Reeves-Toney v. School District No. 1 in City and County of Denver

• Decision Date: 28 May 2019
• Docket Number: Supreme Court Case No. 18SA228
• Citation: 442 P.3d 81
• Parties: In re Rebecca REEVES-TONEY, Plaintiff, v. SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 IN the CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, State of Colorado, Defendant.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

442 P.3d 81

In re Rebecca REEVES-TONEY, Plaintiff,

v.SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 IN the CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, State of Colorado, Defendant.

Supreme Court Case No. 18SA228

Supreme Court of Colorado.

May 28, 2019

Rehearing Denied June 17, 2019

Attorney for Plaintiff: Charles Kaiser, Denver, Colorado

Attorneys for Defendant: Molly H. Ferrer, Denver, Colorado, Connelly Law, LLC Sean Connelly, Denver, Colorado

Attorneys for Amici Curiae the State of Colorado and the People of Colorado: Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Julie C. Tolleson, First Assistant Attorney General, Joseph Peters, Assistant Attorney General, Danny Rheiner, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado

En Banc

JUSTICE MÁRQUEZ delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 In this original proceeding under C.A.R. 21, Defendant-Petitioner School District No. 1 in the City and County of Denver (DPS) seeks review of the trial court's denial of its motion to dismiss Plaintiff-Respondent Rebecca Reeves-Toney's constitutional challenge to the "mutual consent" provisions of section 22-63-202(2)(c.5) of the Teacher Employment, Compensation, and Dismissal Act of 1990 (TECDA), §§ 22-63-101 to - 403, C.R.S. (2018). Reeves-Toney alleges that these provisions violate the local control clause of article IX, section 15 of the Colorado Constitution by delegating local school boards' hiring decisions to principals and other administrators.

¶2 DPS moved to dismiss Reeves-Toney's complaint, arguing, among other things, that she lacks standing to bring her claim. The trial court agreed that Reeves-Toney lacks individual standing, but nevertheless concluded that she sufficiently alleged taxpayer standing to challenge section 22-63-202(2)(c.5) and plausibly alleged that the statute is facially unconstitutional. The court thus denied the motion to dismiss.

¶3 DPS sought C.A.R. 21 relief. We issued a rule to show cause and now make the rule absolute. We hold that because Reeves-Toney has not alleged an injury based on an unlawful expenditure of taxpayer money, she has failed to demonstrate a clear nexus between her status as a taxpayer and the challenged government action. Reeves-Toney therefore lacks taxpayer standing to bring her constitutional challenge to section 22-63-202(2)(c.5). Accordingly, we make the rule to show cause absolute and remand the case to the trial court with directions to dismiss Reeves-Toney's complaint.

I. Background

¶4 In 2010, the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 10-191 (SB 191), which significantly amended TECDA provisions concerning teacher contracts and the transfer process.¹ SB 191 eliminated the earlier practice of transferring teachers to schools without the consent of the principal of the recipient school. See § 22-63-206(5), C.R.S. (2018) ("All transfers to positions at other schools of the school district shall require the consent of the receiving school."). The bill also added paragraph (c.5) to section 22-63-202(2), which provides, as relevant here, that "each employment contract ... shall contain a provision stating that a teacher may be assigned to a particular school only with the consent of the hiring principal and with input from at least two teachers employed at the school." § 22-63-202(2)(c.5)(I), C.R.S. (2018). Such an assignment is called a "mutual consent assignment." § 22-63-202(2)(c.5)(IV).

¶5 Under SB 191, nonprobationary teachers² who were deemed effective during the prior school year and who have not secured a mutual consent placement become members of a "priority hiring pool" for available positions. § 22-63-202 (2)(c.5)(III)(A). However, nonprobationary teachers who are unable to secure such a position after the longer of twelve months or two hiring cycles are placed on unpaid leave until they are able to secure an assignment. § 22-63-202(2)(c.5)(IV).

¶6 This is the third time this court has considered a challenge to the constitutionality of SB 191. Last year, we took up two challenges to the law's unpaid leave provisions. In Johnson v. School District No. 1 in the County of Denver , we addressed certified questions of law from the Tenth Circuit in a case in which a teacher argued that her placement on unpaid leave under section 22-63-202(2)(c.5) breached her contract and violated her due process rights. 2018 CO 17, ¶ 1, 413 P.3d 711, 712. We held that nonprobationary teachers who are placed on unpaid leave have no vested property interest in salary and benefits. Id. at ¶ 2, 413 P.3d at 713. We concluded, therefore, that a nonprobationary teacher placed on unpaid leave under section 22-63-202(2)(c.5)(IV) is not deprived of a property interest. Id.

