Freeman v. Gould Special Sch. Dist. of Lincoln County, Ark.

• Citation: 405 F.2d 1153
• Decision Date: 15 January 1969
• Docket Number: No. 19016.,19016.
• Parties: Jesse FREEMAN et al., Appellants, v. The GOULD SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LINCOLN COUNTY, ARKANSAS, et al., Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

405 F.2d 1153 (1969)

Jesse FREEMAN et al., Appellants, v. The GOULD SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LINCOLN COUNTY, ARKANSAS, et al., Appellees.

No. 19016.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

January 15, 1969.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Conrad K. Harper, New York City, for appellants, Jack Greenberg and Michael Meltsner, New York City, and John W. Walker and Norman J. Chachkin, Little Rock, Ark., and George Howard, Pine Bluff, Ark., on the brief.

G. Ross Smith and Robert V. Light, Little Rock, Ark., for appellees, Herschel H. Friday, Little Rock, Ark., on the brief.

Before BLACKMUN, GIBSON and LAY, Circuit Judges.

FLOYD R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs, six Negro school teachers, with the support of the Arkansas Teachers Association, Inc., seek to compel the defendant Gould Special School District to renew their annual teaching contracts and in addition request damages and attorneys' fees against all the defendants.¹

In May 1967, the individual plaintiffs received notice from the defendant Gould Special School District that their teaching contracts would not be renewed for the 1967-1968 school term for teaching in the district's all-Negro Field School. The notification was in accordance with requirements of Ark.Stat.Ann., § 80-1304 (b), whereby teachers' annual contracts are automatically renewed unless notification in writing is made within a prescribed time to the contrary.

The Board's decision not to renew the teaching contracts was based upon a recommendation of defendant Horace Itty Dalton, the Negro principal of the Field School. Dalton was in charge of employment and re-employment at the Field School. His recommendation that the teaching contracts not be renewed was based generally upon his contention that the teaching plaintiffs were incompetent, failed to co-operate with his administration, did not adhere to the chain of command in processing complaints, and some varied personal objections. His views were stated in an informal memorandum set forth on a typewritten sheet to Superintendent Sage and the Board.²

Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Freeman had taught 24 years and 35 years respectively in the Gould District; Mrs. Woods 2 years; Mrs. Walker 4 months; and Mrs. Calloway and Mrs. Wilhite 4 years. There is no procedure or machinery set up under Arkansas law for school boards to conduct a hearing on complaints or on the hiring or rehiring of teachers. The Board at the request of the dismissed teachers did, however, hold a hearing on Monday, June 5, 1967, and another hearing in July 1967, giving the dismissed teachers the opportunity to appear and state their side of the dispute with Dalton. The Board, however, refused to rescind its position.

The complaint filed June 8, 1967, alleged that the Board's refusal to rehire the teachers was "solely because of their race or color and the punitive motivation of defendant Dalton." An allegation was also made that "plaintiffs were discharged because of the impending necessity for defendant district to fully desegregate its faculty by assigning Negro teachers to white schools and white teachers to Negro schools."

The District Court, the Honorable Oren Harris, Chief Judge of the Western District of Arkansas, held that there was no evidence that the teachers were terminated because of their race or color or because of any civil rights issue. He viewed the evidence as presenting no federal question but as an internal dispute between the teachers and their principal, which dispute should remain in the jurisdiction of the School District and the state courts and not brought into federal court. The complaint was dismissed at the close of plaintiffs' case. The District Court specifically found: (1) that the employment of the individual plaintiffs was terminated by defendants for reasons wholly unrelated to any improper racial consideration; (2) that the defendant School Board acted within the discretion vested in it by law in electing not to employ the individual plaintiffs for the 1967-1968 school year; and (3) concluded as a matter of law "the proof fails to establish that defendants have deprived plaintiffs of any rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States." While the findings might be more detailed, we believe Judge Harris' findings comply with Rule 52(a), Fed.R.Civ.P. As articulated by Judge Mehaffy in Manning v. Jones, 349 F.2d 992, 996 (8 Cir. 1965):

"* * * A district court\'s findings of fact must be liberally construed and found to be in consonance with the judgment if the judgment has support in the record evidence. * * * This is so even if the findings are not as specific or detailed as might be desired."

