Fiedler v. Marumsco Christian School, 79-1556

• Citation: 631 F.2d 1144
• Decision Date: 10 October 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-1556,79-1556
• Parties: Raymond FIEDLER; Melissa and Charlotte Fiedler by their father and next friend, Raymond Fiedler, Appellants, v. MARUMSCO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, Marumsco Baptist Church and Aleck Lee Bledsoe, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Page 1144

631 F.2d 1144

Raymond FIEDLER; Melissa and Charlotte Fiedler by their father and next friend, Raymond Fiedler, Appellants, v. MARUMSCO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, Marumsco Baptist Church and Aleck

Lee Bledsoe, Appellees.

No. 79-1556.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 2, 1980.

Decided Oct. 10, 1980.

Victor M. Glasberg, Alexandria, Va. (Leonard S. Rubenstein, Hirschkop & Grad P. C., Alexandria, Va., Steven W. Bricker, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellants.

I. J. Crickenberger, Falls Church, Va., (Crickenberger & Moore, Falls Church, Va., on brief), for appellees.

Daniel M. Schember, Gaffney, Anspach, Schember, Klimaski & Marks, P. C., Washington, D. C., on brief, as amicus curiae General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church.

Drew S. Days, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D. C., Walter W. Barnett, Irving L. Gornstein, Dept. of Justice, on brief, as amicus curiae United States.

Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, PHILLIPS ^*, Senior Circuit Judge, and ERVIN, Circuit Judge.

ERVIN, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal, Raymond Fiedler and his daughters, Melissa (Lisa) and Charlotte, all of whom are members of the white race, challenge the district court's dismissal of their civil rights suit brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ¹ against Marumsco Christian School, Marumsco Baptist Church (hereafter collectively called Marumsco) and Aleck Lee Bledsoe, principal of the school and pastor of the church (hereafter, Bledsoe). Alleging in district court that Lisa and Charlotte were expelled from the school in violation of their right to contract free from racial discrimination, the Fiedlers sought declaratory and injunctive relief and monetary damages; they also requested a jury trial.

Upon commencement of the district court proceedings, counsel for Marumsco advised the court that Marumsco had filed petitions under the Bankruptcy Act earlier that morning, ² and requested a stay of the instant proceedings pending the outcome of the bankruptcy action. Denying the motion to stay the proceedings in their entirety, the court instead bifurcated the issues of liability and damages, reserving proof of damages for later trial, by jury if one were requested.

After discharging the jury venire, the district court tried the issue of Marumsco's liability under § 1981, and dismissed the case on the merits, finding that Marumsco and Bledsoe had a valid defense to the § 1981 claim by virtue of the free exercise of religion clause in the Constitution ³ (hereafter called "free exercise defense").

The Fiedlers now assert error in the district court's discharge of the jury on the issue of liability and in its dismissal of their claim on its merits. Because we find that the Fiedlers waived their right to a jury trial on the issue of liability, we dismiss that portion of their appeal. Finding, however, that the district court committed reversible error in its dismissal of the Fiedlers' § 1981 claim, we accordingly reverse that portion of the judgment.

I.

Situated in Woodbridge, Virginia, Marumsco Baptist Church is an independent, unincorporated association of persons who profess a fundamentalist Christian faith and belief in the Bible. It is open to all fundamentalist Christians without regard to formal denomination or race. Marumsco Christian School is a private school established by the church for inculcating and transmitting the religious beliefs of the members of the church. The school does however, hold itself out to the general public as providing, within the limits of its maximum enrollment, educational and related services to students who meet its admission requirements, pay the requisite tuition and fees, and agree to abide by school regulations; neither membership in the Marumsco Baptist Church nor adherence to the Baptist faith is required.

Since it was founded in 1972, the school has admitted students without regard to race and has sought to encourage interracial harmony and friendship. Bledsoe, however, opposes interracial romantic relationships, claiming to base his opposition on religious beliefs derived from the Bible and upon the conviction that such relationships are problematic socially. He does not as a general rule oppose romantic relationships between the sexes. His feelings concerning interracial relationships, however, are evidently quite strong: he advised one of the teachers in the school that he thought the sex drive was stronger in black men than in white men; he also admonished his school children that in the event of a takeover of the United States by a group similar to the Khmer Rouge, interracial couples would probably be liquidated. Neither the enrollment contract of the school nor the constitution and bylaws of the church expressly prohibit or allude to interracial dating.

