Carney v. Cleveland Hts.-Univ. Hts. City School Dist.

• Decision Date: 29 May 2001
• Docket Number: No. 78051.,78051.
• Citation: 758 NE 2d 234,143 Ohio App.3d 415
• Parties: CARNEY, Appellant, v. CLEVELAND HEIGHTS-UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee.
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

143 Ohio App.3d 415

758 NE 2d 234

CARNEY, Appellant, v. CLEVELAND HEIGHTS-UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee.^*

No. 78051.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga County.

Decided May 29, 2001.

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Alan I. Goodman, for appellant.

Britton, McGown, Smith, Peters & Kalai, David K. Smith, Scott C. Peters and Deitri E. Villarreal, for appellee.

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JAMES D. SWEENEY, Presiding Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant, Marilyn Carney¹ appeals from (1) the granting of summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee-movant University Heights City School District, and (2) the denial of her motion to amend the complaint to name the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education as the defendant. For the reasons adduced below, we affirm the granting of summary judgment.

A review of the record on appeal indicates that in December 1997, during the middle of the school year term, there occurred a teaching vacancy in the Middle Schools Scholars Program, a.k.a. the "gifted program," at the Monticello Middle School ("Monticello"), which is located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and is one of three middle schools included in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District. The vacancy was caused by the resignation of a Caucasian female teacher, who was one of four teachers (all Caucasian females at that time, and all of whom were certified by the state of Ohio to teach in gifted education pursuant to Ohio Adm.Code 3301-23-21) in the district's gifted program. The gifted program permits students within it to select topics to explore in greater detail (overseen by the gifted program teacher) in addition to their regular course work (which is the responsibility of the student's regular teacher). The district's coordinator for the gifted program was James Rust, a Caucasian male. According to Rust, the majority of the students in the gifted program are African-Americans. The teachers in the gifted program report directly to Rust and it was his responsibility to fill the teaching vacancy in the gifted program.

The principal at Monticello Middle School was Juliette Helmick, an African-American female.² Rust, who had been appointed to his position as coordinator of the gifted program approximately three months prior to the interviews, invited Helmick to assist in the interviewing process for the vacant position because the vacancy was in her school.

A total of four candidates applied for the vacant position: Carney and Debra Frost (who were current employees of the District but not assigned to any gifted program), and Barbara Parr and Christine Gibbons (who were not employees of the District).³ These candidates were jointly interviewed by Rust and Helmick, after which they assessed the qualities of the candidates and rated them accordingly. Rust and Helmick both concluded that Frost was the best qualified candidate and that Carney was not. On January 20, 1998, Rust offered the vacant position at Monticello Middle School to Frost. Several days later, Carney was informed by Linda Koenig (the District's Executive Director of Human Resources) that she did not get the job. It is conceded by the parties that Carney was not pleased with the selection of Frost, believing that she was more qualified for the position than the chosen candidate.

On February 14, 1998, Carney filed a grievance through the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union ("Union"), of which she was a member, alleging that the appointment of Frost violated Board policy and the Union collective bargaining agreement. The school administration ultimately denied the grievance and the Union did not appeal that decision.

On May 6, 1998, after the Union grievance had been denied, Carney filed a charge with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission ("OCRC"), alleging racial discrimination in the selection of Frost over Carney. Subsequent to an investigation, the OCRC denied the charge due to a lack of probable cause and notified Carney of this determination in late January 1999. Carney did not seek further judicial review of this OCRC determination. See R.C. 4112.06.

Prior to the appellee being notified of this OCRC racial discrimination filing, Koenig and Pamela Smith⁴ (the Associate Superintendent for Instruction) met in approximately April 1998 to assess the staffing needs of the District for the upcoming 1998-1999 school year.⁵ Based on a number of factors (including enrollment, licensure needs for particular educational programs, teacher job performance, anticipated staffing changes throughout the District, and relocating teachers to an environment that would better suit a particular teacher's needs or performance levels) they decided to transfer Carney from Monticello Middle School to Taylor Academy for that upcoming school year. According to Koenig, the Carney transfer was motivated by the following factors: the smaller-sized classrooms at Taylor would better suit Carney's alleged classroom management deficiencies and Carney was perceived as an obstacle to Helmick's attempt to reform and upgrade Monticello's overall program. Carney's transfer recommendation was thereafter approved by Superintendent Dr. Paul Masem, and Carney, pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, was notified of the transfer on June 1, 1998.

