Paulsen v. Golden Gate University

• Decision Date: 30 November 1979
• Citation: 602 P.2d 778,159 Cal.Rptr. 858,25 Cal.3d 803
• Parties: , 602 P.2d 778 Richard B. PAULSEN, Jr., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY et al., Defendants and Appellants. S. F. 24049.
• Court: California Supreme Court

Page 858

159 Cal.Rptr. 858

25 Cal.3d 803, 602 P.2d 778

Richard B. PAULSEN, Jr., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY et al., Defendants and Appellants.

S. F. 24049.

Supreme Court of California, In Bank.

Nov. 30, 1979.

Jordan, Walsh, Lawrence, Dawson & Carbone, Jordan, Lawrence, Dawson & Carbone, Paul S. Jordan, Michael P. Carbone and Terry D. McShane, San Francisco, for defendants and appellants.

George J. Alexander and William C. Cunningham as amici curiae on behalf of defendants and appellants.

Charles Cline Moore, San Francisco, for plaintiff and respondent.

MOSK, Justice.

Defendant Golden Gate University appeals from a judgment in an action for declaratory relief directing it to award plaintiff Paulsen a law degree. ¹

Golden Gate is a nonprofit, private educational institution. Paulsen enrolled at its school of law in 1971 and attended classes there until 1975. Although he was a full time degree student for three years, he failed to satisfy the academic average and unit requirements for a degree and was academically disqualified. His status during the fourth year of study is here in issue.

We are asked to determine whether a private university acts arbitrarily or capriciously when it includes an express no-degree condition in readmitting, for the sole purpose of bar certification, an academically disqualified student. We must also decide whether such a specially enrolled student, upon amassing the number of credits required of degree students, acquires a contractual right to a degree. We conclude that the evidence fails to support the trial court's finding of arbitrary and capricious behavior by the university. In addition, there is no contractual theory that would entitle Paulsen to a degree under the facts of this case.

Paulsen was twice disqualified from further study at Golden Gate because of academic failure. In the first instance, upon petition to Golden Gate's Committee on Academic Standards (hereafter the committee) he was conditionally readmitted as a second year student. ² However, his academic ineptitude continued, and at the end of his third year Paulsen was informed by Golden Gate that he had "flunked out." At that point he had neither the requisite grade point average nor the completed course units necessary for a degree. His petition for readmission on probation in order to make up these deficiencies and thereupon graduate was individually reviewed by the committee and rejected.

Paulsen's subsequent attempts to transfer to another law school were unsuccessful because of his poor academic standing. After further discussion with Golden Gate officials, he was allowed by the committee to return for a fourth year so that he could be certified as having studied law for four years; such persons may take the bar examination even if they do not receive a law degree. (Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law, rule IX, § 91(2)(a) (3B West's Ann.Bus. & Prof.Code (1974 ed., 1979 cum. supp.) foll. § 6069, at pp. 51-52).)

The university expressly advised Paulsen both in writing and in person that his readmission was a limited opportunity and he would not be awarded a law degree even if he received straight "A's" in his fourth year courses; thus Paulsen could not use any of the latter courses to satisfy the basic degree requirements. This was the first time that Golden Gate had imposed such a no-degree condition on a student.

In accordance with the terms of his readmission, Paulsen enrolled in only eight units per semester, four less than the level required of full time degree students. This was the minimum number of units per semester thought needed for bar certification. ³ During the regular and summer sessions, Paulsen enrolled in and completed twelve units, withdrew from six units, and received a "no-credit" report in a two-unit class. This performance left him well short of the requisite units for bar certification. However, the addition of the completed courses to his academic record did boost his cumulative average to precisely the minimal level required for a degree; in addition, he exceeded the numerical course requirement by several units. ⁴

At the end of spring term, Paulsen filed a petition with the committee requesting reconsideration of its decisions on his previous petitions. After a hearing at which Paulsen appeared, the request was unanimously denied. Paulsen filed another petition the following fall asking that he be granted a degree. Although this too was rejected, the committee did offer him yet another opportunity to enroll in whatever number of academic units the bar examiners might then require for his bar certification. Paulsen refused, and instead filed this action for declaratory relief.

