Moore v. Tangipahoa Parish School Bd., s. 76-1500

• Decision Date: 07 May 1979
• Docket Number: 77-1174,Nos. 76-1500,s. 76-1500
• Citation: 594 F.2d 489
• Parties: 22 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1687, 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 9259 Joyce Marie MOORE et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. TANGIPAHOA PARISH SCHOOL BOARD et al., Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 489

594 F.2d 489

22 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1687, 19 Empl. Prac.

Dec. P 9259

Joyce Marie MOORE et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. TANGIPAHOA PARISH SCHOOL BOARD et al Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.

Nos. 76-1500, 77-1174.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 7, 1979.

Robert W. Tillery, Ponchatoula, La., for defendants-appellants, cross-appellees in No. 76-1500.

Jack Greenberg, New York City, for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants in No. 76-1500.

Allen D. Schwartz, Everett E. Nicholas, Chicago, Ill., Joseph E. Anzalone, Amite, La., for defendants-appellants, cross-appellees.

Nelson D. Taylor, Baton Rouge, La., James C. Gray, New York City, A. P. Trudeau, A. M. Trudeau, Jr., Ernest Morial, New Orleans, La., Margaret Ford, Shreveport, La., for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants.

John D. Kopfler, Hammond, La., for Durham, et al.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, GEE and VANCE, Circuit Judges.

JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge:

Once again we embark on the well travelled roads of Tangipahoa Parish. This class action school desegregation case has been pending in the federal courts since 1965. In June of 1965, the District Court entered an order requiring the commencement of desegregation through a freedom of choice plan. In July of 1967, then District Judge Rubin entered a comprehensive order directing the consolidation of the school district and instructing the defendants to take immediate steps toward eliminating the effects of their dual school system. Additional orders were entered in the summer and fall of 1968. We heard the defendants' appeal along with 37 other school cases and affirmed the District Court. Hall v. St. Helena Parish School Board, 5 Cir., 1969, 417 F.2d 801. ¹ On July 2, 1969, Judge Rubin issued further orders, and in September 1969 the defendants began implementation of the court-ordered desegregation plan.

As it has in many other school districts, school desegregation in the Tangipahoa Parish resulted in a general reduction in staff. Many teachers, activity directors, and administrators were discharged or demoted, and many others resigned under pressure. On this appeal we are concerned solely with the claims of eight black teachers that they were discharged, demoted, or discriminated against by the defendant school board in a manner denying them their constitutional and Jefferson County/Singleton III ² rights. The District Court awarded seven of the teachers relief in the form of reinstatement or back pay or both. The defendants appeal these awards on many and various grounds. The plaintiffs cross-appeal the denial of any relief to one of the teachers and contest the amount of back pay awarded another. We affirm the District Court in all respects.

From There To Here To There And Back Again

The history of these teachers' claims is long and tortuous. Because it is relevant to some of the issues raised by the defendants, we set forth that history in some detail. It begins on July 22, 1969, when the class plaintiffs Negro children and their parents filed a motion to hold the defendants in civil contempt of an earlier District Court order, alleging that the defendants "have engaged in a policy and practice of coercing and intimidating Negro teachers in an effort to force Negro teachers to resign their positions." The plaintiffs' motion described the treatment of six black teachers, including the discharges of three teachers (Carolyn Marzett, Aurelia Jones, and Theresa Leonard) whose claims are involved on this appeal. The District Court denied the motion in August 1969, finding no evidence of racial bias in the discharges.

In August of 1970, the plaintiffs filed a motion for further relief asking the District Court, among other things, to order the reinstatement of five teachers (including, again, Marzett, Jones, and Leonard). An evidentiary hearing was held on August 24, and the District Court denied the motion on September 2, stating

I find that no pattern of racial discrimination by the School Board has been demonstrated, and therefore, deny this motion without prejudice to the right of individual teachers to seek relief in appropriate actions or by individual motion in this matter.

This order was appealed by the plaintiffs.

On October 20, 1970, the District Court set further hearings to consider the claims of discriminatory treatment of various black principals, coaches, and band directors, including two female coaches (Alice Jackson and Ada Walker) whose claims are involved in this appeal. On January 25, 1971, the Court issued an opinion ruling on some of the claims but deferring consideration of the claims of Jackson and Ada Walker pending a recommendation from the previously-established Bi-Racial Committee. The plaintiffs filed an appeal from this order as well, which was consolidated with the appeal from the September 2, 1970 order.

