Lelsz By and Through Lelsz v. Kavanagh, 86-1736
| Decision Date | 14 August 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-1736,86-1736 |
| Citation | 824 F.2d 372 |
| Parties | John LELSZ, By and Through his parents and guardians, Mr. & Mrs. LELSZ, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. John J. KAVANAGH, M.D., et al., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Toni Hunter, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jim Mattox, Atty. Gen., Martha H. Allan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., for defendants-appellants.
David Ferleger, Barbara Hoffman, Philadelphia, Pa., For Lelsz.
Diane Shisk, Advocacy Inc., Austin, Tex., For Advocacy, Inc.
David C. Shaw, Hartford, Conn., Rona Statman, Austin, Tex., for Association of Retarded Citizens--Texas.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Texas.
Before WRIGHT, * GEE and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.
The State of Texas appeals an order issued by Judge Sanders in the Texas mental health care case. 1 That order specified which plaintiff class members the defendant must pay for directly as agreed to in the Resolution and Settlement (R & S) entered into by the parties and approved by the district court in 1983. The dispute hinges on the definition of "defendants' facilities" found in paragraph 6b of the R & S. The district court ruled that "defendants' facilities" included
those facilities owned, operated, or substantially subsidized by Defendants, that is, the state schools and community programs operated by them, the state centers and state hospitals, the community centers and providers operated, controlled, or substantially funded by the community centers.
Mem.Op. at 4 (July 30, 1986). Because we conclude that the plain language of the R & S precludes such an expansive definition, we reverse the district court's order.
The appellees raise three meritless jurisdictional issues: lack of any substantial question, lack of any case or controversy, and that arguments raised by the appellants were not properly presented to the district court. In addition, a jurisdictional question arises because of an earlier opinion in this case that cited the eleventh amendment as a jurisdictional bar to the federal court's enforcing the consent decree on purely state law grounds. Lelsz v. Kavanagh, 807 F.2d 1243 (5th Cir.) rehearing en banc denied, 815 F.2d 1034 (5th Cir.1987). Although it may be unclear how much life remains in the consent decree after that opinion, some does; and it does not preclude us from enforcing other portions of the consent decree. See Lelsz v. Kavanagh, 815 F.2d at 1035 (5th Cir.1987) (denying rehearing en banc). The issue here lies at the heart of the consent decree and therefore necessarily involves whatever enforceable provisions resting on federal rights remain.
To interpret the consent decree here, we apply the general principles of contract interpretation, among which is the rule that "the scope of a consent decree must be discerned within its four corners." Eaton v. Courtaulds of North America, Inc., 578 F.2d 87, 91 (5th Cir.1978) (quoting United States v. Armour & Co., 402 U.S. 673, 682, 91 S.Ct. 1752, 1757, 29 L.Ed.2d 256 (1971)). Paragraph 6a of the R & S defines the members of the plaintiff class as all persons who have been residents of Austin, Denton, or Fort Worth State Schools ("the named schools") since November 27, 1974, or who will be resident in the future, and all persons who have been listed, or will be listed, on the statewide Registry for State School Placement since 1981.
Paragraph 6b then describes the class members to whom the R & S applies. The first sentence of 6b states that the R & S applies to 1) residents who currently or in the future reside in the named schools or any facility operated by the named schools, and 2) "those other members of the plaintiff class who come forward and request services." 2 The second and third sentences delineate the duty of the state to pay:
It is understood by the parties that defendants will provide the services in the Resolution and Settlement to those members of the plaintiff class described in this paragraph who currently or in the future are residents of any of the defendants' facilities. While the Department is a funding source for community centers through the grant-in-aid process and for local agencies through contracts, it is understood by the parties that defendants are not obligated to pay for services to the specific plaintiff class members as described above in this paragraph who are not residents of defendants' facilities.
R & S at 4. The parties' disagreement is over what constitutes the "defendants' facilities." The appellants contend that this item refers only to the state institutions that the legislature lists as composing the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TDMHMR). See Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5547-202, Sec. 2.01 (). The appellees do not attempt to reconcile sentence two and three and assert instead that defendants' facilities include all facilities that receive state money.
The district court rejected the state's contentions because
Under Defendants' construction, Defendants would lose all responsibility for class members once the class member was placed outside of an institution. This would lead to the anomalous result of class members obtaining their rights to community placements as the least restrictive alternative, and by that very action losing all other rights. The act of moving into the community and out of a "facility" would cost them their entitlement to services under the Settlement. Such a construction would invalidate most of the Settlement for large portions of the class and would either render p 16 of the Settlement meaningless or place the two paragraphs in conflict. 3
Mem.Op. at 5. The district court's interpretation, however, does not reconcile satisfactorily the second and third sentences of paragraph 6b. We must interpret the contract by its plain language and also avoid a construction that renders portions of the text meaningless.
The reasonable interpretation of the third sentence of paragraph 6b contradicts the district court's definition of "defendants' facilities." The third sentence states, to paraphrase, that although the Department funds community centers and local agencies, it is not obligated to pay for services to the specific plaintiff class members who are not residents of defendants' facilities. If the term "defendants' facilities" includes community centers and local agencies, as the district court ruled it does, then the first clause of this sentence is meaningless. The sentence has an obvious and natural meaning that excludes community centers and local agencies from the definition of "defendants' facilities." In other words, even though it is arguable that the state is responsible to pay for residents of community centers and local...
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