School Dist. of Kansas City v. State of Mo.

• Decision Date: 06 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77-0420-CV-W-1-3.,77-0420-CV-W-1-3.
• Citation: 460 F. Supp. 421
• Parties: SCHOOL DISTRICT OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, et al. v. The STATE OF MISSOURI et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri

460 F. Supp. 421

SCHOOL DISTRICT OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, et al. v. The STATE OF MISSOURI et al.

No. 77-0420-CV-W-1-3.

United States District Court, W. D. Missouri, W. D.

October 6, 1978.

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James R. Borthwick, Shirley Ward Keeler, Blackwell, Sanders, Matheny, Weary & Lombardi, Kansas City, Mo., Robert E. Manley, Cincinnati, Ohio, Taylor Fields, North, Colbert & Fields, Kansas City, Mo., for plaintiffs.

Lawrence R. Brown, George E. Feldmiller, Stinson, Mag, Thomson, McEvers & Fizzell, Kansas City, Mo., for defendant Missouri School Districts.

John L. Vratil, Prairie Village, Kan., Fisher, Ralston, Ochs & Heck, Eugene B. Ralston, Topeka, Kan., for defendant Kansas School Districts.

Curt T. Schneider, Atty. Gen., John R. Martin, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Topeka, Kan., for the State of Kansas and the Governor, Robert F. Bennett.

Barbara Allen Babcock, Barbara B. O'Malley, Brook Hedge, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Ronald S. Reed, Jr., U. S. Atty., Kansas City, Mo., for federal defendants.

John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Sheila K. Hyatt, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Mo., for Missouri State defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

RUSSELL G. CLARK, District Judge.

This school desegregation action¹ is truly a case of first impression. In essence, plaintiffs seek a metropolitan wide desegregation plan in the greater Kansas City area which encompasses two states and seven counties. This metropolitan wide remedy would be the result of a declaration by this Court at the conclusion of the evidence that the numerous defendants have failed to individually carry out their affirmative duties to eradicate segregation in the metro area and have actively contributed to segregation by individual or concerted actions.

Pending before this Court are the numerous and extensively briefed motions to dismiss filed by the defendants.² For the reasons stated herein, the motions of all the defendants for dismissal of the action for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted are denied, the motions of the Kansas defendants for dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction are granted, and the defendants' motions to dismiss the Kansas City Missouri School District for lack of standing are granted. The Missouri defendants' motions for joinder of persons needed for a just adjudication are denied as are their motions for a more definite statement. Finally, the federal defendants' motion for a more definite statement is denied.

THE COMPLAINT

The plaintiffs are comprised of the Kansas City Missouri School District (KCMSD), by and through its officers — the Board of Education and Superintendent. Joined as co-plaintiffs are the three minor children of one School Board member, and one minor child of another School Board member, represented by their parent-board members as next friends.

Although the individual defendants are in excess of 35 in number, they can be classified into three distinct classes and will be referred to accordingly: the "Kansas defendants" comprising the State of Kansas, the Kansas State Board of Education, and certain Kansas school districts within the metropolitan area and the executive officers of each respective defendant; the "Missouri defendants" comprising the State of Missouri, the Missouri State Board of Education, and certain Missouri school districts within the metropolitan area and the executive officers of each respective defendant; and the "federal defendants" comprising the United States Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), and of Transportation (DOT), and the respective executive officers of each department.

The complaint is in eight counts against the respective defendants, each count incorporating by reference the general allegations which precede the individual counts. The general allegations describe the metropolitan region, the constitutional violation and resulting injury, and a description of the remedy sought.

Basically, it is alleged that metropolitan Kansas City covers a geographic area reaching into two states and seven counties, containing over 50 municipalities and separate school districts. Despite this overlap of governmental jurisdictions and political units, it is alleged that the metro area is essentially a single urban community in the daily course of commerce, employment, athletics, recreation, cultural activities, utilities, transportation, media and social services. The planning and development of highways, housing, medical care, sewer and water projects, etc. are all coordinated and conducted on a large metropolitan basis.