Due to delays in this Court, the appeals were not decided until June 14, 1974. We held:

In light of the intervening decisions of this Court which have interpreted the central authority here involved, Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 5 Cir., 1969, 419 F.2d 1211 (en banc) (Singleton III ), we deem the interests of justice to require that the District Court's decision be vacated and the cause remanded for a current determination of the issues concerning demotion of administrative personnel and the dismissal of faculty members and band directors.

Moore v. Tangipahoa Parish School Board, 5 Cir., 1974, 496 F.2d 696, 697 (Moore I ). We directed the District Judge to "redetermine whether the standards enunciated in Singleton III and our subsequent decisions have been complied with" and instructed him that "to the extent that he may find the school board actions did not meet the Singleton III standards, he shall grant such relief as is appropriate."

Following the remand, Judge Rubin promptly held a pre-trial conference on August 16, 1974. The parties were ordered to prepare pretrial memoranda. The plaintiffs filed their pretrial memo on January 21, 1975, in which they set forth claims for injunctive and back pay relief on behalf of Jones, Marzett, Leonard, Jackson, Ada Walker, Gloria Duplessis, Mary Walker, and Melvileen Burton. Duplessis, Mary Walker, and Burton were dismissed or forced to resign at the end of the 1969-70 school year. It appears that the 1975 pretrial memorandum was the first time that their claims had been formally presented to the District Court, though their dismissals had come up during testimony in the earlier proceedings.

The defendants responded to the plaintiffs' memorandum on February 28, 1975, admitting or denying the plaintiffs' 166 proposed findings of fact. On March 3, the District Judge entered a comprehensive pretrial order setting forth the issues for trial. One of the issues listed was the claims of the individual teachers.

Trial on the teachers' claims was had on May 15. ³ On December 19, 1975, the District Court ruled in favor of seven of the teachers Marzett, Jones, Jackson, Ada Walker, Duplessis, Mary Walker, and Burton and against Leonard. The Court stated that it would refer the determination of back pay to a Special Master if the parties could not agree on an amount. They could not and on February 3, 1976, the determination of back pay was referred to a Master. He heard evidence and entered his findings on July 20. These findings were adopted by the District Judge, and final judgment against the School Board was entered on August 11, 1976.

The defendants filed an appeal from the December 1975 opinion of the District Court in January of 1976 (No. 76-1500), which was stayed pending the determination of the amount of back pay. After entry of the August 11 judgment, the plaintiffs filed a cross-appeal. The defendants then filed a motion for a new trial in the District Court directed to all of the issues. In addition, the defendants raised for the first time the contentions that (i) the Court could not award back pay relief because the teachers had never been made parties to the litigation and (ii) both back pay and injunctive relief were barred by either the statute of limitations, laches, or both. This motion was denied. The defendants filed an appeal from the order denying a new trial (No. 77-1174), which has been consolidated with their earlier appeal from the December 1975 opinion.

Monroe On The Rocks

The defendants raise two jurisdictional arguments. They contend, first, that the Tangipahoa Parish School Board is not a "person" under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, see Monroe v. Pape, 1961, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492, and that the District Court's award of reinstatement and back pay against the School Board therefore cannot stand. Whatever merit this argument may have had before the Supreme Court's recent decision in Monell v. Department of Social Services, 1978, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611, that decision controls this issue unfavorably to the defendant. In Monell, the Court overruled Monroe, supra, and held:

Local governing bodies, therefore, can be sued directly under § 1983 for monetary, declaratory, or injunctive relief where, as here, the action that is alleged to be unconstitutional implements or executes a policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision officially adopted and promulgated by that body's officers.

436 U.S. at 690, 98 S.Ct. at 2035, 2036. Because there is no doubt but that personnel decisions are "officially adopted and promulgated" by the members of the School Board, the defendants' argument fails.

Mt. Healthy Straight Up

The defendants' second jurisdictional argument is that the awards of back pay against the School Board are barred by the Eleventh Amendment. The Supreme Court faced a similar question in Mt. Healthy City Board of Education v. Doyle, 1977, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471, and...