Jackson v. Waller Independent School Dist.

• Decision Date: 27 June 2008
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. H-07-3086.
• Citation: 625 F.Supp.2d 357
• Parties: Elaine JACKSON, individually and as next friend of Cheikh Jackson and Okofo Jackson, and DeWayne Charleston, Plaintiffs, v. WALLER INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

625 F.Supp.2d 357

Elaine JACKSON, individually and as next friend of Cheikh Jackson and Okofo Jackson, and DeWayne Charleston, Plaintiffs, v. WALLER INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant.

Civil Action No. H-07-3086.

United States District Court, S.D. Texas, Houston Division.

June 27, 2008.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Ty Odell Clevenger, Attorney at Law, Bryan, TX, for Plaintiffs.

Patrick W. Mizell, Stacey Neumann Vu, Vinson Elkins LLP, Houston, TX, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND OPINION

LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge.

This case involves taxpayer challenges to the validity of school bonds approved by voters in a May 12, 2007 election in the Waller Independent School District ("WISD"). On March 24, 2008, this court dismissed the plaintiffs' challenges to the validity of the bonds and denied the application for a preliminary injunction prohibiting their issuance. The plaintiffs now move this court to amend and alter the March 24, 2008 Memorandum and Order, 2008 WL 818330, under Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Docket Entry No. 23). The WISD has responded, (Docket Entry No. 34), and the plaintiffs have replied, (Docket Entry No. 38).

Based on the motion, the response, and the reply; the record; and the applicable law, this court denies the plaintiffs' motion to alter and amend but clarifies the limits of the prior ruling. The plaintiffs may not litigate in this suit their claims that the 2007 bond election was invalid and illegal; that the bonds themselves are invalid and illegal; and that the proposed expenditure of money relating to the bonds is invalid and illegal. These claims could have been raised in the state-court bond-validation declaratory judgment proceeding. The judgment in the bond-validation proceeding does not, however, limit the plaintiffs' ability to litigate in this federal-court case their claims that the WISD violates federal equal protection and other rights, including under 20 U.S.C. § 1706, because the district provides "unequal educational opportunities for minority students in and around the City of Prairie View," provides "unequal distribution of bond funds to Jones Elementary," and because "facilities in Prairie View are inferior to those found elsewhere in the district." (Docket Entry No. 1 at 4-6). And the state-court bond-validation proceeding judgment does not limit the plaintiffs' pursuit of the claims they raised in the third amended complaint in this suit, challenging the constitutionality and legality of at-large voting for school board trustees and other aspects of school board elections and governance.

The reasons for these rulings are set out below.

I. Background

The facts of this case were detailed in the March 24, 2008 Memorandum and Order and are only summarized here. On March 11, 2007, the WISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $49.29 million facilities improvement bond plan to present to voters. A special election on the bond proposal was held on May 12, 2007. Voters approved the bonds, 770 in favor to 446 against. On August 9, 2007, DeWayne Charleston sued the WISD in state court in Harris County, Texas, alleging that the WISD did not provide sufficient notice of the meetings about the bonds as required under the Texas Open Meetings Act, TEX. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 551.001 et seq. (Docket Entry No. 7, Ex. K). Charleston sought a declaratory judgment that the May 12, 2007 bond election and the bonds were invalid. He also sought an injunction preventing the WISD from holding any meetings in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

On August 20, 2007, the WISD filed a bond-validation suit in state court in Waller County, Texas under the Texas Expedited Declaratory Judgment Act ("EDJA"), TEX. GOV'T CODE § 1205.001, et seq. The EDJA provides as follows:

An issuer may bring an action under this chapter to obtain a declaratory judgment as to:

(1) the authority of the issuer to issue the public securities;

(2) the legality and validity of each public security authorization relating to the public securities, including if appropriate:

(A) the election at which the public securities were authorized;

(B) the organization or boundaries of the issuer;

(C) the imposition of an assessment, a tax, or a tax lien;

(D) the execution or proposed execution of a contract;

(E) the imposition of a rate, fee, charge, or toll or the enforcement of a remedy relating to the imposition of that rate, fee, charge, or toll; and

(F) the pledge or encumbrance of a tax, revenue, receipts, or property to secure the public securities;

(3) the legality and validity of each expenditure or proposed expenditure of money relating to the public securities; and

(4) the legality and validity of the public securities.

