PRESIDIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. v. Scott
| Citation | 309 SW 3d 927 |
| Decision Date | 23 April 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 08-0958.,08-0958. |
| Parties | PRESIDIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Petitioner, v. Robert SCOTT, as Commissioner of Education, Respondent. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Texas |
Larry A. Baskind, Linda Aileen Samples, Baskind & Hosford, PC, Ken Slavin, Kemp Smith, LLP, El Paso, TX, for Petitioner.
George A. Warner Jr., Greg W. Abbott, Attorney General, Clarence Andrew Weber, First Assistant Attorney General, David S. Morales, Office of the Attorney General, Bill Davis, Daniel L. Geyser, Asst. Solicitor General, James C. Ho, Solicitor General, Office of Solicitor General, Austin, TX, for Respondent.
Richard L. Arnett, Brim, Arnet, Robinett, Hanner, Conners & McCormick, P.C., Austin, TX, for other interested party Samuel Papa.
At issue in this case is whether Texas Education Code § 21.307 requires the Commissioner of Education's consent before an appeal of his decision in a dispute between a teacher and a school district can proceed in a Travis County district court. After the Commissioner adjudicates the dispute between a teacher and a school district, § 21.307(a) allows "either party" to appeal the Commissioner's decision in one of two possible venues: (1) a district court in the school district's county; or (2) "if agreed by all parties, a district court in Travis County." Here, both Presidio Independent School District (Presidio) and the teacher agreed to venue in Travis County, but the Commissioner, who must be joined to the appeal under § 21.307(c), did not agree. We must determine whether the Commissioner's consent is required under the statute, and we conclude that it is not. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand to the trial court for further proceedings.1
Presidio does not allow its teachers to use corporal punishment on students. Following an incident in which a teacher violated this policy, Presidio provided the teacher with a notice of termination and the matter was referred to a hearing examiner, thereby initiating the statutory administrative process. After a full evidentiary hearing, the examiner recommended to the Presidio board of trustees that the teacher be terminated for cause, and the board agreed, adopting the recommendation. The teacher then filed a petition for review with the Commissioner of Education, who reversed the board's decision and determined that the teacher should be reinstated or paid one year's salary in lieu of reinstatement.
Presidio appealed, choosing Travis County district court as its venue, a choice in which the teacher concurred. The Commissioner, however, objected to review in Travis County, contending that because he is a party to the appeal, his consent is a jurisdictional prerequisite to venue in Travis County under Texas Government Code § 311.034. The Commissioner filed a plea to the jurisdiction on that basis, which the trial court denied.
The court of appeals affirmed, but on rehearing, a divided panel agreed with the Commissioner. The majority determined that "the legislature saw fit to grant the Commissioner (like school districts and teachers) effectively a veto power against having to defend judicial appeals in Travis County district court." 266 S.W.3d at 539. The dissent reasoned that the Commissioner does not come within the definition of "party" in § 21.307(a)(2) because "the `party' would be appealing the Commissioner's decision, and the Commissioner presumably would not appeal his own decision." 266 S.W.3d at 542 (Patterson, J., dissenting).
Presidio petitioned this Court for review, which we granted. 52 Tex. Sup.Ct. J. 1134 (Aug. 21, 2009). We have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal because there is a dissent in the court of appeals. See TEX. GOV'T CODE § 22.225(c); see also TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 51.014(a)(8) (). We review a trial court's order granting or denying a plea to the jurisdiction de novo. See Houston Mun. Employees Pension Sys. v. Ferrell, 248 S.W.3d 151, 156 (Tex.2007); Tex. Dep't of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 225-26 (Tex.2004).
Section 21.307 grants teachers and school districts the right to seek judicial review of the Commissioner's decision. The question presented is whether § 21.307(a)(2) requires the Commissioner's consent before the appeal can proceed in a Travis County district court.
