Kolp v. Board of Trustees of Butte County Joint School Dist. No. 111

• Court: Idaho Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: DONALDSON; BAKES, C. J., and McFADDEN; SHEPARD; BISTLINE
• Citation: Kolp v. Board of Trustees of Butte County Joint School Dist. No. 111, 629 P.2d 1153, 102 Idaho 320 (Idaho 1981)
• Decision Date: 03 June 1981
• Docket Number: No. 13109,13109
• Parties: James W. KOLP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF BUTTE COUNTY JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 111 and Ronald Lowe, Steve King, Jerry Pancheri, Marvin Jardine and Douglas Proctor, the members of said board, Defendants-Respondents.

Page 1153

629 P.2d 1153

102 Idaho 320

James W. KOLP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF BUTTE COUNTY JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 111 and Ronald Lowe, Steve King, Jerry Pancheri, Marvin Jardine and Douglas Proctor, the members of said board, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 13109.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

June 3, 1981.

Rehearing Denied June 3, 1981.

Byron J. Johnson, Boise, for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard T. St. Clair of St. Clair, Hiller, Wood & McGrath, Idaho Falls, for defendants-respondents.

DONALDSON, Justice.

Plaintiff-appellant James W. Kolp appeals the district court's denial of his request for a writ of mandamus compelling the Butte County School District No. 111 to reinstate him as a teacher for the district. We affirm in part and we reverse in part with a remand for further proceedings de novo.

Appellant Kolp was employed as a certificated employee of the Butte County School District No. 111. During his employment, the Junior High School principal, John Reilly, received parental complaints concerning the paddling of three children by Mr. Kolp. Mr. Reilly investigated those complaints and made a written request to Ron Lowe, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, requesting a board hearing on the matter.

Following a formal hearing, the board of trustees passed a motion and resolution for discharge and termination of the contract of appellant Kolp. A letter from the board chairman notified appellant of the decision to terminate his contract.

Following his dismissal, appellant filed a complaint in district court requesting a writ of mandamus for reinstatement as a teacher and attorney fees. The district court, following a review of the board proceedings, determined that the board of trustees had based its decision upon a finding that appellant's conduct was in violation of the district's past adopted Teacher's Handbook and in violation of the Code of Ethics of the Teaching Profession approved and published by the State Board of Education. The court found that the board was estopped from asserting the validity of the handbook as a basis for the teacher termination because of past failures to distribute, enforce and update the book. The court further found, however, that pursuant to statutory authority the board properly discharged the teacher for violation of the Code of Ethics. The court concluded that costs, including attorney fees, were not allowed to either party. Kolp appeals.

The role of the judiciary in settling teacher discharge disputes appears to be largely misunderstood. Contributing to this is that there is no specific statutory delineation of judicial appellate review for teacher dismissals made by the board of trustees of a school district. See Bowler v. Board of Trustees, 101 Idaho 537, 617 P.2d 841 (1980). This statutory absence leaves the teacher with but two methods of pursuing review: a mandamus application or a civil action for breach of the teacher's contractual, statutory or constitutional rights. The role of the judiciary is dependent upon which the teacher chooses to file. Today, in an effort to clear up some of the misunderstanding, we specifically address what the standard of review is to be when the choice is mandamus.

Quite recently, in the analogous area of mandamus proceedings brought against boards of county commissioners over zoning disputes, this Court clarified and restricted the standard of review of local board actions by holding that mandamus would lie to require action "only when the party seeking the writ 'has a clear legal right to have an act performed(,) ... the officer against whom the writ is sought has a clear duty to act ... and ... the act be ministerial and not require the exercise of discretion.' Saviers v. Richey, 96 Idaho 413, 415, 529 P.2d 1285, 1287 (1974); see I.C. § 7-302."

Wyckoff v. Board of County Commissioners, 101 Idaho 12, 14, 607 P.2d 1066, 1068 (1980); see Cooper v. Board of County Commissioners, 101 Idaho 407, 614 P.2d 947 (1980) (Bakes, J., concurring opinion upon rehearing).

It has been long established that a local board's act of discretion is subject to an additional area of inquiry in a mandamus request. In reviewing an application brought to compel a board of trustees of a school district to reopen a school, this Court held:

"Proceedings of this nature for writ of mandate, are not available to review the acts of boards in respect to matters as to which they are vested with discretion, unless it clearly appears that they have acted arbitrarily and unjustly and in abuse of the discretion vested in them. 55 C.J.S. Mandamus § 133, p. 223. The school affairs in the districts being placed under the control and guidance of the trustees, it is necessary that a broad discretion be accorded them to exercise their authority efficiently. 47 Am.Jur. Schools, § 47, p. 328; People ex rel. Ball v. Johnson, 1950, 341 Ill.App. 423, 94 N.E.2d 444.

