sought the joinder of additional named plaintiffs from other school districts throughout Hamilton County, nor have they filed a motion seeking recertification of an expanded plaintiff class. Thus, from the beginning of this action to the present time, the Plaintiffs have only represented the interests of the students and parents residing within the boundaries of the Cincinnati school system and have not, therefore, had standing or the legal right to complain of any segregated conditions that may exist solely within one or more or all of the suburban school districts. Any constitutional violation for which the Plaintiffs seek redress must have had, at a minimum, a segregative effect on the schools within the Cincinnati school system, and thus upon the Plaintiffs themselves, or these Plaintiffs would lack the requisite standing to complain and to seek redress for such segregated condition or conditions. (Decision and Entry Granting Plaintiffs' Motion for Leave to File an Amended Trial Complaint, filed August 2, 1983, at 16-21, Doc. # 589; Entry Clarifying Trial Issues, filed Oct. 21, 1983 at 2-3, Doc. # 649). 573 F.Supp. 767.

Finally, to the extent any of the Plaintiffs' allegations leveled at the named Defendants originally sought to impose liability on any one or more or all of them for the independent segregative conduct of housing officials and/or other non-joined government or private agencies and/or actors, the Sixth Circuit's decision in Bell v. Board of Education, 683 F.2d 963 (6th Cir.1982), clarified that school officials could not be held liable for remedying the independent constitutionally violative conduct of such other entities. Thus, Plaintiffs are put to the task of demonstrating that there was or is some nexus between the actions or inactions of these other actors and agencies not made parties to the instant proceeding and the named Defendants representing the interests of the Cincinnati school district, the State, the Suburban...