Plaintiffs assert jurisdiction in the United States District Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4)³ and denominate their suit as an action in equity authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and § 1983.⁴ Plaintiffs assert their rights, privileges and immunities sought to be secured in this action are guaranteed by the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

We agree with the District Court that the evidence fails to sustain a cause of action under § 1343(3) as there has been no "deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution" or laws; or under sub-section (4) authorizing relief "for the protection of civil rights, including the right to vote"; or under § 1981, the old civil rights section placing all persons on a par with "white citizens"; or under § 1983, another old civil rights section, referring to deprivation of rights, privileges or immunities under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage.

The plaintiffs' complaint cast as a civil rights action fails to show any deprivation of rights or privileges (immunity is not claimed) under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation or custom. No racial discrimination is shown at all.⁵ On appeal the plaintiffs have dropped their initial request for enjoining the defendant School District from employing or assigning teachers on the basis of their race or color and are not pressing their charge that the teaching plaintiffs did not have their contracts renewed because of their race or color. There was no evidence introduced on the first issue, and the finding of the trial court on the latter issue is clearly supported by the evidence. Plaintiffs now contend that the Board acted arbitrarily, capriciously, and unreasonably in its attempt to resolve the conflict between the six teachers and Principal Dalton.

The Board did indicate to the plaintiffs that it would rehire them if they could resolve their differences with Dalton and secure his recommendation for their rehire. The plaintiffs view the Board's position in sustaining Dalton's recommendation for not renewing their contracts and placing upon them the burden of securing Dalton's approval as arbitrary and capricious and a denial of federal due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Stripped of the racial issue this case presents no federal question.

Teachers in the Arkansas schools are not covered by any type of civil service or tenure law. By Ark.Stat.Ann. § 80-1304 (b), they shall be employed by written contract annually. Their status is set forth in Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 482, 486, 81 S.Ct. 247, 249, 251, 5 L.Ed.2d 231 (1960):

"Teachers there are hired on a year-to-year basis. They are not covered by a civil service system, and they have no job security beyond the end of each school year. The closest approach to tenure is a statutory provision for the automatic renewal of a teacher\'s contract if he is not notified within ten days after the end of a school year that the contract has not been renewed.

* * * * * *

"* * * The teacher serves at the absolute will of those to whom the disclosure lists of organizations belonged to within the last five years must be made — those who any year can terminate the teacher\'s employment without bringing charges, without notice, without a hearing, without affording an opportunity to explain."

The Arkansas Supreme Court also specifically observed in Johnson v. Wert, 225 Ark. 91, 279 S.W.2d 274, 276 (1955): "Ordinarily the board has the absolute right to decline to employ or re-employ any applicant for any reason whatever or for no reason at all." This holding is in line with the general law on the employment or re-employment of school teachers.

"* * * Teachers are normally subject to selection at the hands of school boards, since among the general powers usually reposed in such boards is included the power to enter into contracts with teachers and to fix their compensation and terms of employment. The discretion of a school board in this respect is very broad, and when such discretion is exercised in good faith and is not contrary to law, the courts will not interfere to aid one whom the board does not choose to employ. The refusal of the board to employ one as a teacher is in no sense an infringement of any constitutional right of that person. The board has the absolute right to decline to employ or to re-employ any applicant for any reason whatever or for no reason at all." 47 Am.Jur., Schools § 114 (1943).

While the school boards in Arkansas have the right to decide whom they are going to employ or re-employ, the basis for failing to re-employ must not be on impermissible constitutional grounds. Smith v. Board of Education of Morrilton School District No. 32, 365 F.2d 770 (8 Cir. 1966) (racial discrimination); Johnson v. Branch, 364 F.2d 177 (4 Cir. 1966), cert denied 385 U.S. 1003, 87 S.Ct. 706, 17 L.Ed.2d 542 (racial discrimination); Shelton v. Tucker, supra, (a disclosure statute violative of the right of associational freedom, closely allied to freedom of speech).

In Arkansas the board's right not to rehire a teacher in the school...