....

"To establish capriciousness or arbitrariness on the part of a board requires more than conjecture or assumption, but must be clearly shown, it being presumed that public boards do not abuse their discretion and act from proper motives and valid reasons; 55 C.J.S. Mandamus § 324, p. 559. Here because the record fails to disclose such clear evidence of improper motive, invalid reason, capriciousness or arbitrariness, the trial court's finding of abuse of discretion cannot be sustained."

Wellard v. Marcum, 82 Idaho 232, 236, 351 P.2d 482, 483 (1960). ¹ It has also been held that mandamus will lie only in those cases where there is not a plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. I.C. § 7-303; District Board of Health v. Chancey, 94 Idaho 944, 500 P.2d 845 (1972).

In the instant case, the district court did not restrict its review of the teacher dismissal as set out above. Rather, the court adopted a broader approach, acquiesced in by all parties, which examined the proceedings extensively to determine whether the local board action was substantially supported by the evidence and whether the ultimate decision was arbitrary and capricious. This Court is of the opinion that this broad approach was inappropriate because the use of mandamus to compel reinstatement presents but a limited opportunity for judicial review of a board's action.

We hold that the standard of review in a request for writ of mandate to compel reinstatement following a teacher termination by a school board is limited to an examination of whether the party seeking the writ has a clear legal right to have an act performed, and whether the action basically is ministerial, not discretionary. If discretionary, mandamus will not lie unless it clearly appears that the board has acted arbitrarily, unjustly and in abuse of discretion and there is not available other plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. On appeal to this Court, it is our task to apply this same standard, thereby constrained to the same limited review of the board's actions.

Initially, applying the above in the context of a teacher discharge case, we hold that as regards the procedural aspects of a board's action, there is no alternate adequate remedy available and mandamus is a correct approach for expedient resolution of such matters if, of course, the other above listed limitations in review are also observed. We so hold because of the nature of the contractual relationship between a teacher and a school board as determined by both state and federal law which establish certain procedural requirements for teacher discharges. A tenured teacher cannot be discharged without a showing of cause. I.C. §§ 33-513(4), -1208, -1212, -1213, -1215; Robinson v. Joint School District No. 150, 100 Idaho 263, 596 P.2d 436 (1979); Ferguson v. Board of Trustees, 98 Idaho 359, 564 P.2d 971 (1977). Terms negotiated between a teacher's professional association and a school board are incorporated into existing teacher contracts. Buhl Education Association v. Joint School District No. 412, 101 Idaho 16, 607 P.2d 1070 (1980). Statutory rights are also embodied and implicitly included in a teacher's contract. Robinson v. Joint School District No. 150, supra. Before a teacher can be discharged, he must be given adequate notice of the charges and the hearing date, an opportunity to present his case at a formal hearing, and a statement of reasons for his discharge. Bowler v. Board of Trustees, supra; Ferguson v. Board of Trustees, supra. The due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution provides an additional procedural overlay protecting the rights of a teacher. Id. A discharged teacher seeking to remedy an error regarding such procedures should have speedy legal recourse available to do so.

"Mandamus is a summary and expeditious writ to compel performance of an established duty, ... and the party seeking it may well regard the immediacy of its availability as one of its primary virtues. The basis for seeking mandamus that is, default in the performance of a duty commonly will be apparent long before the fact and amount of damages can be established. It is likely that the aggrieved party will not wish to delay the decision on the issuance of the coercive writ until the issues relevant only to a damage claim can be tried."

Heaney v. Board of Trustees, 98 Idaho 900, 903, 575 P.2d 498, 501 (1978) (citations omitted). Thus, because the procedural requirements are so clearly delineated and expediency, otherwise unobtainable, is desirable, mandamus is an appropriate proceeding for reviewing the procedural aspects of the board's action.

However, a teacher discharge usually can be separated into not only procedural but also substantive components, and it is quite a different matter when a discharged teacher seeks to remedy a substantive, rather than procedural error in the board's decision. Firstly, in determining whether there is sufficient cause to discharge a teacher, the school board is not performing...