Corpus Christi Independent School District v. Padilla

709 S.W.2d 700, 32 Educ. L. Rep. 842, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12508
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 27, 1986
Docket13-85-487-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 709 S.W.2d 700 (Corpus Christi Independent School District v. Padilla) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Corpus Christi Independent School District v. Padilla, 709 S.W.2d 700, 32 Educ. L. Rep. 842, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12508 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinions

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

This is a case involving competing motions for summary judgment. Suit was brought by appellees, two non-contractual employees of the Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD), alleging deprivations of their constitutional and statutory rights by the school district in refusing to allow them a hearing before the Board of Trustees (Board) in which they could complain of the superintendent’s denial of their employment grievances. The trial court granted the employees’ motion for summary judgment, issued injunctive relief, and denied CCISD’s motion. We reverse.

Jacinto Padilla and Nuvia Leyva Terrell were bus drivers for CCISD who initiated grievances pursuant to Board Policy 4237 regarding changes in their work assignments. Appellee Terrell was reassigned to the job of custodian. Appellee Padilla was reassigned to a different bus route which reduced his work hours.

Policy No. 4237 defines the district’s employee grievance procedure for full-time classified personnel. It distinguishes three categories of grievances. Type A grievances concern complaints about wages, hours or conditions of work and are informally handled by a “private conference with the party involved.” All grievances must go through this initial process. Type C grievances are written complaints about wages, hours and conditions of work and are determined by the district’s superintendent, whose decision is final. Type B grievances are written statements that there has been a violation, misinterpretation, or misapplication of Board policy, regulations, or state regulations. Type B grievances are the only ones that can be appealed to the Board. Padilla filed a Type B grievance, but the superintendent determined his complaint was actually a Type C grievance. Padilla then filed a Type C complaint, as did Terrell. The superintendent met with both employees and, after a hearing, denied both grievances. The employees sought an appeal to the Board, but were refused. It was undisputed that, at every regular meeting of the Board, time was allotted for an open forum at which anyone could address the Board about any matter. The appellees never approached the Board with their grievances during the open forum portion of the Board’s meeting.

We note at the outset that fourteenth amendment due process requirements are not an issue in this case. Procedural due process standards are required to be met only in those cases involving interests encompassed by the fourteenth amendment’s protection of liberty and property. Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 570, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). To determine whether a liberty or property interest is involved, we must look to the nature of the interest at stake, id. at 570-71, 92 S.Ct. at 2705-06; i.e., “the extent to which an individual will be ‘condemned to suffer grievous loss.’ ” Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2600, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972).

The appellees in this case have no liberty or property interest in bus routes, work schedules, or even in continued employment. See Roth, 408 U.S. at 576-77, 92 S.Ct. at 2708-09; Hillis v. Stephen F. Austin State University, 665 F.2d 547, 552 (5th Cir.1982). Therefore, they had no constitutional right to the fourteenth amend-[704]*704merit’s procedural safeguards. Hillis at 552.

By their suit, appellees alleged that Policy No. 4237 worked an illegal abridgement of their constitutional right, under Article I, § 27 of the Texas Constitution, to “file a grievance with the authority which has the power to remedy the alleged problem.” Article I, § 27 provides: “The citizens shall have the right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together for their common good; and apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances or other purposes, by petition, address or remonstrance.” The trial court’s judgment held Policy No. 4237 unconstitutional, pursuant to this provision, to the extent it denied the employees the right to appeal their grievance over wages, hours, or conditions of work to the Board. The court ordered the Board to permit an employee who desires to orally present an appeal from a denial by the superintendent through a representative of their union if it concerns wages, hours, or conditions of work. Appellants argue the court’s order, that appellants must grant employees an appeal to the Board on any grievance concerning wages, hours or conditions of work, is impractical and would severely undermine the functioning of the Board. Appellants contend that there is no constitutional requirement, state or federal, that would demand that the Board convene a hearing on every grievance that employees wish to bring to them.

Appellants complain in their first and third points of error that the trial court erred in granting appellees’ motion for summary judgment and denying theirs because Board Policy No. 4237 does not impair any rights encompassed by Article I, § 27, but, in fact, appellees were accorded all rights guaranteed by the Texas and United States Constitutions.

We have discovered only one case addressing the right to petition the government for redress: Professional Association of College Educators v. El Paso County Community [College] District, 678 S.W.2d 94 (Tex.App.—El Paso 1984, writ ref’d n.r.e.). In that case, an unincorporated association of college professors filed a written remonstrance, with the Board of Trustees of the college district, which addressed a proposed change in the official policies concerning the tenure of faculty members. The association complained that the college board did not consider, address, make response to, or make an effort to negotiate their complaints, and, thus, violated their rights under Article I, § 27. The Court in Professional Association held that there is “no requirement that those trusted with the powers of government must negotiate or even respond to complaints filed by those being governed. But, surely they must stop, look and listen. They must consider the petition, address or remonstrance.” 678 S.W.2d at 96. We consider this holding a sound one.

Article I, § 27 assures citizens of an important substantive political right. As noted in the Interpretive Commentary to TEX.CONST. Article I, § 27 (Vernon 1984), the right to petition the government for redress is a fundamental part of the republican form of government with its roots extending back to the Magna Charta. This constitutional guarantee would lose its potency if we were to find that the phrase “those invested with the power of government” meant anyone other than the highest elected official or body of the particular arm of government the citizen has sought to address. This is not to say that this provision does not assure a citizen the right to petition someone in the lower echelons of government (e.g., a superintendent of schools), but a citizen’s right to approach an elected official or body cannot be abridged.

As in Professional Association, we hold that Article I, § 27 only guarantees citizens access to the government’s ear.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Logan v. Dall. Cnty.
331 F. Supp. 3d 640 (N.D. Texas, 2017)
Johnson v. Waxahachie Independent School District
322 S.W.3d 396 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Yarbrough v. Texas a & M University-Kingsville
298 S.W.3d 366 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 2004
Parks v. DeWitt County Electric Cooperative, Inc.
962 S.W.2d 707 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1998)
Graham v. Texas Bd. of Pardons and Paroles
913 S.W.2d 745 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Office of Public Insurance Counsel v. Texas Automobile Insurance Plan
860 S.W.2d 231 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Opinion No.
Texas Attorney General Reports, 1989
Town of South Padre Island v. Jacobs
736 S.W.2d 134 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1987)
Corpus Christi Independent School District v. Padilla
709 S.W.2d 700 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
709 S.W.2d 700, 32 Educ. L. Rep. 842, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12508, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/corpus-christi-independent-school-district-v-padilla-texapp-1986.