Reed v. Rhodes

598 F. Supp. 248, 21 Educ. L. Rep. 861, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21746
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedNovember 27, 1984
DocketNo. C73-1300
StatusPublished

This text of 598 F. Supp. 248 (Reed v. Rhodes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reed v. Rhodes, 598 F. Supp. 248, 21 Educ. L. Rep. 861, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21746 (N.D. Ohio 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

BATTISTI, Chief Judge.

On November 21, 1984, this Court in a very brief order denied the motion of three members of the Cleveland Board of Education for a temporary restraining order to prevent defendant Cleveland Board of Education from “unilaterally deciding on the sale of the school (board’s administration) building.” This memorandum opinion will not only address “the legitimate concerns of the parties as stated in the Request,” as noted in this Court’s November 21st order, but will also set forth the reasons that the motion for a temporary restraining order was denied.

FACTS

On November 20, 1984 at 11:30 a.m,, Mildred R. Madison, Edward S. Young and Stanley E. Tolliver, three members of the Cleveland Board of Education, filed a “Request for Order of Court”. This brief request made the following assertions:

1. The Cleveland Board of Education was to meet on November 20, 1984 at 6 p.m. to consider the sale of the Cleveland Board of Education Administration Building to the City of Cleveland.

2. Attached to the Request was the proposed resolution to be voted on by the Cleveland Board stating that the purchase of the administration building by the City was “for purposes of making the Property available for development of a first-class downtown hotel ... by a private developer selected by the City.”

3. The Board of Education had received “no management impact studies, cost/benefit analyses or any other reports from the Superintendent [of the Cleveland Public Schools].

4. The sale of the administration building would “fragment the facility utilization five year master plan” that the Cleveland School District was to develop under order of this Court.

5. The impact of the sale of the building on the Remedial Orders of this Court [regarding desegregation of the Cleveland Public Schools] is “unknown.”

6. The Board’s sale of the building would violate Ohio Revised Code section 3313.41 and that by selling the building to the City, the Board is “circumventing said law.”

The three Board members [hereinafter referred to as “the moving parties” or “the movants”] asked this Court to “issue a Temporary Restraining Order preventing the Defendant Cleveland Board of Education from unilaterally deciding on the sale of the school building until the Court approves of a facility master or until such time as a complete and comprehensive study is completed on the effect the sale would have on the Remedial orders and said study be received by the community.” In addition, the moving parties asked the Court to rule on “the legality of circumventing state law by selling the Administration Building to a developer through the city.”

The Court takes judicial notice of the fact that at the Board meeting on November 20,1984, the Cleveland Board of Education voted to table the proposed resolution on the sale of the administrative building.

STANDING OF THE MOVING PARTIES

The initial question this Court must answer is whether the moving parties, three [250]*250members of the Cleveland Board of Education, have standing to move for a temporary restraining order in this action. In other words, this Court must examine the identity of the moving parties, what their status is in relation to the already existing parties to this action, and finally the moving parties’ real interest in the act which they complain about and seek to temporarily enjoin.

While it is true that the Cleveland Board of Education is one of the named defendants in this action, none of the movants was individually named as a party in the original action. At the same time, none of the movants are plaintiffs to this action; the named plaintiffs are Robert Reed, other students attending the Cleveland Public Schools, and the NAACP. However, to the degree that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25(d) would substitute the moving parties for the individuals who were on the Board of Education at the time this suit was commenced, the movants would be automatically substituted as defendants.

Even if the movants qualify as party defendants in an individual capacity, the issue of whether they have standing to enjoin the proposed sale of the administration building remains. Under principles of prudential standing, a party must assert an injury' peculiar to himself or a distinct group of which he is a part and not simply a generalized grievance shared substantially in equal measure by all or a large class of citizens. Wisconsin v. Zimmerman, 205 F.Supp. 673 (W.D.Wisc.1962). In other words, the movants must show as citizens that they will sustain a concrete injury which differentiates them from all other citizens. See Korioth v. Briscoe, 523 F.2d 1271 (5th Cir.1975). The moving parties in this case do not state in their Request why they as Board members will be uniquely injured by this sale; their only claim is that with additional information • “which could have been subject to community input,” they would have had “sufficient information [as] board members ... to protect the Orders of the Court and the interests of the community and its students.”

While it is true that members of the Board of Education have a responsibility to execute the orders of this Court, their obligation is no greater than that upon other members of the school district, including school administrators, teachers, other district personnel, parents and students. Indeed, the Board has never acted in the past, nor has this Court ever designated the Board, as the guardian or protector of the Court’s orders. To grant standing to organizations or individuals would be dangerous in that it would allow segments of the community to designate which policies promote the Court’s orders and which do not. While individuals and groups may hold such opinions, the sole power to “protect” and interpret this Court’s orders lies with this Court itself.

Of greater concern to this Court is the apparent objective of movants to prevent the making of a political decision which they did not agree with by asking the Court to intervene. It has been held that an elected official lacks standing to challenge a particular decision or course of action that he has the power to vote upon unless he asserts that his voting power or rights have been impeded. See Korioth v. Briscoe, 523 F.2d 1271, 21 Fed.Rules. Serv.2d 380 (5th Cir.1975) (state legislator lacks standing to challenge constitutionality of a state statute where he cannot allege that the effectiveness of his vote or any other legislative power he might have had was impeded either by the majority vote or by implementation of the statute). In the instant case, the three members of the Board of Education do not allege that they were prevented from voting on the proposed sale; that their efforts to persuade and campaign for their point-of-view on the proposed sale were interfered with or that if the sale were approved, their voting power on future actions would be circumscribed. This Court is reluctant to insert itself into the legislative functionings of the Board; the Court does not wish to play the role of referee between various factions on the Board.

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Related

Flast v. Cohen
392 U.S. 83 (Supreme Court, 1968)
State of Wisconsin v. Zimmerman
205 F. Supp. 673 (W.D. Wisconsin, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
598 F. Supp. 248, 21 Educ. L. Rep. 861, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-rhodes-ohnd-1984.