Warren Ed. Ass'n v. Lapan

• Decision Date: 30 November 1967
• Docket Number: No. 194-A,194-A
• Citation: 235 A.2d 866,103 R.I. 163
• Parties: WARREN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION v. Richard L. LAPAN et al., Warren School Committee. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 866

235 A.2d 866

103 R.I. 163

WARREN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION v. Richard L. LAPAN et al., Warren School Committee.

No. 194-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Nov. 30, 1967.

Bernard F. McSally, Providence, for plaintiff

Edwards & Angell, James K. Edwards, Providence, for defendants.

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

This civil action in the nature of mandamus was instituted against the defendants in their capacities as members of the school committee of the town of Warren to require the committee to execute a collective bargaining agreement which would embrace salaries, working conditions and other incidents of employment for the 1967-1968 school year. The plaintiff is the duly-recognized collective bargaining agent for the certified public school teachers who are employed by the town. The case is before us on the plaintiff's appeal from an order of the superior court which granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the instant complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted under 12(b)(6) of the new rules of civil procedure of the superior court. We shall sometimes hereafter refer to the plaintiff as the association and to the defendants as the committee.

The instant complaint is based upon the following undisputed facts. On or about December 22, 1966, the association gave written notice requesting a meeting for the purpose of negotiating a contract for the school year which would begin in September 1967. Pursuant to this request several meetings were held in January and February 1967 between the committee and representatives of the association. An agreement was reached on the contents of a contract for the next school year. The committee advised the association that it wished to defer the formal execution of any agreement until after the annual financial town meeting had been held in the month of May. In the meantime, the association on March 14, 1967, gave its unanimous approval of the agreement which had been reached between its agents and the committee. Subsequent to the financial town meeting, the association made a written request to the committee that it meet with its representatives and formally execute the agreement reached earlier. On May 29, 1967, the acting chairman of the committee notified the association of the committee's refusal to execute the contract. The association thereupon instituted this litigation for mandamus to compel the committee to execute in writing the terms upon which they had orally agreed.

The association bases its complaint upon the provisions of G.L.1956, § 28-9.3-4, which is part of the school teachers arbitration act. This section reads as follows:

'28-9.3-4. Obligation to bargain.-It shall be the obligation of the school committee to meet and confer in good faith with the representative or representatives of the negotiating or bargaining agent within ten (10) days after receipt of written notice from said agent of the request for a meeting for negotiating or collective bargaining purposes. This obligation shall include the duty to cause any agreement resulting from negotiations or bargaining to be reduced to a written contract, provided that no such contract shall exceed the term of three (3) years. Failure to negotiate or bargain in good faith may be complained of by either the negotiating or bargaining agent or the school committee to the state labor relations board which shall deal with such complaint in the manner provided in chapter 7 of this title.'

The association acknowledges that although an action for a writ of mandamus is now controlled procedurally in the superior court by its rules of civil procedure, the legal sufficiency of a complaint in such an action is still to be tested by the same principles which have heretofore governed the issuance of this prerogative writ. Demers v. Shehab, R.I., 224 A.2d 380. Accordingly, a plaintiff in such an action must show that he has a clear right to have done the act he seeks and that the defendant has a clear, legal and ministerial duty to perform without any discretion to refuse. Castle Realty Co. v. Soloveitzik, R.I., 224 A.2d 44. It also must be demonstrated that the law has provided no other adequate remedy. In those situations where it can be shown that there is an adequate administrative remedy available to a plaintiff, it is settled law that he must exhaust such a remedy before judicial relief can be invoked by way of mandamus. Conley v. McCarthy, 84 R.I. 141, 121 A.2d 875.

Before examining the issue of whether mandamus will lie in this particular action, we feel a comment should be directed to the procedural aspects of the hearing held on the committee's motion.

Under rule 12(b) of the Superior court's rules of civil procedure, parties on either side of a law suit may submit to the court for its consideration matters outside the pleadings in support of or in opposition to a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim meriting relief. The provisions of rule 12(b) expressly authorize the trial justice either to include or exclude such extra pleading matters in his deliberation on a motion to dismiss; however, if the trial justice freely elects to consider the supplemental information, rule 12(b) provides that a motion is converted into one for summary judgment and should be disposed of according to the pertinent provisions of rule 56. Ewing v. Frank, R.I., 234 A.2d 840.