TEX. GOV'T CODE § 1205.021. The statute also provides that a final judgment that "each public security authorization and expenditure of money relating to the public securities was legal" is "binding and conclusive" as to "each adjudicated matter and each matter that could have been raised." TEX. GOV'T CODE § 1205.151(a)-(b). The WISD sought a declaratory judgment that the bond election and bonds were valid.

On August 21, 2007, the Harris County court held a hearing on Charleston's request for a TRO prohibiting the WISD from holding meetings in violation of the Open Meetings Act. That court denied the TRO.

On August 29, 2007, the Waller County court issued a notice under the EDJA provision informing residents and property holders in the WISD of a hearing and trial date in the WISD's declaratory judgment suit. The date was set for September 24, 2007. (Docket Entry No. 7, Ex. M). The court's clerk published the notice in newspapers of general circulation in Waller County, Harris County, and Travis County as required under section 1205.043 of the EDJA. (Id., Exs. N, O).

On September 24, 2007, Charleston and Jackson filed this suit in federal court. They alleged that the WISD provided "unequal educational opportunities for minority students in and around the City of Prairie View" and claimed damages under 20 U.S.C. § 1706 "for the unequal distribution of bond funds to Jones Elementary." (Docket Entry No. 1 at 4-5). They also alleged that the bond election violated the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, because the election limited and deterred participation by African-American voters. They alleged that they were denied due process under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 "insofar as they were not provided actual notice" of the Waller County bond-validation proceeding. (Id. at 5). They further alleged that they "have been denied the equal protection of the laws insofar as facilities in Prairie View are inferior to those found elsewhere in the district." (Id. at 6).

On the same day, Charleston filed an answer in intervention in the Waller County court bond-validation proceeding that the WISD filed under the EDJA. Charleston appeared at the Waller County court hearing scheduled for that date. (Docket Entry No. 7, Ex. Q). In the answer in intervention, Charleston moved to dismiss the WISD's claim for lack of jurisdiction and moved the Waller County court to abate the state-court proceeding in favor of his just-filed federal-court suit. Charleston recognized that the state and federal proceedings significantly overlapped and that in the federal case, he sought to invalidate precisely what the WISD sought to validate in the state EDJA proceeding. Charleston supported his abatement motion by arguing this close relationship, noting that while the WISD "asks this [state] Court to declare that selling its bonds and expending their proceeds is lawful ... the federal suit asserts that such expenditures violate federal law." (Id., Ex. Q at 4). The Waller County court denied the motions to dismiss and to abate the state-court case. While asking for bond invalidation, Charleston did not, however, include in his state-court pleadings any allegations that the bonds were racially discriminatory.

At the Waller County court hearing, Charleston's counsel cross-examined the WISD Board president about the allegedly discriminatory allocation of the bond proceeds. Charleston's counsel asked the president about the voter-approved proposal to spend $17 million of the bond proceeds on a football stadium, given that the WISD is "considered to be poor." (Docket Entry No. 7, Ex. B at 47-51). Counsel for the WISD objected on the ground that Charleston's state-court pleading did not raise any claim that the voter-approved proposed spending of the bond proceeds was racially discriminatory. (Id., Ex. B at 47). Charleston's counsel responded that although the plaintiffs were "not consenting to try the federal case here [in state court] or try the issues of the federal case here," he recognized that a bond-validation suit under the EDJA may encompass "any potential cause of action that could relate to the legality or validity of this bond," making evidence as to the allocation of the bond proceeds "absolutely relevant" and "contained in the statute." (Id., Ex. B at 48). The state-court judge sustained the objection.

Charleston continued cross-examining the WISD Board president on the allegedly discriminatory allocation of the bond proceeds. Charleston asked if the president considered Jones Elementary, the WISD elementary school that serves the predominantly African-American city of Prairie View, to be "beautiful" or "dilapidated." (Id., Ex. B at 48-50). The president admitted that "he probably wouldn't use that word, beautiful," to describe the campus, but also stated that he "wouldn't use [`dilapidated'] either." (Id., Ex. B at 48). The state-court judge did not strike the testimony. Counsel for the WISD pointed out, and Charleston's counsel did not dispute, that Charleston "very carefully made a big point of the fact that he's not bringing [any equal-protection or other federal-law claims] in this case." (Id., Ex. B at 50). The objection was based on the lack of any pleadings asserting equal protection...