Kaufman v. Somers Board of Education

• Decision Date: 19 November 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. No. H-56.
• Citation: 368 F. Supp. 28
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: Ralph KAUFMAN v. SOMERS BOARD OF EDUCATION.

368 F. Supp. 28

Ralph KAUFMAN v. SOMERS BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Civ. No. H-56.

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

November 19, 1973.

Paul S. Sherbacow, Hartford, Conn., for plaintiff.

Robert J. Cathcart, Shipman & Goodwin, Hartford, Conn., for defendant.

RULING ON MOTION TO DISMISS

BLUMENFELD, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff, a tenured teacher of physical education employed by defendant, received notice in February, 1971, that defendant was considering termination of his contract. Plaintiff requested a hearing and a statement of the reasons for the proposed termination of his contract. After a hearing which took place on four different days in March and April of 1971, plaintiff received notice of termination of his contract at the end of the school year, for the six reasons previously given to him plus a seventh reason: "other due and sufficient cause."

Connecticut has prescribed by statute the exclusive grounds for termination of a tenured teacher, i. e., a teacher in his fourth or subsequent year of continuous employment by a board of education, and the procedure which must be followed by a school board in effecting such a termination. Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151. This statutory scheme provides for an appeal to the local court of common pleas by a teacher aggrieved by a decision to terminate his contract. Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151(f). When such an appeal is pursued, the court reviews the record compiled by the school board, and may in its discretion hear additional evidence. The decision of the court of common pleas may in turn be appealed to the Supreme Court of Errors. Conn.Gen.Stats. § 52-263.

Plaintiff's Prior State Court Action

Plaintiff appealed defendant's decision to terminate his contract by filing in May, 1971, an action entitled Kaufman v. Richardson, et al., No. 4147, in the Court of Common Pleas of Tolland County.¹ Plaintiff set forth in his complaint to the court of common pleas eleven reasons for his appeal of defendant's decision to terminate his contract. Plaintiff's first stated reason was that the grounds given by defendant as the reason for his termination were not lawful grounds for termination of a tenured teacher under Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151(b). Plaintiff also alleged in several ways that defendant "improperly" failed to confine its hearing to evidence of lawful grounds for termination, that plaintiff was given no prior notice of evidence which went beyond the stated charges, and that defendant "improperly" failed to incorporate into the record all the evidence which it heard and upon which it acted. On this basis plaintiff alleged that defendant had acted arbitrarily, unreasonably, and in abuse of its discretion. Furthermore, insofar as defendant had solicited evidence de hors the record, plaintiff alleged the deprivation "of a full and fair opportunity of hearing the evidence against him, of presenting evidence in his own behalf, and of the right of cross examination."

In July, 1972, plaintiff filed a brief in support of his appeal in the court of common pleas in which he declared in his statement of the case: "The Appellant has complained that the reasons relied upon by the local Board of Education for the termination of his tenured teacher's contract are not lawful grounds for termination under the Connecticut General Statutes. The authority of local school boards to hire and fire teachers is not inherent but is derived from the State by legislative enactment. . . . Para. . . . Appellant's fundamental claims concern the adequacy of both the notice provided to him of the reasons for the proposed termination of his contract and the stated grounds relied upon by the Board to support its final decision after his hearing." Plaintiff went on in his brief to summarize the bases for his appeal as defendant's failure to abide by the procedural and substantive provisions of Connecticut law applicable to tenured teacher terminations, and, insofar as Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151(b) "purports to authorize the termination of a contract on the basis of `inefficiency or incompetence' or `other due and sufficient cause,'" that portion of Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151(b) "is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad." Thus, plaintiff concluded, "to the extent the local Board of Education relied upon these specific grounds, its action is in violation of fundamental due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution² and violates the First Amendment due to overbreadth." The first argumentative section of plaintiff's brief to the court of common pleas was headed "THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SECTION 10-151(b)." After concluding this section, plaintiff went on to argue that "apart from the apparent constitutional infirmities caused by the language of Section 10-151(b), the Board in any event failed to act within the limits of its statutory authority."