When a motion is converted under rule 12(b) into one for summary judgment, there is a significant and noteworthy change in the issue presented to the court. No longer is the inquiry of the court focused on a determination of the sufficiency of the complaint to set forth a valid claim for relief, as would be the situation under rule 12(b), but instead a decision must be made, after a review of the entire record, on whether there exists a factual issue contested by the parties, and, in the absence of which, whether as a matter of law one party is entitled to a judgment.

On a hearing on a motion under either rule 12(b) or rule 56, it is not the office of the trial justice to determine any issues of fact. In such cases, all favorable inferences which can be drawn from matters properly before the court accrue to the benefit of the party against whom the motion is made. Thus the pleadings under rule 12(b) and the entire record under rule 56 are scrutinized closely by the court in determining whether the movant has met his burden successfully; and correspondingly all pleadings and evidentiary documents filed by the non-moving party are viewed indulgently by the court. 6 Moore, Federal Practice (2d ed.), 56.15, p. 2281. The record in the instant appeal discloses that the above procedure was not adhered to by the trial justice.

At the hearing of defendants' 12(b) motion, the transcript indicates that the trial justice was shown a letter and that its contents apparently influenced him in dismissing plaintiff's complaint. ¹ In taking this action the trial justice stated that in his opinion mandamus would not lie under the facts of this case. Although extrinsic matter was accepted by the court at the hearing, the trial justice purported to dismiss the claim under 12(b)(6). ² Such action is procedural error. Gager v. 'Bob Seidel,' 121 U.S.App.D.C. 135, 300 F.2d 727.

It is elementary that if a trial justice wishes to limit the scope of the hearing on a motion to dismiss under 12(b)(6), he has no right to consider facts except those recited in the pleadings; and he has no right to admit evidence not incorporated in the formal pleadings. In short, he must confine his examination to the well-pleaded facts in applying the substantive law to the allegations pleaded to determine if the complaint properly describes the set of circumstances upon which a court could justifiably grant relief. Resort to anything beyond the pleadings is without sanction or authority and is error. Grand Opera Co. v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 7 Cir., 235 F.2d 303.

Even if we were to treat defendants' motion as properly transformable into one for summary judgment under rule 56, our action would have questionable validity since there is respectable authority to the effect that letters alone are not within the contemplated class of documents permissible to be filed under rule 56. Marks Music Corp. v. Stasny Music Corp., D.C., 1 F.R.D. 720; 3 Barron & Holtzoff, § 1237, p. 164. It also seems to be clear that written documents submitted to and not excluded by a court on motions under rule 56 must be attached to the record and exhibite din full. Taylor v. Royal Ins. Co., D.C., 34 F.R.D. 132; 3 Barron & Holtzoff, supra. This allows us the benefit of examining them in the event the ruling of the trial justice on the motion is appealed. In the state of the instant record we can only surmise the contents of the committee's letter.

The test of what a complaint must contain in order to withstand a motion to dismiss under 12(b)(6) has been clearly spelled out by this court in Bragg v. Warwick Shoppers World, Inc., R.I., 227 A.2d 582, and more recently in Buszta v. Souther, R.I., 232 A.2d 396. In both cases we said that in order to justify a dismissal of a complaint under this rule the trial justice, after according the plaintiff the benefit of every inference in viewing the allegations of his complaint in their most promissing light, should be satisfied that it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the plaintiff could not conceivably prove facts which would qualify him for judicial relief. While the superior court's dismissal of the association's complaint was wrong because the trial justice failed to comply with the proper standards set forth in the new rules of procedure when he considered the committee's motion, we believe that there are other grounds upon which we can and will affirm the ruling of the trial justice. Lancia v. Grossman's of I.R., Inc., R.I., 216 A.2d 517; Budwee v. New England Motors, 99 R.I. 663, 210 A.2d 131.

The...