Fiedler enrolled Lisa, age fourteen, and Charlotte, age eleven, in the school for the 1978-1979 academic year. He testified at trial that he wanted to give them a Christian education and that it was unavailable in public school, and that he had no problem accepting the principles of faith, the Bible teaching policy and the disciplinary procedure set out in Marumsco's application. He also testified that he was unaware of a school policy against interracial dating.

During the course of the school year, Lisa reestablished a friendship with Rufus Bostic, a fourteen year-old black student whom she had known while attending public school. Although Lisa testified that Rufus was not her "boyfriend," it was stipulated that Bledsoe believed in good faith that a romantic relationship existed between the two students. Bledsoe warned Lisa not to continue her association with Rufus, advising her that "the church had a position against it," and that he "personally had a position against it as pastor and principal"; he also referred to the "problems" Moses and Abraham had. It was stipulated that Bledsoe ultimately warned Lisa that if she were caught speaking to Rufus again on school premises or at school functions, she would be expelled. It was also stipulated that because he later observed her talking to Rufus and a third student in the school hallway, he did expel her.

In a telephone conversation with Fiedler following Lisa's expulsion, Bledsoe agreed to readmit Lisa to school after a two day suspension if Fiedler accepted the condition that Lisa would not speak to or associate with Rufus upon her readmission. The following day, Bledsoe heard that Fiedler had earlier contacted the NAACP regarding Lisa's initial expulsion; he then had a church deacon advise Fiedler that if Fiedler had indeed contacted the NAACP, then Lisa's expulsion would remain in effect and Charlotte would also be expelled. Fiedler told the deacon that he had been prepared to drop the matter, but that in light of Bledsoe's ultimatum he had now decided to proceed with legal action; the deacon then advised Fiedler that the girls would be expelled.

Following the girls' expulsion, Rufus Bostic's parents withdrew him from the school and his family resigned its membership in the church. Bledsoe testified that after the expulsion church attendance dropped from around two hundred forty persons to seventy or seventy-five persons; membership in the church also dropped by nine families.

II.

The district court found that, as a ministry of the church, the school bases its conduct and spiritual standards on the religious tenets, doctrines, beliefs and convictions of the fundamentalist Christianity of the church. It found that, based on their interpretation of the Bible, Marumsco and Bledsoe believe that, although salvation is offered and the church must be open to all without regard to race, interracial marriage, interracial dating and interracial romantic relationships are forbidden. The court concluded that Lisa was expelled because she refused to end her romantic relationship with Rufus after she was warned by Bledsoe that interracial romantic expressions on school premises and at school functions must end. ⁴

The district court's dismissal of the Fiedlers' § 1981 claim was predicated on its ruling that the church has a bona fide religious belief that the Bible forbids interracial romance, dating and marriage, and that actions based on that belief are insulated by the First Amendment from attack, absent a finding of compelling state interest. ⁵

The Fiedlers' contentions on appeal, that the district court erred in denying them a jury trial on the issue of Marumsco's liability and in dismissing their § 1981 claim due to improper imputation of Bledsoe's religious beliefs to Marumsco, will be considered separately. ⁶

III.

The Fiedlers first contend that the district court erred in denying them a jury trial. Assuming without deciding that they were in the first instance entitled to a jury trial on the issue of liability, it is clear that the Fiedlers' conduct here constituted a waiver of that right. See, e. g., Country (Social) Club of Savannah, Inc. v. Sutherland, 411 F.2d 599 (5th Cir. 1969); West v. Devitt, 311 F.2d 787 (8th Cir. 1963); Smith v. Cushman Motor Works, Inc., 178 F.2d 953 (8th Cir. 1950).

The following colloquy took place prior to trial:

THE COURT: ... I am going to excuse the jury. I did not know they were in there.

(Whereupon, the jury was brought into the courtroom for instructions from the Court.)

THE COURT: ... No one told me you were in there for the case that you were apparently called for and I have ruled it is not a jury matter. It is an equitable matter involving first of all, a constitutional claim. The facts have been stipulated too (sic), and whether or not it is a constitutional issue, is for the Court to determine. At some date later, there might be a damage issue. If it is conceivably a jury matter, it is between a church and school which have declared and filed a petition for bankruptcy which would stay a damage claim pending the outcome of that. So we have...