Navarre v. South Washington County Schools

• Decision Date: 10 October 2002
• Docket Number: No. C4-00-2242.,C4-00-2242.
• Citation: 652 N.W.2d 9
• Parties: Katherine NAVARRE, Respondent, v. SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY SCHOOLS, Petitioner, Appellant, Northwest Publications d/b/a/ Pioneer Press, et al., Defendants.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

652 N.W.2d 9

Katherine NAVARRE, Respondent, v. SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY SCHOOLS, Petitioner, Appellant, Northwest Publications d/b/a/ Pioneer Press, et al., Defendants.

No. C4-00-2242.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

October 10, 2002.

Knutson, Flynn, & Deans, Lawrence J. Hayes, Jr., # 42821, Jennifer K. Anderson, # 253789, Mendota Heights, MN, Attorney for Appellant.

Stephen W. Cooper, # 18788, Kathryn J. Cima, # 228059, Minneapolis, MN, Attorney for Respondent.

Mark A. Anfinson, # 2744, Minneapolis, MN, Attorney for amicus curiae, Minnesota Newspaper Association.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

GILBERT, Justice.

Respondent Katherine Navarre brought suit against appellant South Washington County Schools seeking damages for several claims, including multiple violations of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA). Ultimately, a jury trial was held and respondent received a verdict in her favor in the amount of $520,000. The court of appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial. We are now asked to resolve multiple issues related to the MGDPA claims.

Respondent began her employment with appellant in January 1988 and began working at Hillside Elementary School, one of appellant's schools, in the fall of 1996 as the sixth-grade communications teacher. During the 1996-1997 school year, appellant received several complaints from teachers, students, and parents regarding respondent's teaching, her treatment of students, and her ability to control her classroom. Hillside Principal Timothy Bess informed respondent of the concerns expressed by parents and students in a letter dated April 18, 1997, specifically telling respondent that parents were concerned about respondent being inconsistent in her communications with them and their children and about one parent's concern that respondent was not teaching the curriculum. Appellant also commenced an investigation in April 1997 and placed respondent on a paid leave of absence beginning May 15, 1997.¹ On May 19, 1997, Bess sent a letter to all sixth-grade parents advising them that respondent had been placed "on a medical leave for the remainder of this school year."

On May 28, 1997, Assistant Superintendent Stanley Hooper sent the sixth-grade parents a second letter, indicating that appellant would administer the communications portion of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to evaluate what their children had learned. This letter also stated:

[P]arents have a * * * concern about knowing whether their children have been successful in the Communications curriculum, and that the stories from children are numerous and sometimes alarming regarding the characteristics of the instructional program they received.

One of the parents faxed this letter to Pioneer Press reporter Theresa Monsour, who then interviewed Hooper on May 29, 1997. In this interview, Hooper provided Monsour with details about the complaints and appellant's response to these complaints. According to Monsour's notes, Hooper told her the following:

parents have called hillside. teachers have sat kids down and talked in detail. some said did do some things. we aren't comfortable that some of what they are talking about isn't valid. so doing standardized to see what learned.

said parents were calling principal and said getting strong stories about what was going on. one day principal did sub. he asked children more information based on what parents were talking about. he had been aware of some of those issues for while. frequency of calls. some parents were concerned about their children but weren't attributing it to lack of instruction. others said towards spring of year, problems.

some children described it as social hour. teacher had difficulty in classroom management. from kids point of [view], out of hand. principal, he indicated that may have been the case. he was not seeing that in other classrooms. kids move from room to room. were not having difficulty in other rooms.

* * * *

had not had other problems that i know of. nothing where anything formal had been done.

* * * *

it's unusual in terms of number of parents calling dr. bess and myself.

i've had four calls and others pending. playing [telephone] tag. bess has had more than that.

said district had been working with the teacher. the teacher had been responding to what teacher was, helping her learn better classroom management. earliest calls from parents there were concerns about not learning in classroom. principal worked with teacher to get documentation that teacher had been working with the students, examples of student work. she was providing some information in response to that.

said he didn't get calls until this spring. first was two weeks ago. doesn't know how long bess has.

said year started out okay, [classroom] management okay. [fell] apart with spring.

