Mississippi Employment Sec. Com'n v. Philadelphia Mun. Separate School Dist. of Neshoba County, 54221

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Writing for the Court: Before PATTERSON; ROBERTSON; PATTERSON; WALKER and BROOM, P.JJ., and ROY NOBLE LEE; ROY NOBLE LEE
• Citation: 437 So.2d 388
• Parties: 13 Ed. Law Rep. 896 MISSISSIPPI EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION, Appellant, v. PHILADELPHIA MUNICIPAL SEPARATE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF NESHOBA COUNTY, Appellee.
• Docket Number: No. 54221,54221
• Decision Date: 07 September 1983

Page 388

437 So.2d 388 13 Ed. Law Rep. 896 MISSISSIPPI EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION, Appellant,
v.
PHILADELPHIA MUNICIPAL SEPARATE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF NESHOBA
COUNTY, Appellee. No. 54221. Supreme Court of Mississippi. Sept. 7, 1983.

Page 390

Leopoldo T. Aragon, Jackson, for appellant.

Alford, Thomas & Kilgore, Herman Alford, Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before PATTERSON, C.J., and ROY NOBLE LEE and ROBERTSON, JJ.

ROBERTSON, Justice, for the Court:

I.

This appeal presents the question whether, under what circumstances, and to what extent the findings of fact of one administrative agency may be binding in subsequent proceedings before another agency when arguably similar fact questions are presented.

The Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Municipal Separate School District, Appellee here (sometimes "PMSSD"), following a hearing held under the School Employment Procedures Law of 1977, Miss.Code Ann. Secs. 37-9-101, et seq. (Supp.1982), determined that Bobby Edsel Winstead should not be reemployed as a math teacher for the 1980-81 school year. The Board found good cause for Winstead's non-reemployment. We are concerned with the effect, if any, of that good cause determination in a subsequent unemployment compensation benefits reimbursement proceeding before the Mississippi Employment Security Commission ("MESC") where the "issue is reason for claimant's separation from work".

The Mississippi Employment Security Commission Board of Review affirmed an Appeals Referee's decision that nothing done at the prior non-reemployment proceeding before the Board of Trustees of PMSSD was binding before MESC. The Board of Review ordered the PMSSD reimburse the Employment Security Trust Fund to the extent benefits had been paid to Winstead. On appeal, however, the Circuit Court of Neshoba County reversed. In so doing, the Circuit Court relied heavily upon the prior teacher non-reemployment proceedings before PMSSD which by that time had resulted in an affirmance in the Chancery Court of Neshoba County, Mississippi.

Arguing that the Circuit Court of Neshoba County has committed serious error in its understanding of the limited scope of review before it, the Mississippi Employment Security Commission appeals to this Court. We reverse.

II.

Unemployment insurance claimant Bobby Edsel Winstead had been employed as a mathematics teacher by the Philadelphia Municipal Separate School District in Neshoba County, Mississippi, for approximately nine years. As is customary in this state, each year he taught under a one year contract. His last contract with the district was for the 1979-80 school year. Winstead's

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last day of employment was at the end of that school year on May 23, 1980. He was not offered a contract to teach for the 1980-81 school year.

In early March of 1980, Winstead was advised by his principal that he would not be offered reemployment. ¹ Assigned as reasons were Winstead's alleged

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(1) lack of respect for students,

(2) antagonistic and uncooperative attitude toward school administration,

(3) violation of rules and regulations prescribed for the conduct and operation of school,

(4) exhibition of unprofessional conduct, and

(5) incompetence.

Despite these serious charges, Winstead was allowed to complete his then existing contract and teach for the remainder of the 1979-80 school year.

Winstead protested his non-reemployment first through a hearing held by the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Municipal Separate School District under the School Employment Procedure Law of 1977 (Miss.Code Ann. Secs. 37-9-101, et seq.) (Supp.1982) and subsequently on appeal to the Chancery Court of Neshoba County, Mississippi. Pending those proceedings, and following his last day of work on May 23, 1980, Winstead filed a claim with the Mississippi Employment Security Commission seeking unemployment compensation benefits. This claim indicated that Winstead was separated from his employment because of "lack of work". MESC determined that Winstead was indeed eligible for benefits and his claim was allowed.

In due course, on June 23, 1980, MESC notified PMSSD that the claim had been allowed and that PMSSD was liable for any benefits paid to the claimant as required by law. ² An MESC Appeals Referee and the MESC Board of Review affirmed, only to be reversed by the Circuit Court which relied substantially on the Chancery Court's decision in the teacher non-reemployment proceedings.

