Finley v. Lindbergh School District

522 S.W.2d 299, 89 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2646
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 8, 1975
DocketNo. 36312
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 522 S.W.2d 299 (Finley v. Lindbergh School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Finley v. Lindbergh School District, 522 S.W.2d 299, 89 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2646 (Mo. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

DOWD, Judge.

A class action. This is an appeal by the Lindbergh School District and members of the Board of Education (hereinafter District) from a decision of the circuit court upholding a negotiations agreement between the District and the Lindbergh Community Teachers Association (hereinafter Association). The case was tried before the circuit court upon an agreed statement of facts.

Plaintiffs are certified teachers employed by the District and are in good standing. The Association at the time the suit was filed comprised 450 of the 540 teachers employed by defendant school district. The avowed purpose of the Association is to promote the welfare of teachers in the district, and to secure the optimum educational advantages for the students.

On December 12, 1967, the Association and the District entered into the negotiations agreement which is the subject of this law suit. The agreement is set out in the appendix to the opinion. On August 14, 1973, the Board of Education of the Lindbergh School District advised the Association that the District was considering cancelling the agreement, and ultimately did so by resolution dated September 11, 1973.

On August 30, 1973, plaintiffs filed suit in the circuit court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the agreement was binding, that the cancellation of the contract by the Board of Education was illegal, and that the defendants be required to honor the agreement. In Count Two of their petition, plaintiffs requested specific performance of the agreement.

The scholarly trial judge prepared a well reasoned opinion, findings of fact, and conclusions of law which we found helpful. The trial judge entered judgment in favor of plaintiffs on both counts. Defendants appeal.

Defendant-Appellants’ first point on appeal is that the court below erred in ruling [301]*301that the agreement is valid and enforceable. Defendants contend that the agreement requires “collective bargaining” between a public agency and its employees, and therefore is a violation of § 105.510 RSMo.1969, V.A.M.S. (1971 Supp.), which prohibits certain public employees from forming labor organizations. More specifically, § 105.510 provides: “Employees except police, deputy sheriffs, Missouri state highway patrol, Missouri national guard, all teachers of all Missouri schools, colleges and universities, of any public body shall have the right to form and join labor organizations and to present proposals to any public body relative to salaries and other conditions of employment through the representatives of their own choosing.” (Emphasis ours).

The crux of this case is whether the agreement is contrary to the prohibition of this statute. Our first task is to determine just what the statute prohibits. A crucial case in this area is City of Springfield v. Clouse, 356 Mo. 1239, 206 S.W.2d 539 (1947). Clouse held (at 542) that public employees have rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Sections 8 and 9 of Article I of the Missouri Constitution, V. A.M.S., “to peacefully assemble and organize for any proper purpose, to speak freely and to present their views and desires to any public officer or legislative body.” Clouse further held that these rights can be exercised individually, collectively, or through chosen representatives. The Supreme Court in Clouse was also faced with the question of whether a particular agreement between a public employer and its employees was collective bargaining. The court in Clouse began its discussion with an admonition not to confuse collective bargaining with the rights of assembly, petition and free speech. Persons are not engaged in collective bargaining with executive or administrative officers when they urge the administrators to exercise their discretionary authority within the standards and limits which they have received from the legislature, or in asking them to make recommendations to the legislature. Clouse, supra at 543.

Clouse also explains the philosophy behind the rule that public employment can not become a matter of bargaining and contract. The rationale is that the whole matter of qualifications, tenure, compensation and working conditions for any public service involves the exercise of legislative powers. There can be no delegation of legislative powers, so it follows that such powers cannot be bargained or contracted away, especially not by administrative or executive officers who do not have legislative powers. “Although executive and administrative officers may be vested with a certain amount of discretion and may be authorized to act or make regulations in accordance with certain fixed standards, nevertheless the matters of making such standards involves the exercise of legislative powers.” Clouse at 545.

Thus, we learn from Clouse that qualifications, tenure, compensation and working conditions of public employees are wholly matters of lawmaking and cannot be the subject of bargaining or contract. (At p. 545).

Having thus determined what is prohibited by the statute, we must now lay these guidelines alongside the agreement in question to determine if the agreement has run afoul of the statute.

Plaintiff Association contends that an almost identical agreement was construed as valid and enforceable by our Supreme Court in Peters v. Board of Education of Reorg. Sch. Dist. No. 5, 506 S.W.2d 429 (Mo.1974), hereinafter Peters. The factual situation in Peters is similar to this case; however, the posture of the Peters case was that of an appeal taken from a judgment dismissing plaintiff’s petition. Defendant School District argues that the Peters case is distinguishable. We disagree, finding defendants’ attempt to distinguish Peters unpersuasive.

[302]*302In Peters, as in this case, plaintiffs were members of a Teachers’ Association formed and operating for the purposes of promoting the welfare of the teachers in the district, as well as securing educational programs of the highest quality for the children of the district. Both associations represented a substantial number of the teachers in the district.- Both agreements provided substantially the same provisions and procedures, to wit: The negotiations to be carried on were to deal with both revisions of current policies and the development of new policies. The agreements did not purport to deal with individual grievances. Each agreement provided a procedure whereby negotiations could be commenced by written notice, and both agreements allowed the use of consultants in areas where-disagreement developed. Both parties agreed to exchange information in ■order to assist the negotiations. Tentative agreements were to be recorded as minutes and when approved by both parties, were to be entered as district policy. Each agreement had a section called “resolving disagreements” which provided for the appointment of a fact-finding committee to make advisory opinions and tentative suggestions for the resolution of disagreements. Both agreements made it clear that the school board retained the absolute right to make all final decisions and that the fact-finding body was advisory only. In addition, the agreement in the instant case is prefaced by the statement:

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Related

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162 S.W.3d 18 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
522 S.W.2d 299, 89 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2646, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/finley-v-lindbergh-school-district-moctapp-1975.