Although it is alleged that the metro area is in reality a single community with economic and social problems which are "shared by the entire community", it is alleged that the states of Missouri and Kansas have intentionally "caused public education to be provided on a piecemeal basis by separate governmental units with arbitrarily determined boundaries." Both states have provided public education in a "manner which has caused and increased racial segregation between defendant school districts and plaintiff district."

The complaint also makes the following allegations: that prior to 1954 both Missouri and Kansas either mandated or encouraged segregation in housing, employment, recreation, transportation, and public education. School districts "were the states' tools for making segregation a reality" in the field of education. The purpose and effect of the unlawful maintenance of these segregative policies and practices was to concentrate minority race persons within the plaintiff school district, KCMSD. After 1954, the various defendants took certain steps toward desegregation in education and in other areas but the "state defendants have failed to remedy the primary effect of state-imposed racial segregation in the Kansas City metro community, i. e. the concentration of minority race persons within the boundaries of plaintiff school district."

The "foreseeable and intentional result of the actions and refusals to act of all defendants has been the maintenance of racially isolated and identifiable school districts and thus a racially segregated school system in the Kansas city Metro Area." Despite the efforts of the KCMSD, there exists a state system of racially segregated school districts in the metro area, racially identifiable when compared to the KCMSD. The intentional acts of the defendants have labeled the KCMSD with a "badge of inferiority" which deprives the students of equal protection of the laws "despite the fact that plaintiff school district is operating a unitary system within its state established and maintained boundaries." Furthermore, these discriminatory actions have resulted in "white flight" — the movement of middle class families away from the KCMSD, impacting it with a "progressively higher percentage enrollment of economically and socially disadvantaged minority race students." Therefore, it is alleged, this process results in increased operating expenses for the KCMSD on a per pupil basis as "disadvantaged children are in greater need of individual attention, compensatory education, counseling and other educational services." Furthermore, the tax base and taxing potential of the KCMSD is diminished to the "detriment of all plaintiffs herein." Because the KCMSD is powerless to overcome these effects of the defendants' segregative policies, only area-wide desegregation can undo the effects of area-wide segregative actions. "Without a metropolitan solution to a metropolitan problem, equal protection of the laws cannot be afforded the students of the plaintiff district." Therefore, plaintiffs seek a judicially mandated reassignment of students among all districts which are parties to the suit.

After a year of extensive briefing on the various motions, with parties afforded an opportunity to present any and all legal suggestions, the issues were considered submitted to the Court on August 31, 1978, upon the last filing of a response by the KCMSD. Initially each individual defendant filed an individual response, either by way of motion or answer, to the plaintiffs' complaint. Several of the school district defendants attached affidavits to their motions attesting to the fact that no discrimination had taken place within that district, by those officers, etc. As the litigation progressed, the defendants organized themselves into groups with similar interests and thereafter filed joint briefs and motions. The affidavits have not been considered by the Court and only the legal issues raised by motion are decided herein. Although the Court urged the parties to submit a joint stipulation of uncontested facts to assist the Court in its rulings, the parties preferred to submit the issues to the Court on the basis of the allegations in the complaint. Therefore, the factual data and factual allegations interspersed by the parties in their briefs, suggestions, and replies are not considered in ruling these motions.

I. FAILURE TO STATE A CLAIM UPON WHICH RELIEF CAN BE GRANTED

Defendants have moved for dismissal pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ. Pro., on the grounds that plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Under this rule, dismissal for insufficiency of the complaint is proper only in the extraordinary case where the pleader makes allegations that show on the face of the complaint some insuperable bar to relief. TV Signal Company of Aberdeen v. American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 462 F.2d 1256, 1258 (8th Cir. 1972), citing to Lewis v. Chrysler Motors Corporation, 456 F.2d 605, 607 (8th Cir. 1972). The legal test to be applied is not whether all of the relief asked for by the plaintiffs could possibly be granted, but whether, under any state of facts which might be established at a trial in support of the...