¶7 In School District No. 1 in the City & County of Denver v. Masters , several teachers, together with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA), alleged that DPS had invoked SB 191 to place hundreds of teachers on unpaid leave in violation of their rights to due process of law and the contracts clause of the Colorado Constitution. 2018 CO 18, ¶ 1, 413 P.3d 723, 725. Citing our decision in Johnson , announced the same day, we held that TECDA did not create a contractual relationship or vest nonprobationary teachers placed on unpaid leave with a property interest in salary and benefits. Id. at ¶ 2, 413 P.3d at 725–26.

¶8 Approximately two weeks after we issued our decisions in Johnson and Masters , Reeves-Toney filed the complaint in this case, raising the present challenge to SB 191's mutual consent provisions based on article IX, section 15 of the Colorado Constitution.

II. Facts and Procedural History

¶9 Plaintiff Rebecca Reeves-Toney is a nonprobationary elementary school teacher employed by DPS. On February 9, 2015, she took workers' compensation leave from her position after sustaining repeated injuries to her elbow while on the job.

¶10 Fourteen months later, on April 28, 2016, DPS sent Reeves-Toney a letter notifying her that it would no longer hold her position open. According to the letter, the collective bargaining agreement between DPS and the DCTA provided that when a teacher is on leave for a serious medical condition, the teacher's position with DPS will not be held open for more than one year.

¶11 In August 2017, the same month Reeves-Toney's temporary disability payments ended, DPS placed her in a limited term assignment for the 2017-18 school year. DPS also informed Reeves-Toney that if she did not secure a mutual consent position by August 31, 2018, she would be placed on unpaid leave.

¶12 On March 26, 2018, having been unable to secure a mutual consent position despite diligent efforts, Reeves-Toney filed the instant complaint seeking to enjoin DPS from placing her on unpaid leave.³ Reeves-Toney challenges the constitutionality of section 22-63-202(2)(c.5), asserting that the statute violates local school boards' right to "control of instruction" under article IX, section 15 of the Colorado Constitution by delegating to principals and other administrators the power to decide whether to afford a displaced teacher the opportunity to continue to teach for, and get paid by, DPS.

¶13 DPS sought to dismiss Reeves-Toney's complaint under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5), arguing that she lacks standing to challenge the statute and failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The trial court denied the motion. It agreed with DPS that Reeves-Toney lacks individual standing to pursue her complaint, reasoning that under this court's decision in Johnson , nonprobationary teachers who are placed on unpaid leave have no vested property interest in salary and benefits. ¶ 1, 413 P.3d at 713. Thus, the trial court concluded, Reeves-Toney could not establish a legally protected interest in continued employment.

¶14 Nevertheless, the trial court concluded that Reeves-Toney had sufficiently alleged taxpayer standing to challenge the mutual consent provisions in section 22-63-202(2)(c.5). The trial court observed that Colorado historically provided for broad taxpayer standing. "So slight was the standing burden," the trial court noted, that "the inquiry had been said to ‘collapse’ the two-part standing inquiry into a single-question issue of whether the plaintiff-taxpayer has averred a violation of a specific constitutional provision." But the trial court acknowledged that more recently, in Hickenlooper v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. , we articulated a limit on that broad conceptualization of taxpayer standing, holding that "to satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement, ... the plaintiff must demonstrate a clear nexus between his status as a taxpayer and the challenged government action." 2014 CO 77, ¶ 12, 338 P.3d 1002, 1008. In Hickenlooper , the trial court noted, we concluded the plaintiffs lacked taxpayer standing because they failed to "assert any injury based on an unlawful expenditure of their taxpayer money," or to "allege that their tax dollars [we]re being used in an unconstitutional manner." Id. at ¶ 14, 338 P.3d at 1008.

¶15 Turning to the complaint in this case, the trial court acknowledged that Reeves-Toney had alleged neither an "expenditure nor transfer of taxpayer funds ... as related to [her] particular circumstances." Nevertheless, the trial court was persuaded by Reeves-Toney's argument that she had established a clear nexus between her status as a taxpayer and the allegedly unconstitutional hiring procedure because she "is a taxpayer⁴ and her tax dollars finance teachers' salaries which are distributed pursuant to employment contracts which are entered into pursuant to the allegedly unconstitutional procedure." The trial court further found that Reeves-Toney had plausibly alleged that the mutual consent provisions of section 22-63-202(2)(c.5) impermissibly usurp the local board's decision-making authority in violation of the local control provision in article IX, section 15 of the Colorado Constitution. The trial court therefore denied DPS's motion to dismiss, concluding that Reeves-Toney had sufficiently alleged that the mutual consent provisions are facially...