Defendant's nine-page brief to the court of common pleas termed the issue on appeal to be whether defendant had acted "illegally." The test of legality, according to defendant, was whether plaintiff had had "a reasonable opportunity to hear and be heard upon the allegations raised and whether the proceedings were conducted in a fair manner. The fact that the hearing on this matter required four sessions lasting approximately fifteen hours covering testimony of fourteen witnesses, most of whom appeared on behalf of the plaintiff, makes it self-evident that the plaintiff was afforded a fair hearing. As a result, the sole question for this Court is whether the record supports the Board's decision." Defendant went on to recite extensively the evidence of defendant's irresponsibility and insubordination in his discharging of his duties, and argued that this evidence provided ample grounds for plaintiff's termination, under the "other due and sufficient cause" clause of Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151(b), if not under the other grounds for termination set forth in the statute. Defendant made no mention of plaintiff's constitutional challenge to the "other due and sufficient cause" clause.

Prior State Court Judgment

In regrettable disregard for the appearance if not the substance of justice, the court of common pleas chose in its decision of March 27, 1973, to regurgitate verbatim the entirety of defendant's brief, with the deletion only of defendant's headings and but two or three other miniscule and insignificant modifications. The only addition to defendant's brief in the entire memorandum of decision by the court of common pleas was the words: "The Board did not act illegally, arbitrarily, and in abuse of its discretion. Para. The appeal is dismissed." Thus the court of common pleas gave no explicit attention, or even recognition, to plaintiff's constitutional claims.

Plaintiff's Civil Rights Suit

Plaintiff did not appeal the judgment of the court of common pleas. He instead brought the instant action in federal court, seeking compensatory and equitable relief in the form of reinstatement with back pay and damages for injury to his career and reputation. Plaintiff alleges a cause of action under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, in that defendant's termination of plaintiff's contract deprived plaintiff of due process of law. This due process claim is explicated as involving both procedural due process, in that plaintiff was given inadequate notice of the charges against him, and substantive due process, in that Conn.Gen.Stats. § 10-151(b) is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad in permitting termination of plaintiff for "inefficiency or incompetence" or "other due and sufficient cause." Plaintiff also claims that defendant's alleged failure to comply with Connecticut statutory procedures for notice, hearing, and decision in tenured teacher termination cases, constituted a violation of his right to due process.

Res Judicata

Defendant has moved for dismissal of plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Defendant supports this motion with the claim that the court of common pleas' decision in Kaufman v. Richardson, et al., supra, bars plaintiff's subsequent action in this Court under the doctrine of res judicata. This assertion of res judicata is proper on a motion to dismiss, so long as such a motion is treated as a "speaking" motion which by referring to material not in the complaint itself, such as a prior judgment, becomes in effect a motion for summary judgment.³ Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b), 56; Butterman v. Walston & Co., 50 F.R.D. 189, 191 (E.D. Wis.1970); Katz v. Connecticut, 307 F. Supp. 480, 483 (D.Conn.1969), aff'd 433 F.2d 878 (2d Cir. 1970); J. Moore, 2A Federal Practice Para. 12.09, at p. 2307 (2d Ed. 1970). In the instant case plaintiff alleges in his complaint his prosecution of an appeal in the court of common pleas. The fact of this appeal and the contents of the pleadings and judgment therein were undisputed at oral argument, which focused solely on the merits of defendant's claim that the judgment of the court of common pleas should be accorded res judicata effect.

Plaintiff argues against the invocation of res judicata on the grounds that the causes of action sued upon in state and federal court are not the same, and that res judicata should be applied in civil rights actions only where it has been proved that a plaintiff's federal claims were fully and unreservedly submitted for decision to the state court, and that the state court accorded these claims specific and conscientious consideration.

Identity of Causes of Action

Federal courts have relied heavily on the Restatement of Judgments, §§ 61-67 (1942), for definition of a cause of action for res judicata purposes. See Thomas v. Consolidation Coal Co., 380 F.2d 69, 79, n. 15 (4th Cir. 1967). See also Lawlor v. National Screen Service, 349 U.S. 322, 328, 75 S. Ct. 865, 99 L.Ed. 1122 (1955); McNellis v. First Fed. S. & L. Ass'n of Rochester, 364 F.2d 251, 255-256 (2d Cir. 1966).⁴ The ...