Brown v. Public Employment Relations Bd.

• Decision Date: 15 February 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-68,83-68
• Citation: 345 N.W.2d 88
• Parties: 118 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3319, 16 Ed. Law Rep. 917 Elaine BROWN, Appellant, v. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD, Appellee. SIOUX CITY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Appellee and Cross-Appellant, v. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 88

345 N.W.2d 88

118 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3319, 16 Ed. Law Rep. 917

Elaine BROWN, Appellant, v. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD, Appellee.

SIOUX CITY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Appellee and Cross-Appellant, v. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD, Appellee.

No. 83-68.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 15, 1984.

P.L. Nymann, of Gaul, Nymann & Green, Sioux City, for appellant.

Charles E. Gribble, of Sayre & Gribble, P.C., Des Moines, for appellee and cross-appellant.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and UHLENHOPP, McCORMICK, SCHULTZ, and WOLLE, JJ.

WOLLE, Justice.

At the threshold of this public employment case is the question whether the complainant Elaine Brown filed her prohibited practice complaint against the Sioux City Education Association (association) within the time required by statute. Iowa Code section 20.11 provides that proceedings alleging a violation of section 20.10 ("Prohibited practices") "shall be commenced by filing a complaint with the board within ninety days of the alleged violation ...." That clear and unambiguous statute is mandatory and not directory only; it specifically limits the time within which proceedings charging a prohibited practice shall be commenced. The association raised the timeliness issue before the agency, the district court, and here by its cross-appeal. Unfortunately the Public Employment Relations Board (PER Board) did not expressly answer the question of timeliness, nor did it make the required findings of fact and conclusions of law on that issue. The PER Board instead proceeded directly to the merits of Brown's complaint and held that the association had breached its duty of fair representation and thereby committed a prohibited practice. That decision was reversed as a result of judicial review proceedings because the district court concluded that there was not substantial evidence in the record as a whole to support Brown's complaint.

A reasoned decision on the timeliness issue was a prerequisite for entry of a final decision on the merits of the complaint. In its absence the administrative record is not yet adequate for judicial review. We therefore do not address the merits of the prohibited practice charge. Rather, we must remand the case to the PER Board with directions to make findings of fact and file a reasoned opinion on the timeliness issue in accordance with section 17A.16(1) of the Iowa Administrative Procedure Act. From the somewhat convoluted procedural history and factual background of this case, we need summarize only those events which are pertinent to our decision. We address first the relevant undisputed background facts, then the procedural steps which brought the case to this court, and finally the legal principles on which our decision rests.

I. Background Facts.

Elaine Brown has been teaching in the Sioux City public school system since 1974. During all of that time the association has been the collective bargaining organization representing Brown and other employees of the Sioux City Community School District (district). A collective bargaining agreement (master agreement) entered into between the association and the district contained language determining the seniority of teachers employed by the district.

As early as 1978, a dispute arose as to whether Brown or another teacher, one Harlan Fedderson, had greater seniority under the master agreement. Fedderson began teaching in the district after Brown, but Brown signed a continuing contract three months after Fedderson. Termination notices were served on Fedderson and four other teachers, triggering grievance proceedings under the master agreement. Brown intervened in those proceedings, but the grievances were subsequently resolved when the district voluntary withdrew the termination notices.

With student enrollment in the district declining and further termination notices expected, the district and the association then reviewed the master agreement seniority language in an effort to prevent future controversies. In the spring of 1979 the association's executive committee, of which Brown was a member, received a recommendation from the association's seniority committee that each teacher's seniority date from the signing of a continuing contract, a change which would elevate Fedderson above Brown on the seniority list. In the fall of 1979, Brown resigned from the association because of the position it decided to take on that issue. Subsequent negotiations between the association and district concluded with the adoption of an amendment of the master agreement changing the basis on which teachers' seniority would be determined. That midterm modification of the master agreement language by the district and the association is at the heart of complaints which Brown subsequently filed with the PER Board. Article 19 of the agreement had formerly defined seniority as "the number of consecutive years of employment in the school district," but under the substituted language of the midterm modification agreement seniority was measured "from the date of the employee's signing of a continuing contract which initiated uninterrupted service." Brown herself later testified,

I think that is the root of the problem, the changing of Article 19, yes. And the way it was changed.

Association and district representatives signed the midterm modification agreement on February 22 and 25, 1980, the agreement was ratified by association members, and a copy of the agreement was posted on school bulletin boards in the district. Thereafter, the district closed the school where Brown and Fedderson were teaching. When Fedderson was given a position at another school for which both Brown and he had applied, Brown asked the association to process a grievance against the district on her behalf. That grievance was processed through the pre-arbitration steps of the contract but was processed no further because the association concluded that Fedderson was clearly senior to Brown under the language agreed to in February.

II. Procedural History.

A. The Complaints. Brown filed complaints against both the association and the district. Under Iowa Code section 20.11 (1979), such complaints need not comply with technical rules of pleading. Although the association has contended that the complaint against it was insufficient, we find otherwise. Brown's complaint against the association, filed July 29, 1980, alleged in essence that the association had not fairly represented her on two occasions and thereby twice committed prohibited practices: first, in agreeing with the district to modify the seniority language; and second, in refusing to process her grievance. Brown's complaint against the district, filed on August 22, 1980, and later amended, alleged in essence that the district had discriminated against her by entering into the midterm modification and by thereafter implementing the agreement by assigning Fedderson to the teaching position she had requested.

B. Proceedings Before the Hearing Officer. Both charged parties steadfastly raised the issue of timeliness throughout all subsequent stages of the proceedings. Initially the case was assigned to a hearing officer who denied motions to dismiss on the basis that

the facts alleged, when viewed in the light most favorable to the complainant, could, if proven, bring the complaint within the jurisdictional time lines.

Thereafter the hearing officer received evidence and included in his recommended decision and order detailed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and rulings on renewed motions to dismiss. He recommended that the complaint against the district be dismissed because it was not timely filed. Turning to the complaint against the association, the hearing officer concluded that it was timely filed because one of the allegations was that the association had not processed Brown's May 7 grievance to binding arbitration and that had occurred within ninety days from the filing of the complaint. On the merits, however, the hearing officer recommended that the complaint be dismissed because the evidence supported neither the claim of unfair representation arising from the midterm modification of seniority language nor the claim with respect to the association's later handling of Brown's grievance.

C. Proceedings Before the PER Board. On Brown's appeal from those recommended decisions, the PER Board first adopted and affirmed the fact findings of the hearing officer. Next it affirmed the hearing officer's finding that the complaint against the district was not timely filed, but it made no reasoned decision on whether Brown's complaint against the association was also time barred. Addressing the complaint against the association on its merits, the PER Board disagreed in part with the hearing officer's recommendation. It agreed that the association was not required to take Brown's grievance to arbitration because that grievance was without merit under the modified contract language. On the charge based on the midterm modification agreement, however, the PER Board reached a different conclusion than the hearing officer. It held that

the association committed a prohibited practice by its treatment of Brown in advocating and seeking a change in the computation of seniority that adversely affected only her, a change which the association knew would have such an adverse affect.

D. Judicial Review Proceedings. Both Brown and the association filed petitions for judicial review of the PER Board decision and the cases were consolidated for hearing before the district court. Brown contended that her complaint against the district had been timely, but that decision of the PER Board was affirmed by the district court. On the association's petition for judicial review, the district court reversed, finding in a detailed written analysis of the evidence and applicable law that the PER Board finding of a prohibited practice was not supported by substantial evidence in the light of the...