Denver Classroom Teachers Ass'n v. Sch. Dist. No. 1 in the Cnty. of Denver & Colo.
| Decision Date | 12 January 2017 |
| Docket Number | Court of Appeals No. 15CA0965 |
| Citation | 434 P.3d 680 |
| Parties | DENVER CLASSROOM TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellee and Cross-Appellant, v. SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 IN THE COUNTY OF DENVER AND STATE OF COLORADO; and Board of Education of School District No. 1 in the County of Denver and State of Colorado, Defendants-Appellants and Cross-Appellees. |
| Court | Colorado Court of Appeals |
Sharyn E. Dreyer, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee and Cross-Appellant
Semple, Farrington & Everall, P.C., M. Brent Case, Susanne S. Kim, Denver, Colorado, for Defendants-Appellants and Cross-Appellees
Opinion by JUDGE BOORAS
¶ 1 The defendants/appellants/cross-appellees in this case are School District No. 1 and the Board of Education of School District No. 1 in the County of Denver and State of Colorado (collectively, the District). The plaintiff/appellee/cross-appellant is the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA).
¶ 2 The District appeals a jury verdict finding it liable for breaching several collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and a determination of damages reflected in the final judgment. DCTA cross-appeals the special interrogatories finding that the District did not breach certain CBAs as they pertained to a particular group of teachers. We affirm.
¶ 3 The District and DCTA entered into several CBAs and extensions from 2005 to 2015: the 2005-08 CBA, the 2008-11 CBA, the 2011-12 Extension, and the 2012-15 Extension. The extensions adopted most of the CBA provisions with only a few modifications not pertinent to this action.
¶ 4 From the mid-1990s until the 2006-07 school year, the District compensated teachers for attending English Language Acquisition (ELA) training. ELA is a program to train teachers to work more effectively with students who have limited English language proficiency. A federal consent order requires the District to have teachers who are trained to teach such students. After the 2006-07 school year, the District stopped paying teachers for attending the training, although it offered teachers who had already started the training that year a one-time stipend of $500.
¶ 5 DCTA filed a grievance against the District alleging violations of the 2005-08 CBA. The grievance resulted in nonbinding arbitration. The arbitrator issued a recommendation in favor of DCTA, but the school board elected not to adopt the recommendation.
¶ 6 DCTA subsequently filed suit for breach of the 2005-08 and 2008-11 CBAs and the extensions, and the trial court bifurcated the liability and damages portions of the trial. A jury returned verdicts in favor of DCTA for breach of contract, but it held the District not liable in special interrogatories regarding breach for teachers in the Professional Compensation (ProComp) system.
¶ 7 The District raises three contentions. First, it contends that the CBAs unambiguously do not require extra compensation for ELA training. Next, it asserts that additional evidence pertaining to the CBAs and extensions from 2008 forward shows that the District was not required to compensate teachers for ELA training. Finally, the District contends the trial court erred in failing to limit damages because (1) some of DCTA's damages accrued beyond the statute of limitations and (2) DCTA did not exhaust its administrative remedies for the CBAs and extensions subsequent to 2008.
¶ 8 DCTA cross-appeals, alleging the trial court erred in giving the jury special interrogatories asking it to determine whether teachers in the ProComp system were exempted from the entitlement to extra pay for ELA training.
¶ 9 We address each contention in turn.
¶ 10 Most of the issues raised by the parties involve interpretation of the CBAs. The interpretation of a contract is a question of law that we review de novo. Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Fisher , 2013 CO 5, ¶ 9, 292 P.3d 934. In determining whether a contractual provision is ambiguous, we examine the language of the contract and construe it in harmony with the plain and generally accepted meaning of the words used. Dorman v. Petrol Aspen, Inc. , 914 P.2d 909, 912 (Colo. 1996).
¶ 11 A provision is ambiguous "if it is fairly susceptible to more than one interpretation." Id. (quoting Fibreglas Fabricators, Inc. v. Kylberg , 799 P.2d 371, 374 (Colo. 1990) ). We may consider extraneous evidence to determine whether a contract is ambiguous. Cheyenne Mountain Sch. Dist. No. 12 v. Thompson , 861 P.2d 711, 715 (Colo. 1993).
