Good v. Iowa Civil Rights Com'n

• Citation: 368 N.W.2d 151
• Decision Date: 22 May 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-687,84-687
• Parties: Margaret Rayburn GOOD, formerly known as Margaret Rayburn, Appellant, v. IOWA CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION, Appellee, Clayton Christensen, District Governor 597 and Regional Office of Rotary International, Intervenors/Appellees.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 151

368 N.W.2d 151

Margaret Rayburn GOOD, formerly known as Margaret Rayburn, Appellant, v. IOWA CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION, Appellee Clayton Christensen, District Governor 597 and Regional Office of Rotary International, Intervenors/Appellees.

No. 84-687.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 22, 1985.

Faith O'Reilly, and Mark W. Bennett of Babich, Bennett & Nickerson, Des Moines, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., and Teresa Baustian, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee Iowa Civil Rights Com'n.

P.L. Nymann, Sioux City, for intervenors/appellees.

Considered en banc.

LARSON, Justice.

The petitioner, Margaret Rayburn Good, has appealed from an adverse ruling on her petition for judicial review of a civil rights commission ruling which dismissed her complaint of sex discrimination under Iowa Code chapter 601A. After a long series of administrative proceedings, and conflicting rulings by its hearing officers, the civil rights commission had concluded that: (1) the commission lacked jurisdiction of the proper respondent, Rotary District 561, because an attempted amendment adding it to the complaint was untimely; and (2) in any event, the action complained of was excluded from coverage of the act because the program involved was not a "public accommodation" as defined by Iowa Code section 601A.2(10) (1977). In a judicial review proceeding, the district court agreed. On appeal, we affirm.

In 1976, District 561 of Rotary International planned an exchange program with a counterpart in Wales. The program, called the Group Study Exchange Program, provided for a team of young men from the Rotary District to visit a similar district in Wales for six weeks. That district, in turn, was to send a team to the local district. Rotary District 561 had a committee active in recruiting candidates for this trip. The defendant, Clayton Christensen, was chairman of the search committee and wrote letters to individual clubs within the district to publicize the program. Letters to local clubs listed these criteria for consideration of candidates: "Non-member of Rotary, between the ages of 25 and 35, and established in a business or profession."

Although the trip was not advertised, Good saw a news article about it in her local newspaper, The Denison Review. That article stated that the Rotary Club "is seeking young farmers and business or professional men (below age 35) to apply for a six-week exchange trip to Wales, Great Britain [sic]. The only requirement is that the applicant not be related to a member of Rotary." Good obtained an application for the trip from the local club. She completed it and returned it to the Denison Rotary Club, which approved it and forwarded it to defendant Christensen for his action on behalf of Rotary. Christensen, in turn, sent it to Walter Reckling, Governor of District 561. (While the regional office of Rotary and Christensen are named separately as defendants, we will simply refer to them collectively as the Rotary). After a discussion with Reckling, Christensen wrote Good to tell her that the search committee could not consider her application because the Group Study Exchange Program was available to males only. The committee ultimately selected five persons, all males. Margaret Good then filed this complaint with the civil rights commission.

I. The "Untimely Amendment."

The commission and Rotary contend that the commission lacked jurisdiction of District 561, because there was an untimely amendment to add it as a party to the proceedings. Ms. Good commenced the administrative proceeding by filing a complaint with the commission on May 19, 1977, naming as parties "Clayton Christensen District Governor 597 and the Regional Office of Rotary International." (Although chairman of the group study exchange committee for District 561, Christensen's correspondence with Good was on a letterhead showing he was "District Governor 597 (1970-1971)." This apparently was the reason for erroneously naming District 597.).

The commission began its investigation of the complaint and, in October 1977, Good filed an amendment to her complaint, naming District 561 as a party since the alleged discriminatory acts took place in that district. On December 29, 1977, the commission found probable cause to proceed with the complaint. Five months later, plaintiff further amended her complaint to add additional parties, including several rotary clubs, the Rotary Foundation, and Rotary International. The commission attempted conciliation in June of 1978. It was unsuccessful, however, and the case proceeded to hearing.

