Allen v. State Board of Education

55 F.R.D. 350, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14368
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. North Carolina
DecidedApril 3, 1972
DocketNo. C-79-WS-68
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 55 F.R.D. 350 (Allen v. State Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. State Board of Education, 55 F.R.D. 350, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14368 (M.D.N.C. 1972).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

GORDON, Chief Judge.

The original complaint in this action was filed on June 10, 1968. The complaint was amended and the amendment as allowed was filed on March 26, 1970. The defendant Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education moved for partial summary judgment on March 18, 1971, to dismiss the action with regard to any claim which might affect the validity of the twenty-four million eight hundred thousand dollar bond issue authorized on March 16, 1968. The motion of March 18, 1971, was granted on May 6, 1971, and after appeal was affirmed on September 13, 1971, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Allen v. State Board of Education, 447 F.2d 960 (4th Cir. 1971). A petition for the writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States was filed, and has been denied. 405 U.S. 920, 92 S.Ct. 948, 30 L.Ed.2d 790 (1971).

On April 22, 1970, the defendants City of Winston-Salem and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education moved for summary judgment and to dismiss the action. On July 10, 1970, the defendant Board of County Commissioners of Forsyth County moved for summary judgment and to dismiss the action.

I.

The plaintiffs herein, Harvey H. Allen and Simona Atkins Allen, were substituted as plaintiffs by order en[352]*352tered on March 26, 1970, upon their motion filed on January 21, 1970. That motion, which had been foreseen by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Atkins v. State Board of Education, 418 F.2d 874 (4th Cir. 1969), prayed that the Allens be substituted as plaintiffs upon behalf of themselves and their children who attend the public schools of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, and upon behalf of all other Negro parents in North Carolina, as a class, and through them, upon behalf of all Negro children in North Carolina who are the children of said parents. However, in their complaint the substitute plaintiffs allege themselves to be not only parents of Negro children, but also to be taxpayers. Insofar as the Allens allege themselves to be taxpayers, and allege themselves to be the representatives' of a class of taxpayers, they have no standing to bring this action. Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968); Doremus v. Board of Education, 342 U.S. 429, 72 S.Ct. 394, 96 L. Ed. 475 (1952); Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 88 S.Ct. 597, 69 L.Ed. 1078 (1923). Further, insofar as the plaintiffs complain on their own behalf and not upon behalf of their children, as the natural guardians thereof, they must also be held to lack standing. McCabe v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 235 U.S. 151, 35 S.Ct. 69, 59 L.Ed. 169 (1914); Cf. Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U.S. 31, 33, 82 S.Ct. 549, 7 L.Ed.2d 512, 514 (1962). See also Judge Stanley’s Memorandum Opinion entered earlier in this litigation, Atkins v. State Board of Education of North Carolina, M.D.N.C. December 31, 1968, C-49-WS-68. As to the unquestioned standing of the Allens to bring this action as natural guardians for their own children, their appointment as guardians ad litem would be a needless formality.

Before considering the main point of this action, one quite novel part of the relief prayed ought to be considered separately. In Sections 1(c) and 2(d) of their prayer for relief, in the amended complaint, the plaintiffs pray that the Court declare the use of public funds to defend “segregated schools, dual school systems, school systems with uncorrected effects of segregations and separate educational facilities . . .” in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and either to require the defendants to deposit with the Clerk of this Court an amount equal to that amount paid in fees and legal expenses in this controversy or to enjoin the defendants from any further payment from public funds for legal expenses or attorney’s fees. The plaintiffs do not appear to have discovered any authority for this proposition, nor can this proposition be inferred from any authority known to this Court. To require the sovereign to prepay the legal expenses of its opponent in civil actions, would be to allow costs to a potential losing party in a situation in which costs are not normally allowed even to the prevailing party. 6 Moore’s Federal Practice PP 54.-77(2) (4th ed. 1971). See Oelrichs v. Spain, 82 U.S. 211, 15 Wall. 211, 21 L.Ed. 43 (1872); Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States, 108 F.2d 784 (4th Cir. 1940); Brewer, et al. v. Norfolk School Board, et al., 456 F.2d 943 (4th Cir. 1972). This claim for relief must be disallowed and dismissed as to all defendants.

II.

It would appear that both the original and the substitute plaintiffs in this action sought the desegregation of the public schools, under the administration and control of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, through the means of the purposeful selection of sites for new school construction and for additions and repairs of the existing schools, to the end of promoting the racial integration of all public schools. To this end, the plaintiffs herein sought also to enjoin the [353]*353disbursement to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education of any State or Federal funds for the continued maintenance of an allegedly dual school system. Further, the plaintiffs sought as an additional relief the improvement in the neighborhoods of the several identifiable Negro schools.

This ease is similar to another action filed subsequent to the original complaint herein by Catherine Scott, which sought the same result though praying for different relief, and which is reported as Scott v. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, 317 F.Supp. 453 (M.D.N.C.1970); vacated, sub nom. Adams, et al. v. School District Number 5, Orangeburg County, South Carolina, et al., 444 F.2d 99 (4th Cir. 1971); cert. den. sub nom. Scott v. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, 404 U.S. 912, 92 S.Ct. 230, 30 L.Ed.2d 186 (1971). Several of the defendants therein are defendants here. Both Scott and Allen were filed as class actions under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the class consisting of Negro children deprived of the equal protection of the laws. Moreover, this portion of the class herein alleged alone has standing in this action.

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55 F.R.D. 350, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-state-board-of-education-ncmd-1972.