Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 72-2554.
| Decision Date | 20 July 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 72-2554.,72-2554. |
| Citation | 482 F.2d 1253 |
| Parties | Anthony T. Lee et al., Plaintiffs, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor-Amicus Curiae, National Education Association, Inc., Plaintiff-Intervenor-Appellant, v. MACON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., (Conecuh County Board of Education), Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Solomon S. Seay, Jr., Montgomery, Ala., for NEA.
David L. Norman, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Div., Washington, D. C., Charles S. White-Spunner, Jr., U. S. Atty., Mobile, Ala., Theodore E. Ravas, Jr., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Educational Section, Washington, D. C., for the United States.
J. B. Nix, Jr., Evergreen, Ala., for Conecuh.
Before BELL, AINSWORTH and GODBOLD, Circuit Judges.
The claim underlying this appeal was in the form of a wide ranging attack directed to alleged deficiencies on the part of the Conecuh County School Board in complying with the final desegregation order theretofore entered with respect to the school system. The United States and the NEA were intervenors in the desegregation case and as intervenors filed motions for supplemental relief in which the deficiencies were asserted. The NEA motion was limited to departures from the order with respect to the hiring, demotion and dismissal of black principals and teachers.
The district court after a hearing and after considering detailed reports required of the school system, entered an order denying a temporary restraining order. Only the NEA appeals. The order was tantamount to the denial of a permanent injunction in that no further proceedings were expected.
It is to be noted that only injunctive relief was sought in the district court by the NEA. It is to be noted also that no brief has been filed on behalf of the school board.
We have studied the record and the various reports filed in an effort to winnow the issues now assigned on appeal from the additional issues which were considered in the trial court at the behest of the United States. We have determined that we are unable to proceed to decision without findings of fact and conclusions of law from the district court. The case will be vacated and remanded with direction that such findings of fact and conclusions of law be made by the district court on the record as it now exists, or as supplemented in the discretion of the district court.
In Hines v. Rapides Parish School Board, 5 Cir., 1973, 479 F.2d 762, we pointed out the procedure to be followed and the conditions to be met by new groups in seeking relief in ongoing school desegregation cases. The proper procedure is to petition to intervene rather than beginning a new suit. We emphasize here what was said there: The petition for intervention should contain the precise issues which the intervenors seek to present.1 Here, the NEA was allowed to intervene in an earlier stage of the desegregation case. The difficulty comes in the impreciseness of the issues they sought to present at the current stage of the case.
On remand, the issues to be considered will be limited to those assigned by the NEA on this appeal and which were raised in the district court. We perceive these as the following. Each issue is to be considered in the light of the authorities cited.
(1) Did the school board violate the requirements of Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 5 Cir., 1969, 419 F.2d 1211, and the order of the district court entered pursuant thereto, with respect to the claim that the board failed and refused to assign four black former principals to principalship vacancies. In this connection, see Lee v. Macon County Board of Education (Florence School System), 5 Cir., 1972, 456 F.2d 1371; Lee v. Macon County Board of Education (Muscle Shoals School System), 5 Cir., 1971, 453 F.2d 1104.
(2) Did the school board violate the requirements of Singleton, and the order of the district court entered pursuant thereto, with respect to the rights of four dismissed black teachers, Strong, Randall, White, and...
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Davis v. Board of School Com'rs of Mobile County
...is by petition to intervene. See Hines v. Rapides Parish School Board, 5 Cir., 1973, 479 F.2d 762; Lee v. Macon County Board of Education (Conecuh County), 5 Cir., 1973, 482 F.2d 1253. Thereafter in Mobile XI, we rejected the effort of the National Education Association to superimpose a act......
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...Parish School Board, 499 F.2d 914, 917 (5th Cir.1974); Calhoun v. Cook, 487 F.2d 680, 684 (5th Cir.1973); Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 482 F.2d 1253, 1254 (5th Cir.1973). In general, to the extent that the putative intervenors raise issues properly cognizable in a school case, an......
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...practice offends the Constitution and settled case law announced by the Fifth Circuit and this court. See e. g., Lee v. Macon County Bd. of Ed., 482 F.2d 1253 (5 Cir. 1973); McCormick v. Attala County Bd. of Ed., 407 F.Supp. 586 (N.D.Miss.1976), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 541 F.......
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