Prior to the hearing, the parties entered into a stipulation deleting the various rotary organizations previously added by amendment. Specifically, it provided: "[the matter] shall proceed based only upon the original Complaint file on May 19, 1977 ...." and that "the only respondents shall be those named in the caption above." The intended effect of the stipulation, according to petitioner, was to "retain only those parties who had been directly involved in the alleged discrimination." The actual effect, however, was far more significant: it effectively eliminated District 561, where the alleged discrimination had occurred, as a named party in the complaint. (Only District 597 and the "regional office" had been named in the original complaint.).

Two months later, in July of 1981, more than four years after the filing of the original complaint, plaintiff once again amended her complaint, this time specifying that District 561 had always been an intended party in the proceedings. Petitioner argues that District 561 was "misidentified" in the original complaint as the "regional office," and the amendment was, therefore, merely the correction of an inadvertent error. The commission and Rotary, on the other hand, claim that this was the first time that they had notice that District 561 was a party to these proceedings. The amendment prompted a special appearance on behalf of District 561, based upon its claim that the amendment was not timely, and therefore the commission was without jurisdiction over it. Iowa Code section 601A.14(15) (1977), which was in effect at the time, required a complaint to be filed within 120 days of the alleged discriminatory act.

Despite the fact that District 561 was actually named in the proceedings after the 120-day period for asserting such a claim, it was in fact participating in them from the very beginning. We agree with Good that amending the complaint to add District 561 was not tantamount to filing an original complaint against it. It was already deeply involved in the matter and had been since its inception. The amendment only made the face of the complaint reflect the true status of the case. Despite our deference to administrative interpretations of a statute, as we discuss later, we disagree with the commission and the district court on this issue. We conclude that District 561 was properly added as a party to these proceedings. See Buchholtz v. Iowa Department of Public Instruction, 315 N.W.2d 789 (Iowa 1982).

II. Was the Exchange Program a Public Accommodation Within the Meaning of Section 601A.2(10) (1977)?

Good's complaint alleged that Rotary International violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which prohibits, among other things, discrimination on the basis of sex in a public accommodation. Specifically, Iowa Code section 601A.7 (1977), states:

1. It shall be an unfair or discriminatory practice for any owner, lessee, sublessee, proprietor, manager, or superintendent of any public accommodation or any agent or employee thereof:

a. To ... deny to any person because of ... sex ... the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services, or privileges thereof, or otherwise to discriminate against any person because of ... sex ... in the furnishing of such accommodations, advantages, facilities, services, or privileges.

b. To directly or indirectly advertise or in any other manner indicate or publicize that the patronage of persons of any particular ... sex ... is unwelcome, objectionable, not acceptable, or not solicited.

Because section 601A.7 specifically applies only to public accommodations, jurisdiction over this case exists only if the Rotary offer was a public accommodation within the meaning of that statute. The relevant definitional statute is section 601A.2(10) (1977), which provides:

"Public accommodation" means each and every place, establishment, or facility of whatever kind, nature, or class that caters or offers services, facilities, or goods to the general public for a fee or charge, provided that any place, establishment, or facility that caters or offers services, facilities, or goods to the general public gratuitously shall be deemed a public accommodation if the accommodation receives any substantial governmental support or subsidy. Public accommodation shall not mean any bona fide private club or other place, establishment, or facility which is by its nature distinctly private, except when such distinctly private place, establishment, or facility caters or offers services, facilities, or goods to the general public for fee or charge or gratuitously, it shall be deemed a public accommodation during such period.

This section, therefore, clearly indicates that a private club or organization, like Rotary, is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of sex only if it offers goods or services to the general public. The crucial question before this court then is whether Rotary International offered the group exchange program to the general public. ¹

Petitioner claims that when Rotary International, concededly a private club, offered the group study exchange program to the "general public," it functioned as a "public accommodation" within the meaning of Iowa Code section 601A.2(10) (1977). Chapter 601A generally defines public accommodation as a place or facility that serves the general public. Unfortunately, it does not define the...