¶ 12 If a contract is unambiguous, it cannot be changed by extrinsic evidence. Dorman , 914 P.2d at 911. If it is ambiguous, it must be construed in accordance with the intent of the parties, and we may consider extraneous evidence to determine such intent. Id. at 911–12. Once a contract is determined to be ambiguous, its interpretation becomes an issue of fact. Id.
¶ 13 The District contends that the CBAs and extensions are unambiguous in their construction and that they do not require the district to pay teachers for ELA training. We do not agree.
¶ 14 The relevant articles of the 2005-08 and 2008-11 CBAs are:
(Emphasis added.)
¶ 15 The District relies on article 2-7, a management rights clause, to support its contention that it retained the right to refuse to pay teachers for ELA training if the contract does not specifically require it. It further contends that because article 13-2 does not specifically require the District to pay teachers for fulfilling a posted job requirement, and because ELA training was a posted job requirement, the District retains the right to refuse pay for ELA training.
¶ 16 The District's assertion fails to consider articles 8-1, 8-2, and 32-1. Articles 8-1 and 8-2 clearly define the number of hours per week and days per year a teacher is required to work, and article 32-1 provides that any time a teacher agrees to perform work beyond the set number, "that teacher will be compensated ." (Emphasis added.) The articles are silent on whether work beyond that number includes training required to fulfill a job requirement, even those requirements posted in the job description.
¶ 17 Because the articles provide for payment for work beyond the forty-hour week, and because the ELA training may fall into that category, the contract is fairly susceptible to being interpreted to require payment for such work. We conclude that the CBAs are ambiguous and the trial court properly let the interpretation go to the jury as a question of fact.
¶ 18 Relying on City & County of Denver v. Denver Firefighters Local No. 858 , 2014 CO 15, ¶ 18, 320 P.3d 354, the District argues that when an agreement contains a management rights clause, the managing entity retains expansive rights. The District's reliance on Denver Firefighters is misplaced, however, because in that case the supreme court determined that the CBA in question unambiguously gave the city the right to draft and implement the disputed terms. Id. at ¶ 11. Here, in contrast, we have concluded that the CBAs are ambiguous regarding payment for ELA training. Therefore, although management rights clauses provide expansive rights under certain circumstances, those circumstances are not present in this case.
¶ 19 The District contends that additional evidence—pertaining to the CBAs and extensions beginning in 2008—shows unambiguously that it was not required to compensate teachers for ELA training beyond that year. It raises two assertions to support this point: (1) ELA training was a "special condition of employment" under the teacher contract and (2) the parties' bargaining history indicates that any requirement to compensate teachers for ELA training was purposely excluded from the CBAs.
¶ 20 Under article 8-1-5 of the CBAs:
Any special conditions regarding the assignment of any teacher will be reduced to writing and become an addendum to the individual's initial employment contract with the District.
¶ 21 The teachers' individual contracts stated in relevant part:
If the teacher is assigned at the time of hire or thereafter to teach within the ELA-S/ELA-E program, in addition to the other provisions of this Contract, this Contract is further conditioned upon the teacher's fulfillment of the following, on a timeline proscribed [sic] by the District: (a) the teacher's successful completion at their sole cost and expense , except to the extent tuition is subsidized at the District's sole discretion, of the current ELA Professional Development Units.
(Emphasis added.)
¶ 22 The District contends that, when read together, these provisions show that teachers, not the District, were responsible for paying for ELA training.
¶ 23 DCTA argues that the District waived this argument by failing to raise it before the trial court. We note that...
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...add to, subtract from, vary, contradict, change, or modify an unambiguous integrated contract."); Denver Classroom Teachers Ass'n v. School District No. 1, 434 P.3d 680, 684 (Colo.App. 2017) ("If a contract is unambiguous, it cannot be changed by extrinsic evidence."). The Agreement says wh......