Liddell v. Board of Educ. of City of St. Louis

• Decision Date: 05 July 1983
• Docket Number: No. 72-100C(3).,72-100C(3).
• Citation: 567 F. Supp. 1037
• Parties: Craton LIDDELL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF ST. LOUIS, STATE OF MISSOURI, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

567 F. Supp. 1037

Craton LIDDELL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF ST. LOUIS, STATE OF MISSOURI, et al., Defendants.

No. 72-100C(3).

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, E.D.

July 5, 1983.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William P. Russell, St. Louis, Mo., for Liddell.

Michael J. Hoare, St. Louis, Mo., for Caldwell.

Kenneth C. Brostron, Lashly Caruthers Baer & Hamel, St. Louis, Mo., for Bd. Educ. City of St. Louis.

Larry R. Marshall, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Columbia, Mo., for State defendants.

MEMORANDUM

HUNGATE, District Judge.

I.

This matter is before the Court, following a fairness hearing, to determine whether a proposed Settlement Plan is fair, reasonable, and adequate for the resolution of the 12(c) interdistrict phase of this school desegregation case. The Settlement Plan is offered by the Liddell plaintiff class, the Caldwell plaintiff class, and all the school districts in St. Louis City and St. Louis County, Missouri.¹

In 1980, defendant Board of Education of the City of St. Louis (City Board) and State of Missouri defendants were found liable for the establishment and maintenance of a racially segregated public school system within the City of St. Louis, in violation of plaintiff class members' constitutional rights. Adams v. United States, 620 F.2d 1277 (8th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 826, 101 S.Ct. 88, 66 L.Ed.2d 29 (1980); Liddell v. Board of Education, 491 F.Supp. 351 (E.D.Mo.1980), aff'd, 667 F.2d 643 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1081, 1091, 102 S.Ct. 634, 656, 70 L.Ed.2d 614, 629 (1981). To remedy this constitutional violation, in 1980 the district court (Meredith, J.) ordered the implementation of a mandatory intradistrict desegregation plan within the City of St. Louis public school system, and the development and submission of plans involving voluntary interdistrict transfers between suburban school districts and the St. Louis City school district. Liddell, supra, 491 F.Supp. at 353-54, as amended by Orders dated September 17, 1980, and December 19, 1980. To date, the Court has approved and certain parties have implemented two interdistrict transfer plans (the 12(a) voluntary plan and the 12(b) vocational education plan). In the present 12(c) phase of this case, the Court is considering the implementation of a third interdistrict transfer plan.

A more complete history of this lengthy litigation is found in the appendix of this opinion. Its consideration is essential to a thorough understanding of the background of this decision. Its import is incapable of compression into a newspaper headline, a radio bulletin, or a thirty-second TV spot. At the same time, its complete inclusion in the body of this opinion would submerge the answers to the deceptively simple questions which are presently determinative of this phase of the litigation.

Should the Agreement in Principle, submitted by the plaintiffs and twenty-two of the twenty-three suburban school districts, be approved?

Should the Settlement Plan,² submitted by the plaintiffs and twenty-one of the twenty-three suburban school districts, be approved as fair, reasonable, and adequate, and as not inconsistent with the Agreement in Principle?

The answer to both of these questions is, "Yes."

All but one of the twenty-three St. Louis County school districts joined in the Agreement in Principle when first submitted. That one district, Riverview Gardens, later approved the Settlement Plan, thereby ratifying the Agreement in Principle. This made approval of the Agreement in Principle unanimous by all twenty-three St. Louis County school districts. The Agreement in Principle and the Settlement Plan are accepted by all proponent plaintiffs.

Among the plaintiffs, only plaintiff-intervenors City of St. Louis and United States decline to join in this effort to settle the case. Recent months find them reluctant either to litigate or to settle.

