Webb v. State University of New York

• Decision Date: 27 April 1954
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 5063.
• Citation: 120 F. Supp. 554
• Parties: WEBB et al. v. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

120 F. Supp. 554

WEBB et al. v. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK et al.

Civ. A. No. 5063.

United States District Court, N. D. New York.

April 27, 1954.

Clifford H. Searl, Syracuse, N. Y., for Earl Webb, as President etc., Delta Kappa, Inc., Alumni Ass'n of Iota of Alpha Kappa Kappa, Inc.

Hancock, Dorr, Ryan & Shove, Syracuse, N. Y., for intervening plaintiff Delta Kappa, Inc.

Kernan & Kernan, Utica, N. Y., for intervening plaintiff, Phi Sigma Epsilon.

Butterfield, Gibbs, Harrington & Bern hardt, Buffalo, N. Y. (Robert P. Harrington, Buffalo, N. Y., and Julian B. Erway, Albany, N. Y., of counsel), for intervening plaintiffs Pi Kappa Sigma, Delta Sigma Epsilon Sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority, Theta Sigma Upsilon Sorority, Roger Mueller.

Nathaniel L. Goldstein, Atty. Gen. of State of New York, Wendell P. Brown, Sol. Gen., Albany, John C. Crary, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Irving I. Waxman, Counsel, State University, New York City, Ruth V. Iles, Associate Counsel, Syracuse, of counsel, for defendants.

FOLEY, District Judge.

The amended complaint herein is filed in behalf of "Earl Webb, as President of Sigma Tau Gamma, a voluntary unincorporated association, and all others similarly situated." This pleading describes the plaintiff as a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of Missouri and the duly elected and acting President of Sigma Tau Gamma, a social fraternity of male students, having chapters at forty-five colleges and universities throughout the United States. The defendant, State University of New York, is described as a corporation created by and existing under the laws of the State of New York, and empowered by the legislature of the State of New York through its governing board of trustees, the individual defendants named, to generally manage and regulate certain institutions of college level within the State of New York, Article 8 of the Education Law of New York, as added by Chapter 698 of the Laws of New York, 1948, as amended.

It is alleged that by enactment of such pertinent law, the State University of New York, and the trustees, were made responsible for the planning, supervision and management of higher educational facilities, supported in whole or in part by state moneys. Under the original law and amendments thereto, the defendants were granted the management of some twenty-nine colleges, together with such colleges as might thereafter come under their jurisdiction. The powers delegated to effectuate the legislative purposes were broad and comprehensive. In several of these institutions which by law came within the province and jurisdiction of this State University, the plaintiff had previously, and apparently to the present time, chapters of its national fraternal association.

The main charge of the complaint goes to a resolution of the Board of Trustees, adopted October 8, 1953, allegedly upon the presentation of such resolution by its President, William S. Carlson. The resolution duly adopted states:

"Resolved that no social organization shall be permitted in any state — operated unit of the State University which has any direct or indirect affiliation or connection with any national or other organization outside the particular unit; and be it further

"Resolved that no such social organization, in policy or practice, shall operate under any rule which bars students on account of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or other artificial criteria; and be it further

"Resolved that the President be, and hereby is, authorized to take such steps as he may deem appropriate to implement this policy, including the determination of which student organizations are social as distinguished from scholastic or religious, and his decision shall be final."

Inasmuch as the plaintiff alleges that it does not discriminate to any extent in the selection of its members, the gravamen of the complaint is directed against the first paragraph of the aforesaid resolution, with slight attack on the last paragraph as granting to the President unreasonable dictatorial, discriminatory and unjust power.

The complaint is most voluminous, and would not be considered, in my judgment, a model pleading for conciseness. By important amendment, consented to by the defendants, an allegation was added based upon the jurisdictional provisions of Section 1343, Title 28 U.S.C.A., as related to the claimed violations of the civil rights provisions of Section 1983, Title 42 U.S.C.A. Declarative and injunctive relief prayed for in the complaint is based generally upon constitutional grounds in that the provisions of the resolution and their intended purpose and effect are violative of the constitutional rights of the plaintiff as embodied in the First Amendment, particularly in reference to freedom of assembly; the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, with particular reference to the due process clause in that there was failure to grant a hearing and the content and method of passage thereof is discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious; the provision of Article I, Section 10, in that existing contract rights are breached. By another important amendment to the original complaint, an interlocutory and permanent injunction, after a hearing by a three-judge court, is now requested to annul the aforesaid resolution of October 8, 1953.

A motion to dismiss the original complaint had been filed in behalf of the defendants based upon stated grounds to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction in the court, and for failure to assert a claim upon which relief could be granted. The amended complaint is now subject to such motion. Procedural confusion was caused by the uncertainty of the plaintiff as to the need for a three-judge court to decide the merits of the controversy. However, that uncertainty vanished when the mandatory provision of Section 2281, Title 28 U.S.C.A. in relation to injunctive relief against state officers was realized, and the plaintiff thereafter filed a formal application with me for the convening of a three-judge court, the procedure for such call being provided for in Section 2284, Title 28 U.S.C.A. It is now agreed by both sides that the merits, if reached, must be decided by a three-judge statutory court.

As the dust was settling, on the scene came eight (as I count them, the State refers to six in its reply brief) new interveners, and such parties were allowed to intervene and file pleadings with the express consent of the defendants. One, Pi Kappa Sigma is an unincorporated association like the original plaintiff. Four, Phi Sigma Epsilon, Delta Sigma Epsilon, Alpha Sigma Tau and Theta Sigma Upsilon are foreign corporations. Interveners Alumni Association of Iota of Alpha Kappa Kappa, Inc. and Delta Kappa, Inc. are New York corporations. Roger Mueller is a student at Buffalo Teachers College and a member of Sigma Tau Gamma, previously described. All these intervening plaintiffs, by their pleadings in intervention, attach themselves to the complaint of the original plaintiff with the statement that their rights are almost identical, that each will suffer irreparable injury from the effects of the resolution, and ask for the same relief prayed for in the amended complaint of the original plaintiff. It is evident that the intervention of certain of these parties, particularly the four foreign corporations with their diversity of citizenship and the individual asserting violation of his civil rights raise a conglomeration of jurisdictional problems, perplexing as to whether they may add new hinges in support of jurisdiction, Sections 1331, 1332(a) (2), 1343 (3), Title 28 U.S.C.A., and may be considered to aggregate the necessary jurisdictional amount.

To each of these intervening pleadings or complaints, the defendants filed separate motions to dismiss similar to the motion filed against the original complaint. The stated grounds for lack of jurisdiction of the subject matter, specifically challenge the presence of substantial questions in relation to deprivation of civil rights, the same presence of substance in relation to matters arising under the constitution, laws and treaties of the United States. It is specifically traversed that the matter in controversy exceeds the value of $3,000 exclusive of interest and costs, and the failure of diversity is urged as a ground for dismissal when it applies to the status of the particular party as an unincorporated association, New York corporation or individual citizen of...