Before parsing the language of § 21.307, a brief survey of the surrounding statutory landscape provides a helpful context for that section's use of the term "party" by outlining how this type of case proceeds through the various levels of review. If a school district seeks to terminate a teacher, the teacher may request a hearing before a certified hearing examiner who develops the record, conducts a bench trial, and ultimately makes a written recommendation that includes proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and if the examiner so chooses, a proposal for granting relief. See TEX. EDUC.CODE §§ 21.251-.257. Next, the school district's board of trustees or board subcommittee considers the recommendation and may adopt, reject, or change the hearing examiner's conclusions of law or proposal for granting relief. Id. § 21.259.
If dissatisfied with the board's decision, the teacher may appeal to the Commissioner of Education. Id. § 21.301(a). The Commissioner "shall review the record of the hearing before the hearing examiner and the oral argument before the board of trustees or board subcommittee." Id. § 21.301(c). And, with exceptions not relevant here,2 the Commissioner shall consider the appeal "solely on the basis of the local record and may not consider any additional evidence or issue." Id. If the board terminates a teacher's contract, the Commissioner may not substitute his judgment for the board's unless its decision was "arbitrary, capricious, or unlawful or is not supported by substantial evidence." Id. § 21.303(b). Once the teacher and school district receive notice of the Commissioner's decision, id. § 21.304, a party may file a request for rehearing, id. § 21.3041(a). "Either party" may then appeal the Commissioner's decision to a district court. Id. § 21.307(a).
From this statutory scheme, it is reasonable to conclude that the teacher and the school district are adverse "parties" as that term is normally used. See BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 1232 (9th ed. 2009) (). The Commissioner is a neutral arbiter performing a limited review of the board's decision and does not have a direct stake in the outcome.
With that context in mind, we turn to § 21.307. In construing statutes, we ascertain and give effect to the Legislature's intent as expressed by the statute's language. City of Rockwall v. Hughes, 246 S.W.3d 621, 625 (Tex.2008). Where text is clear, it is determinative of that intent, Entergy Gulf States, Inc. v. Summers, 282 S.W.3d 433, 437 (Tex.2009), and we give meaning to the language consistent with other provisions in the statute, Tex. Dep't of Transp. v. City of Sunset Valley, 146 S.W.3d 637, 642 (Tex.2004). Our practice when construing a statute is to recognize that "the words the Legislature chooses should be the surest guide to legislative intent." Entergy, 282 S.W.3d at 437 (quoting Fitzgerald v. Advanced Spine Fixation Sys., Inc., 996 S.W.2d 864, 866 (Tex.1999)). We thus construe the text according to its plain and common meaning unless a contrary intention is apparent from the context or unless such a construction leads to absurd results. City of Rockwall, 246 S.W.3d at 625-26. We also presume that the Legislature intended a just and reasonable result by enacting the statute. Id. at 626 (citing TEX. GOV'T CODE § 311.021(3)).
Section 21.307(a) grants parties the right to appeal the Commissioner's decision and identifies two possible venues:
TEX. EDUC.CODE § 21.307(a). Subsection (a) begins by allowing "either party" to appeal the Commissioner's decision. While this subsection does not define the term "party," no one disputes that the word refers to the teacher and the school district, who were the parties before the Commissioner and are affected by the Commissioner's decision. The Commissioner is logically excluded from the scope of "either party" because he would not appeal his own decision. Similarly, throughout the subchapter of which § 21.307 is a part, the Commissioner is distinguished from a "party."3 It follows that in subsection (a)(2), which is subordinated to the introductory "either party" clause, the scope of "all parties" who must consent to venue in Travis County is limited to those parties who have the ability to initiate further review of the Commissioner's decision—teachers and school districts.4 Accordingly, we hold that the Commissioner's consent is not required under § 21.307(a)(2) for a judicial appeal of the Commissioner's decision in Travis County.
The Commissioner's primary textual argument to the contrary focuses on subsection (c), in which the Commissioner, along with the parties in the administrative hearing before the Commissioner, are made parties to the judicial appeal: "The commissioner and each party to the appeal to the commissioner must be made a party to an appeal under this section." TEX. EDUC.CODE § 21.307(c). Because the Commissioner is made a party, he argues that this newly conferred status reaches back to include him in the "all parties" that must consent to venue in Travis County. We disagree. The Legislature's decision to designate the...
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