Six years ago, the City of St. Louis and the United States each sought and obtained leave to intervene as plaintiffs in this case, then already five years old. See City's renewed motion to intervene, dated July 7, 1977, granted by order dated July 13, 1977; United States' motion to intervene, filed and granted August 10, 1977. After attaining plaintiff-intervenor status, for four years both parties actively participated in the numerous proceedings of this case at both the trial and appellate court levels. Yet, in the present 12(c) phase, the City of St. Louis joined in the State defendants' motion to dismiss the City as a party in these proceedings. Moreover, the United States, although opposing State defendants' efforts to dismiss it as a party in this phase, has persistently refused to disclose clearly its position regarding the pending claim until the conclusion of the evidence. See, e.g., United States' responses to discovery requests, H(1466)82 at 1-2, dated October 12, 1982; H(1488)82 at 2, dated October 18, 1982; H(1515)82 at 3, dated October 20, 1982; H(1528)82 at 4, dated October 25, 1982; deposition of the United States, transcript dated November 30, 1982 at 14, 58-59; order requiring disclosure "with particularity" of United States' position, H(1871)82, dated December 29, 1982; statement of United States in response to order, H(1926)83, dated January 10, 1983. Now, while endorsing the concept and some portions of the proposed settlement, these two plaintiff-intervenors do not approve certain provisions of the proposal.

Since all twenty-three of the St. Louis County school districts approve the Agreement in Principle, along with the proponent plaintiffs, their further agreement to the Settlement Plan would not be necessary, except insofar as its proposals may be inconsistent with the Agreement in Principle. After duly considering the pleadings, exhibits properly admitted in evidence, public comments filed, and the testimony adduced in a five-day fairness hearing, this Court finds the Settlement Plan is not inconsistent with the Agreement in Principle.

After having unconditionally accepted the Agreement in Principle, two of the twenty-three St. Louis County School Districts, Rockwood and Mehlville, proposed additional conditions upon their entry into the Settlement Plan. They made it clear they did not oppose the Settlement Plan, and Rockwood has consistently reiterated that it is a proponent of the Settlement Plan. Since the Court finds the Settlement Plan is not inconsistent with the Agreement in Principle, to which all St. Louis County school districts have agreed, and since further expressions of agreement were not required, these two districts' conditions are approved insofar as they are not inconsistent with the Agreement in Principle and the other provisions of the Settlement Plan, to which twenty-one of the twenty-three St. Louis County school districts have agreed. Thus, Rockwood and Mehlville are also members in good standing of the Settlement Plan.

If Mehlville or Rockwood, or both, wish to litigate this issue further, they shall so notify this Court in writing by July 11, 1983, and the trial of the 12(c) liability of either or both of said school districts wishing to contest the matter shall begin July 25, 1983.

Expensive adversary trials ultimately deny justice to countless deserving people. This litigation has already consumed eleven years, and absent a settlement promises to consume many more. Society's greatest opportunities lie in encouraging human inclinations toward compromise, rather than stirring our tendencies for competition and rivalry. If lawyers, educators, and public officials do not help marshall cooperation and design mechanisms that promote peaceful resolution of conflicts, we shall miss an opportunity to participate in the most creative social experiments of our time. "A Flawed System," by Derek C. Bok, Harvard Magazine, May-June, 1983, at 38-71.

The Court commends the school officials and attorneys in this case, including the amicus curiae, Shulamith Simon, and the Special Master, D. Bruce La Pierre, along with the educational and religious leaders of this community, all of whom must receive full credit for bringing us to what has been called the threshold "of an historic settlement like none other achieved in this country, and far beyond the wildest dreams of the participants: a settlement agreement which would set the standards by which all other desegregation plans would be measured; a settlement agreement which would bring to an end on an amicable voluntary basis, 11 years of emotional, complicated and sometimes divisive litigation." Opening Statement of the State of Missouri defendants, Transcript of Fairness Hearing, May 13, 1983, at 6.

Finding parties, as diverse as those present here, reaching such a degree of unanimity as has been achieved by the proponent plaintiffs and the twenty-three St. Louis County school districts, would give any court pause before disapproving the efforts of these parties to find a voluntary solution to a complex constitutional problem in which legal, educational, political, and financial problems are inextricably entwined.

II.

Having found the Settlement Plan is not inconsistent with the Agreement in Principle, the next question presented is whether the Settlement Plan is fair, reasonable, and adequate and constitutionally sufficient.

(A) Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(e), the Court may only approve a class action settlement that is fair, reasonable, and adequate. Grunin v. International House of Pancakes, 513 F.2d 114, 123 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 864, 96 S.Ct. 124, 46 L.Ed.2d 93 (1975). The Court must also insure that the terms of the agreement meet constitutional standards. See Liddell v. Caldwell, 546 F.2d 768, 773-74 (8th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 914, 97 S.Ct. 2987, 53 L.Ed.2d 1100 (1977). In reaching its decision on the proposed agreement, the court may not decide unsettled issues in the case. Grunin, supra 513 F.2d at 123-24. Furthermore, ...