Hartman v. Merged Area VI Community College

• Decision Date: 18 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 2-60731,2-60731
• Citation: 270 N.W.2d 822
• Parties: William HARTMAN, Appellant, v. MERGED AREA VI COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 822

270 N.W.2d 822

William HARTMAN, Appellant, v. MERGED AREA VI COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Appellee.

No. 2-60731.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 18, 1978.

John L. Butler and R. Kurt Swaim, Eldora, for appellant.

Michael J. Moon and Harry Druker of Cartwright, Druker & Ryden, Marshalltown, for appellee.

Considered by REES, P. J., and McCORMICK, ALLBEE, McGIVERIN and LARSON, JJ.

ALLBEE, Justice.

This appeal requires that we determine the meaning of the phrase "any good cause" found in § 279.24, The Code 1973. ¹ The question is whether declining enrollment and the deterioration of a school district's financial position are "good cause" for the dismissal of a teacher under § 279.24. ²

The facts are stipulated. Plaintiff, William Hartman, was employed full time by the defendant community college as a teacher during the 1972-73 school year. Due to the current and projected declining enrollment and an increasingly difficult financial position, defendant's board of directors determined that the size of the staff should be reduced. Plaintiff was one of those who was to be terminated. The board's original plan was to accomplish the cut-back through use of the procedure established by § 279.13. That section provides a method by which a teacher's contract, which ordinarily renews automatically at the end of the school year for the next school year, may be terminated by either or both parties to the contract. ³ The blizzard of April 1973 caused defendant's administrative offices to be closed at a critical time, however, and defendant failed to give timely notice under § 279.13. Acting on the advice of counsel, the board elected to discharge Hartman under the provisions of § 279.24, which it regarded as an alternative to § 279.13. Plaintiff, after his discharge, then brought this action in the district court to contest the board's application and construction of § 279.24. The district court found itself in agreement with the board and dismissed the petition.

The parties are in agreement that the principal issue is as we have stated it. They disagree substantially, however, on the method by which we should resolve the question. Plaintiff would have us hold that an End of the year termination must be accomplished under § 279.13, while § 279.24 applies only to Immediate discharges (plaintiff's emphasis). In the alternative, he contends that § 279.24 is effective only when the cause for dismissal is personal to the teacher. In support of his second contention, he cites the statute's history and the construction doctrine of ejusdem generis. We need deal only with plaintiff's second proposition.

Defendant counters by arguing that "good cause" must be read expansively to include any reason which the board puts forth in good faith. In support, it cites the language and history of the statute and cases from other states construing similar provisions.

In our resolution of the issue we will first take up the statutory history of § 279.24. We will then consider the applicability of the construction doctrine of ejusdem generis. In that task we will make reference to the cases of sister states which deal with similar problems. Finally, we will discuss the effect of this particular section in light of the surrounding statutory framework.

I. History of the Statute.

Because each party claims that the history of the statute favors the construction which it presses, we begin our analysis with that subject. The predecessor to § 279.24 was enacted in 1862, as chapter 172, § 27 of the Acts and Resolutions of the Ninth General Assembly. ⁴ In that act, the critical language was "or for any other sufficient cause. . . ." Defendant points out the subsequent deletion of the word "other" in the evolution of the phrase which eventually became "any good cause." It argues that "other" might formerly have acted as a limitation on the word "any," but that its deletion indicates an intention to read the present phrase broadly by giving an open-ended construction to the word "any." See, e. g., Day v. Mill Owners' Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 70 Iowa 710, 713, 29 N.W. 443, 445 (1886).

The statutory history, however, lends no support for such a reading. The deletion of "other" occurred in 1897. Compare § 1734, The Code 1873, With § 2782, The Code 1897. The enactment of the Code of 1897 followed extensive study of the Code of 1873, and the promulgation of The Proposed Revision of the Code of Iowa in 1895 by the Code Commission. See Loth, An Outline of Iowa Codes, Compilations and Revisions, 3 Iowa Code Ann. VII, XIV-XVI (West 1967). The basic language which is now § 279.24 was found in Title XIII, chapter 14, § 19(7) of the proposed revision. Accompanying the proposed revision was the Report of the Code Commission. That report, at page 80, states that chapter 14 was "rearranged and largely rewritten for the purposes of methodical arrangement and concise statement. . . ." A discussion of the changes incorporated into § 19 occurs at page 81, but noticeably absent is any mention of an intent for § 19(7) to effect any change in prior law. See also Report of the Code Commission at 3-4 ("It must be distinctly understood that a change of language does not necessarily indicate any intention to change the meaning of the law. The Commission is authorized to rewrite the sections of the Code and statutes for the purpose of improving the expression of the law and it has faithfully done so. . . .").

