Monroe v. Board of Education

65 F.R.D. 641, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 499, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14201
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJanuary 23, 1975
DocketCiv. No. 14953
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 65 F.R.D. 641 (Monroe v. Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Monroe v. Board of Education, 65 F.R.D. 641, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 499, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14201 (D. Conn. 1975).

Opinion

RULING ON MOTION TO STRIKE

BLUMENFELD, District Judge.

Currently pending in this case are two motions by the plaintiff: one to strike an exhibit and portions of two affidavits submitted by the defendants and one for partial summary judgment on two “causes of action” stated in the amended complaint and described below. Following a brief recital of the factual background of the ease I will consider the motion to strike.

I. Background

Richard Monroe was a senior at Wolcott High School until he was suspended in December 1971. The suspension was imposed by Laurence Shapiro, the principal of the high school, after an officer of the Wolcott Police Department allegedly discovered marijuana in Monroe’s locker at the school. The school board held a hearing on January 21, 1972, to consider whether Monroe should be expelled. His counsel was present at the hearing, and Monroe spoke on his own behalf. Shapiro, the principal, indicated to the- board that Monroe had a long history of offenses, including numerous suspensions for smoking, leaving school without permission, defying teachers, and so forth. One of the more serious allegations was that Monroe had sold mescaline to two other students while driving to school with them on December 10, 1971. The school board unanimously voted to expel Monroe, effective January 24, 1972.

In response Richard Monroe, by his father as next friend, filed this suit (and was given permission to proceed in forma pauperis). In an amended complaint, filed by stipulation of the parties on October 31, 1972, Monroe objects (1) that the procedures followed by the school board did not afford him fair notice and hearing as required by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment and by Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 10-[644]*644234 (1958) ;1 (2) that he and his attorney were asked to leave the school board meeting during the board’s deliberations without a vote of the board in violation of Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 1-21 (Supp. 1974) ;2 and (3) that the state expulsion statute (§ 10-234) is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. Monroe’s prayer for relief requests that § 10-234 and his expulsion be declared unconstitutional, that the court order the defendants to expunge the plaintiff’s expulsion from their records and to inform the state board of education that the expulsion was a nullity, and that costs plus damages in the amount of $4,004 be awarded.

II. Motion to Strike

When the defendants filed their brief in opposition to the plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment on the claim that § 10-234 is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, they attached an unauthenticated document entitled “Official Record of Board of Education Hearing, January 21, 1972: Board of Education versus Richard Monroe.” In addition, Nicholas D’Agostino, one of the named defendants and superintendent of the Wolcott school system, and Laurence Shapiro, the principal of Monroe’s school, filed affidavits. Paragraphs 2 through 7 of these affidavits are identical and are set out in the margin.3 The plaintiff has [645]*645entered a motion to strike both the record of the school board meeting and the paragraphs of the affidavits quoted in the margin on various grounds.

A. The Record of Monroe’s Hearing

A motion to strike asks the court to remove “from any pleading any insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(f). A rule 12(f) motion to strike is not strictly proper in this instance, for the record of the school board’s hearing is not a “pleading.” The federal rules designate as “pleadings” those filings as set forth in rule 7 (a): a complaint, an answer, a reply to a counterclaim, an answer to a cross-claim, a third-party complaint, a third-party answer, and a reply to an answer or third-party answer if ordered by the court. Fed.R.Civ.P. 7(a). Written exhibits to pleadings are made a part thereof, Fed.R.Civ.P. 10(c); however, the record of Monroe’s hearing was merely made an exhibit to the defendant’s brief in opposition to the plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment. It is not made part of a “pleading” by rule 10(c).

It is, nevertheless, necessary to determine what material may be used in ruling on the pending motion for partial summary judgment, and a motion to strike has sometimes been used to call to courts’ attention questions about the admissibility of proffered material in similar circumstances. See, e. g., Wimberly v. Clark Controller Co., 364 F.2d 225 (6th Cir. 1966); Steven v. Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corp., 324 F.2d 157 (7th Cir. 1963); Superior Beverage Co. v. Ohio, 324 F.Supp. 564 (N.D.Ohio 1971). Thus the court accepts the motion as an invitation by the plaintiff to consider whether the record of Monroe’s hearing as submitted by the defendant may properly be relied upon.

A motion for summary judgment is to be decided on “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any . . . .” Fed.R.Civ. P. 56(c). It is clear that the minutes of the hearing as submitted do not fall into any of these categories. The scope of materials that have been allowed to be considered is actually somewhat broader than the listing in rule 56(c), however. It includes oral testimony taken at a hearing on the motion for summary judgment, presumptions, and judicial notice. See ¶ J. Moore, Federal Practice ffjf 56.11 [8]-[10] (2d ed. 1965). In addition, it has been held that courts may consider certified records of administrative proceedings. See id. ¶ 56.11 [1:-8], at 2148 & n.4. The record of Monroe’s hearing is a record of an administrative proceeding, but it is not certified, and the plaintiff contends that this is a fatal flaw. A number of cases support this view, holding that unverified 4 documents and transcripts that have not been made a part of a pleading cannot be considered in ruling on a motion for summary judgment. See Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 157 n.16, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Steven v. Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corp., 324 F.2d 157 (7th Cir. 1963); United States v. Tuteur, 215 F.2d 415 (7th Cir. 1954); Goldman v. Summerfield, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 209, 214 F.2d 858

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 F.R.D. 641, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 499, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/monroe-v-board-of-education-ctd-1975.