Shortly after being notified of the transfer, Carney applied for a teaching position at the District's high school (Cleveland Heights High School), but was not chosen from the pool of seven applicants interviewed by Chambers, the high school's building administrator.⁶

Following Carney's transfer notice, the District claimed that it received notice of the original OCRC charge in early June 1998. At some point following the transfer notice, Carney filed a second charge with the OCRC alleging retaliation in her transfer. Ultimately, this retaliation charge was investigated by the OCRC, which determined that the charge lacked probable cause. Carney did not seek further judicial review of this second charge determination.

Carney filed the action sub judice pursuant to R.C. 4112.99 on March 3, 1999, alleging two discrimination-based causes of action, namely (1) reverse race discrimination pursuant to R.C. 4112.02(A) in selecting Frost for the Monticello gifted program instead of Carney, and (2) retaliatory discrimination pursuant to R.C. 4112.02(I) in involuntarily transferring Carney to Taylor Middle School and denying Carney teaching opportunities at other schools in the District due to Carney's opposition to the selection of Frost and Carney's filing charges with the OCRC.

The District filed its motion for summary judgment on January 24, 2000. Summary judgment was premised on the following bases: (1) that the named defendant, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, is not sui juris, in other words, an entity capable of being sued, (2) that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the action due to (a) Carney's failure to exhaust her administrative remedies or (b) because the court is bound by the OCRC's findings and determinations, (3) that Carney could not meet her burden of proof in making her claims of race discrimination and/or retaliation, and (4) that, in the event that Carney did obtain a judgment on her claim(s), attorney fees could not be awarded in the action.

On March 6, 2000, the trial court scheduled the final pretrial conference for July 27, 2000, and trial to commence on August 21, 2000.

On March 24, 2000, Carney filed a brief in opposition to summary judgment and, separately, a motion to amend her complaint to name "Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education" as the proper party defendant. On April 7, 2000, Carney filed a motion to strike the affidavit of Dr. Melvin Arnoff, which was attached to the motion for summary judgment. On April 19, 2000, Carney filed a motion to supplement her brief in opposition by adding the affidavit of Barbara Parr.

On April 26, 2000, the trial court, using half-sheet status form entries without legal reasoning, granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant, denied the motion to strike the affidavit of Dr. Arnoff, and denied as moot (because summary judgment was granted in defendant's favor) the motion to amend the complaint. Subsequently, on May 11, 2000, the trial court ruled that the motion to supplement Carney's brief in opposition with the additional affidavit of Barbara Parr was moot. On May 22, 2000, Carney filed her notice of appeal from the orders of April 26, 2000, and May 11, 2000. Three assignments of error are presented for review.

The first and second assignments of error are interrelated so they will be addressed jointly. These two assignments of error provide the following:

I

"The trial court erred in granting the district's motion for summary judgment."

II

"The court erred in failing to allow appellant to amend her complaint to name the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education as a party defendant."

The standard of review for a ruling on a motion for summary judgment was recently stated by this court, as follows:

"The Ohio Supreme Court has established that summary judgment under Civ.R. 56 is proper when:

"`(1) no genuine issue as to any material fact remains to be litigated; (2) the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; and (3) it appears from the evidence that reasonable minds can come to but one conclusion, and viewing such evidence most strongly in favor of the nonmoving party, that conclusion is adverse to the party against whom the motion for summary judgment is made.' State ex rel. Parsons v. Fleming (1994), 68 Ohio St.3d 509, 511, 628 N.E.2d 1377 1379; Temple v. Wean United, Inc. (1977), 50 Ohio St.2d 317, 327, 4 O.O.3d 466, 472 364 N.E.2d 267 274.

"The party seeking summary judgment bears the burden of showing that no genuine issue of...