The significance of this history is this: we should attach little importance to deletion of the "other." Further, we are better assured that the cases from other states which construe statutes containing that word are of some aid to us.

II. Construction of the Statute.

A. This court resorts to rules of construction only when the terms of a statute are ambiguous. Heins v. City of Cedar Rapids, 231 N.W.2d 16, 18 (Iowa 1975). The intent of the legislature is the polestar. Iowa Nat'l Ind. Loan Co. v. Iowa State Dep't of Rev., 224 N.W.2d 437, 439 (Iowa 1974); rule 14(f) (13), Rules of Appellate Procedure. In order for the rule of ejusdem generis to apply, a general provision in a statute must be preceded by specific words which all relate to a single class, character or nature. Federated Mut. Imp. & Hardware Ins. Co. v. Dunkelberger, 172 N.W.2d 137, 140-41 (Iowa 1969).

The terms of the statute under consideration here are such that reasonable minds might disagree or be uncertain as to their meaning. Cf. New Mexico State Bd. of Ed. v. Stoudt, 91 N.M. 183, 571 P.2d 1186, 1189 (1977) ("The words 'for any other good and just cause' have no reasonably defined meaning in the law."). It is therefore appropriate for this court to engage in statutory construction. Janson v. Fulton, 162 N.W.2d 438, 443 (Iowa 1968). And the rule of ejusdem generis is an appropriate device to engage in that task, because the preceding specific words "incompetency, inattention to duty, partiality" all relate to personal flaws on the teacher's part.

The board's arguments against application of ejusdem generis on the basis of the statutory language and the benefits that the statute is intended to provide are not persuasive. The statutory language argument contends that the limiting word "other" is not included in the general phrase, while the word "any", which is included, should be read to indicate a broad expanse of possible good causes. We are not so impressed by the absence of the word "other," in light of the history of the statute as set out in division I. Nor does the use of "any" in the general phrase prevent application of ejusdem generis. The word simply emphasizes generality where generality is required for the rule to be used. Numerous cases apply the rule when the general phrase includes "any." See, e. g., In re Bush Terminal Co., 93 F.2d 659, 660 (2d Cir. 1938) (dicta); Swift & Co. v. Columbia Ry., etc., 17 F.2d 46, 47 (4th Cir. 1927) (applying rule to phrase in contract); Powell v. Allan, 70 Cal.App. 663, 675, 234 P. 339, 344 (1925); Dowd v. Sullivan, 217 Ind. 196, 201, 27 N.E.2d 82, 84 (1940) (application to criminal statute); State v. Wade, 267 Mo. 249, 257-59, 183 S.W. 598, 600 (1916) (application to criminal gambling statute; particular device found to be within genre of specifics); But see State v. Miller, 90 Kan. 230, 233, 133 P. 878, 879 (1913) (refused to apply rule, saying "any instrument or means whatsoever" is all inclusive and not ambiguous); Hardwick Farmers' Elev. Co. v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 110 Minn. 25, 33, 124 N.W. 819, 821 (1910).

Finally, we note that this proposition finds support in the law of this state. In Hubbell v. Higgins, 148 Iowa 36, 45, 126 N.W. 914, 917-18 (1910) the phrase "any other source whatsoever" in a hotel inspection statute was held to have reference to a source of like kind with the specifics which preceded it: "sewer, drain and privy." The language of § 279.24 does not prevent the application of the rule of ejusdem generis.

The board also argues that use of ejusdem generis to construe § 279.24 is improper in light of the rule that any statute intended for public benefit must be construed in favor of the public, and cites Bankers Life and Casualty Co. v. Alexander, 242 Iowa 364, 373-74, 45 N.W.2d 258, 264 (1951). There is, of course, a serious question whether the employment security and certainty which chapter 279 provides for teachers is not at least as beneficial to the public as the corresponding certainty of adequate faculty for the school system.

Beyond that, however, is the fact that the board had the power to deal with the economic problem existing here by terminating Hartman's contract under § 279.13. Indeed, that was the method which the board originally adopted to sever its relation with plaintiff. We have previously considered § 279.24 in conjunction with § 279.13. See, e. g., Ramey v. Des Moines Area Comm. College, 216 N.W.2d 345, 348 (Iowa 1974); Miner v. Lovilia Ind. School Dist., 212 Iowa 973, 979, 234 N.W. 817, 819 (1931...