III.

A.

We first address the collateral estoppel question necessarily at the heart of the Circuit Court's ruling. Our precise context is this: The fact question of why Winstead was not reemployed was originally "litigated" before the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Municipal Separate School District. That Board, acting as an administrative agency, ³ held a non-renewal ⁴ hearing

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pursuant to the provisions of Sections 37-9-101, et seq. Miss.Code Ann. (Supp.1982). On May 25, 1980, the Board of Trustees released specific and detailed findings of

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fact. Suffice it to say that the Board found that Winstead was incompetent and unfit and that good cause existed for his non-reemployment with the Philadelphia Municipal Separate School District.

These findings of fact were immediately challenged in statutorily authorized appeal proceedings before the Chancery Court of Neshoba County, Mississippi, in Case No. 11,932. Exercising a very limited power of review, the Chancery Court on April 21, 1981, affirmed. Tracking the statute, ⁵ the Chancery Court held that the decision of the Board of Trustees, necessarily including the findings of fact made in connection therewith, (a) was supported by substantial evidence, (b) was not arbitrary or capricious, and (c) was not in violation of any statutory or constitutional right of Winstead. The Chancery Court rendered its decision fully effective via a final decree entered November 4, 1981. No further appeal was taken.

At the hearing before the MESC Appeals Referee held September 2, 1980, PMSSD offered into evidence the entire decision of its Board of Trustees rendered May 25, 1980. This decision contains findings of evidentiary facts as well as findings of ultimate facts. The latter amount to little more than a recitation of the original reasons for non-reemployment given by the principal back in March of 1980.

In making his decision, the MESC Appeals Referee correctly considered as dispositive the question of whether Winstead was discharged for "misconduct" connected with his work. Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 71-5-513(2) (1972). The Appeals Referee's decision of September 8, 1980, includes the following definition of "misconduct":

The term "misconduct", as used in the Mississippi Employment Security Law, may be defined as an act of wanton or willful disregard of the employer's rules, a disregard of the standard of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of an employee, or negligence indicating an intentional disregard of the employer's interests or of the employee's duties and obligations to the employer. ⁶

The Appeals Referee then considered all of the evidence before him, including the PMSSD decision referred to above, and held:

The weight of the evidence as presented does not support a finding that Claimant [Winstead] was discharged for misconduct connected with his work.

On October 20, 1980, the MESC Board of Review affirmed. There followed the appeal to the Circuit Court of Neshoba County, which on July 22, 1982, reversed. It is from that final judgment of reversal that this appeal has been taken.

B.

In rendering the final judgment in the case now before this Court on direct appeal, the Circuit Judge expressly recited that he had reviewed the record in the proceedings before the Chancery Court. He further stated that he had "carefully considered the sworn testimony produced in the trial of the

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matter in the Chancery Court". On the basis of this review, and in spite of his statutorily narrow powers of review, the Circuit Judge vacated the order of the Board of Review of the Mississippi Employment Security Commission. He must have had in mind the doctrine of collateral estoppel, though it is not mentioned in his ruling. For we can fathom no other theory under which that occurring in the teacher non-reemployment proceedings may be said, in and of itself to require reversal of the decision of MESC Board of Review. ⁷

In the present context, a correct collateral estoppel analysis requires that we take the findings of fact of the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Municipal Separate School District, as affirmed by the Chancery Court, and ask the question whether the instant MESC compensation reimbursement proceedings constitute an attempt to relitigate those same fact issues. Or, to put the matter another way, by reason of the proceedings before the Board of Trustees of PMSSD and the findings of fact made thereat, what facts were left open for litigation in these unemployment compensation reimbursement proceedings before the Mississippi Employment Security Commission, under the doctrine of collateral estoppel?

C.

The rule of collateral estoppel has well established contours in this state. It was stated succinctly by Judge Ethridge in Garraway v. Retail Credit Company, 244 Miss. 376, 141 So.2d 727 (1962) as follows:

... [W]here a question of fact essential to a judgment is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, that determination is conclusive between the same parties in a subsequent suit on a different cause of action. 244 Miss. at 385, 141 So.2d at 730. [Emphasis added].

See also, Johnson v. Bagby, 252 Miss. 125, 133-136, 171 So.2d 327, 330-331 (1965); Magee v. Griffin, 345 So.2d 1027, 1032 (Miss.1977); and Dunaway v. W.H. Hopper & Assoc., Inc., 422 So.2d 749, 751 (Miss.1982).

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The doctrine of collateral estoppel has been recently characterized as a rule of evidence in Sanders v. State, 429 So.2d 245...