Slater v. ANN ARBOR PUB. SCHOOLS BD. OF EDUC.
| Decision Date | 26 June 2002 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 225731. |
| Citation | 250 Mich. App. 419,648 N.W.2d 205 |
| Parties | Daphne M. SLATER, Christopher Curtis, and Kurt Maier, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ANN ARBOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD OF EDUCATION and Ann Arbor Public Schools, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Amberg, McNenly, Firestone and Lee, P.C. (by Steven J. Amberg), Southfield, for the plaintiffs.
Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. (by Charles A. Duerr and Linda O. Goldberg), Ann Arbor, for the defendants.
Before: FITZGERALD, P.J., and HOEKSTRA and MARKEY, JJ.
Plaintiffs appeal by leave granted the trial court's order denying plaintiffs' and defendants' motions for summary disposition. Plaintiffs' action seeks a declaration that the intergovernmental transfers of functions and responsibilities act (ITFRA), M.C.L. § 124.531 et seq., required defendants in determining tenure eligibility to recognize and credit plaintiffs' service as teachers with an adult education consortium of which defendants were members, but not the fiscal agent. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.
The parties have submitted stipulated facts. Plaintiffs' complaint alleged, and defendants admitted, that before the 1998-99 school year, defendants belonged to a decentralized adult education consortium with other school districts for which Willow Run Community Schools served as fiscal agent. Defendants denied plaintiffs' allegations that defendants had administrative responsibility or authority to hire or discipline consortium employees. The parties, however, stipulated that defendants, as a "home district," had some administrative responsibilities for the adult education program operated within defendants' jurisdiction, including interviewing and recommending employees, determining seniority of consortium employees, developing the program, evaluating the staff, and participating in the grievance process. At the end of the 1997-98 school year, defendants discontinued their association with the consortium but began to independently operate an adult education program within the district commencing with the 1998-99 school year.
Before defendants hired them as teachers for the 1998-99 school year, each plaintiff had varying years of service as teachers employed by the consortium working within defendants' district. Defendants admitted that they hired plaintiffs as teachers for the 1998-99 school year and claimed a lack of sufficient knowledge to either admit or deny plaintiffs' previous service as teachers, which served as a denial, MCR 2.111(C)(3). Defendants, however, acknowledged in the parties' stipulation of facts that plaintiffs served as teachers who were employed by the consortium and worked within defendants' "home district."
Plaintiffs requested that defendants credit plaintiffs' service with the consortium toward the period of service with defendants required to achieve tenure under the teachers' tenure act (TTA), M.C.L. § 38.71 et seq. Plaintiffs alleged that the ITFRA, specifically M.C.L. § 124.534(d)(ii), required defendants to recognize plaintiffs' service with the consortium toward completion of the probationary period necessary to achieve tenure with defendants. Defendants refused, asserting that plaintiffs were required to serve a new four-year probationary period according to M.C.L. § 38.81.
After filing a lawsuit, plaintiffs moved for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(9) (). Defendants answered that the trial court should enter judgment in their favor pursuant to MCR 2.116(I)(2) ().1 The trial court found that neither the ITFRA nor the TTA "specifically dictate the result in this case." The trial court reasoned that an employee "benefit" under M.C.L. § 124.534(d)(ii) did not include tenure under the rule of statutory construction that the express mention of one thing generally implies the exclusion of other things. Further, the trial court reasoned that even if tenure were included in the benefits contemplated by the ITFRA, M.C.L. § 124.534(d)(ii) did not specifically provide for achieving tenure in a consortium as did M.C.L. § 38.91(3) of the TTA.
On the other hand, the trial court noted that the TTA did not cover the instant situation where "a probationary period is interrupted by a transfer to a different district." The trial court referred to the case of Sara Mayman v. Ann Arbor Bd. of Ed., opinion of the State Tenure Commission (Docket No. 98-44, November 8, 1999), for the proposition that the TTA does not dictate the length of probation when there are "simultaneous employing boards" as in the present case and reasoned that M.C.L. § 38.91(3) requires that a teacher's probationary service in a consortium be applied to only one district (the fiscal agent, absent a written agreement between the teacher and another district) only where the teacher satisfactorily completes probation. The trial court further applied a rule of "fairness" and found that extending plaintiffs' probationary period beyond four years from their date of hire (with the consortium) would contravene the TTA, specifically M.C.L. § 38.81 ().
The trial court, having in essence found in favor of each side in this case, denied summary disposition to both and required "the parties to employ the services of a facilitator to assist in resolution of this dispute...." The trial court further encouraged the parties, especially defendants, to seek advisory opinions from the State Tenure Commission or the Office of the Attorney General to help determine the length of plaintiffs' probationary period (to achieve tenure). Thereafter, this Court granted plaintiffs' application for leave to appeal.
Plaintiffs argue that school districts are included within the definition of "political subdivision" covered by the ITFRA, which requires that an employee acquired in the "transfer" of a governmental program is not to suffer adverse employment consequences regarding "workmen's compensation, pension, seniority, wages, sick leave, vacation, health and welfare insurance or any other benefits...." M.C.L. § 124.534(d)(ii). Plaintiffs claim that their satisfactory service as probationary teachers employed by a consortium, with Willow Run as fiscal agent and defendants as a member district, is a benefit that must transfer with them when defendants hired them to continue teaching in the adult education program. Plaintiffs assert that they will be denied the protection of the TTA and be required to serve a period of probation longer than required by the TTA (i.e., four years) because defendants refuse to credit plaintiffs' service with the consortium toward the period of probation required to achieve tenure. We conclude that the trial court properly denied plaintiffs' motion for summary disposition, albeit for the wrong reasons, because a "transfer" of governmental functions or responsibilities did not occur in this case. For the same reason, the trial court erred in not granting defendants' motion for judgment pursuant to MCR 2.116(I)(2).
This Court reviews de novo the trial court's grant or denial of a motion for summary disposition. Schulz v. Northville Public Schools, 247 Mich.App. 178, 182, 635 N.W.2d 508 (2001). When deciding a motion under MCR 2.116(C)(9), which tests the sufficiency of a defendant's pleadings, the trial court must accept as true all well-pleaded allegations and properly grants summary disposition where a defendant fails to plead a valid defense to a claim. Village of Dimondale v. Grable, 240 Mich.App. 553, 564, 618 N.W.2d 23 (2000). The parties'"stipulation of facts" is not a "pleading." Pleadings include only complaints, cross-claims, counterclaims, third-party complaints, answers to any of these, and replies to answers. Id. at 565, 618 N.W.2d 23; MCR 2.110(A). Summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(9) is proper when the defendant's pleadings are so clearly untenable that as a matter of law no factual development could possibly deny the plaintiff's right to recovery. Alcona Co. v. Wolverine Environmental Production, Inc., 233 Mich.App. 238, 245-246, 590 N.W.2d 586 (1998). Statutory interpretation is a question of law also reviewed de novo on appeal. Id. at 246, 590 N.W.2d 586.
Subsection 4(d) of the ITFRA, M.C.L. § 124.534(d), requires that a contract to transfer a function or responsibility shall include:
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