The trial court found that the university and Paulsen had entered into a series of contracts whereby Paulsen paid tuition in consideration for a legal education and the granting of a degree on completion of the prescribed requirements (see fn. 4, Ante ), and that Paulsen had satisfied those requirements. The court also found that Golden Gate had imposed a no-degree condition on permitting Paulsen to enroll in additional courses after his academic disqualification, but concluded that the condition was "arbitrary, a manifest abuse of discretion, and an unreasonable discrimination between students."

I

There is a widely accepted rule of judicial non-intervention into the academic affairs of schools. (Connelly v. University of Vermont and State Agr. Col. (D.Vt.1965) 244 F.Supp. 156, 159-161; Mustell v. Rose (1968) 282 Ala. 358, 211 So.2d 489, 493-494; Militana v. University of Miami (Fla.App.1970) 236 So.2d 162, 164; Edde v. Columbia University in City of New York (1957) 8 Misc.2d 795, 168 N.Y.S.2d 643, 644.) However, some courts, including those of California on occasion, have carved out an exception to this rule by permitting limited intervention whenever it is alleged that a university or college has acted arbitrarily or in bad faith. (Shuffer v. Board of Trustees (1977) 67 Cal.App.3d 208, 219-220, 136 Cal.Rptr. 527; Wong v. Regents of University of California (1971) 15 Cal.App.3d 823, 830-832, 93 Cal.Rptr. 502.) While this rule has not heretofore been applied to private schools in California, counsel for appellants concedes a private university may not act arbitrarily or in bad faith (cf. Frank v. Marquette University (1932) 209 Wis. 372, 245 N.W. 125, 127) but denies Golden Gate has done so.

In concluding that the no-degree condition placed on Paulsen's fourth year program was unreasonable, the trial court concentrated on the unprecedented nature of that condition; it permitted the introduction into evidence of detailed testimony and exhibits concerning the academic records of other fourth year students who, while assertedly similarly situated, were not subjected to a no-degree condition.

" Evidence that (a student) was treated radically different than others in a like situation" may be relevant to a claim that a university acted arbitrarily or in bad faith. (See Greenhill v. Bailey (S.D.Iowa 1974) 378 F.Supp. 632, 636, rev. on other grounds (8th Cir. 1975) 519 F.2d 5.) But such evidence is not conclusive of the issue. The student must also show that the difference in treatment in his case was the result of an arbitrary or bad faith decision by the institution. The trial court did not find that Golden Gate's decision to academically disqualify Paulsen at the end of this third year was in any way improper. It did find that the university allowed four other students to return for an additional year without a no-degree condition, and in due course awarded two of them degrees. But such students were not in fact similarly situated to Paulsen. Only he among the fourth-year students had "flunked out" at the end of the normal course of study; and the two who eventually graduated were permitted to continue in the degree program because their earlier deficiencies were due to personal factors unrelated to their academic capability (e. g., serious illness).

The imposition of reasonable conditions on the readmission of academically disqualified students was apparently a regular practice of Golden Gate. ⁵ Although the no-degree condition may have been novel at the time, this fact in itself does not demonstrate its impermissibility. The only unacceptable conditions are those imposed for reasons extraneous to a student's qualifications for a degree. (Shuffer v. Board of Trustees, supra, 67 Cal.App.3d 208, 220, 136 Cal.Rptr. 527.) Here, there was an obvious relationship between Paulsen's special fourth year program, even if unique, and his remarkably unsatisfactory academic record.

Paulsen's program was much less rigorous than that required of degree students. The no-degree condition was an explicit recognition that he had not satisfactorily managed the academic rigors of the course load in the degree program, and in the trained judgment of the university would not be able to do so. The fourth year students who continued in the degree program were required to take a minimum of 24 academic units per year; Paulsen, in contrast, struggled with a maximum of 16.

The justification for these limits was fully confirmed by Paulsen's inability to complete more than four units in the second term of his fourth year. ⁶ To direct that Paulsen receive a degree after he had demonstrated his inability to survive academically under...