* * * *

she was asked for grades, she gave [out] grades. she did give some homework out during the year.

On May 30, 1997, the Pioneer Press published an article with the headline "100 kids who learn `nothing' face summer school." This article identified respondent by name and discussed the concerns about respondent's teaching that parents and students had reported to appellant, at times directly quoting Hooper and at other times attributing the source of the information to Hooper. That same day, Superintendent Dan Hoke issued a press release, stating:

I am here today to respond to allegations that 6th graders at Hillside Elementary School did not learn anything this year and that their communications teacher is incompetent.

These allegations are extremely serious and we are continuing our investigation. The allegations are serious enough and substantiated enough that we took the action of suspending the teacher and testing the students.

* * * *

We first heard concerns about the situation last fall, when parents called to report that their children were having difficulty learning the communications curriculum.

* * * *

This spring the concerns shifted from concern about student performance to concern about the teacher's teaching methods. These concerns were investigated by the principal at the time and the investigation continues.

KARE 11 news also played a portion of a videotaped interview with Hoke on May 30, 1997, in which he stated:

Hoke: The allegations I've heard were that kids weren't learning.

Question: Which means she wasn't teaching?

Hoke: Correct. * * * [The principal] would visit with the teacher. He would observe the teacher and then eventually he started into the classroom to teach for himself. So as he got more and more evidence, he was also concerned. By us admitting there was something wrong by suspending the teacher.

On June 5, 1997, Hoke sent a letter to staff stating that appellant had "placed a teacher on paid leave until the end of the school year arising out of student and parent complaints."

On July 3, 1997, appellant's human resources manager, Perry Palin, responded by letter to a written request from Monsour for information about respondent. Palin's letter included respondent's name, salary, education, work experience, and the following statement: "[Appellant] received complaints from parents and students alleging concerns involving Ms. Navarre's classroom management and instructional methods."

Respondent brought this action in July, 1997, alleging that appellant published untrue and damaging allegations about respondent and seeking damages for: (1) defamation, (2) multiple MGDPA violations, (3) negligent infliction of emotional distress, and (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress.² Ultimately, respondent ended her employment with appellant at the beginning of the 1997-1998 school year. Although respondent never amended her complaint to allege constructive discharge or seek wage loss damages for her MGDPA claim, she did argue these claims to the jury.³ In April 1999, appellant brought a motion for summary judgment as to respondent's entire lawsuit. Respondent also filed a motion for summary judgment on her MGDPA claim, alleging that appellant's statements to the press and parents regarding the substance of the complaints violated the MGDPA. In July 1999, the district court granted appellant's motion on all counts except the MGDPA claim and partially granted respondent's motion for summary judgment. Specifically, the court recognized that respondent alleged six violations of the MGDPA: (1) Bess's May 19, 1997 letter to parents, (2) Hooper's May 28, 1997 letter to parents, (3) the quotes attributed to Hooper appearing in the May 30, 1997 Pioneer Press article, (4) the other information in the May 30, 1997 Pioneer Press article attributed to Hooper, (5) Hoke's June 5, 1997 letter to staff, and (6) Palin's July 3, 1997 letter to Monsour. The court held that Hooper's May 28 letter, Hooper's direct quotes in the May 30 article, and Hoke's June 5 letter did not violate the MGDPA. However, the court held that Bess's May 19 letter and Palin's July 3 letter were both MGDPA violations and that there was a factual dispute as to a third alleged violation, which involved the extent of information Hooper in fact supplied to the Pioneer Press. Finally, the court found that there was no evidence that any of the violations were willful.

On June 2, 2000, respondent served a motion in limine requesting the court to exclude as irrelevant all testimony that either stated or implied that respondent's teaching performance during the 1996-1997 school year was unsatisfactory and also requesting that the court not allow respondent's medical records to be introduced at trial. In response, appellant argued that evidence of respondent's performance during the 1996-1997 school year was relevant to counter respondent's claim for reputation damages by showing that the complaints about respondent were public knowledge prior to any dissemination of data by appellant. In addition, appellant argued that respondent's medical records were...