Labette Community College v. Bd of Crawford Cty Comm'Rs

The opinion of the court was delivered by Companion cases were filed by two community colleges against the Board of County Commissioners of Crawford County to collect unpaid out-district tuition. See K.S.A. 71-301(b). The County Commissioners argued that the amounts claimed had been improperly calculated and that the statutes which required the county to pay out-district tuition violated both the United States Constitution and the Kansas Constitution. The cases were consolidated for trial. Prior to trial, the parties moved for summary judgment. After the district court found the statutory procedure to collect out-district tuition was constitutional and granted judgment to the community colleges and the Kansas State Board of Education (KSBE), the parties announced that they had previously reached a partial settlement and requested the action be converted to one for declaratory judgment, which required realignment of the parties, to determine statutory and constitutional issues. The district court denied the request to convert the action. The County Commissioners appealed, claiming (1) the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to recognize the partial settlement agreement entered into by the parties and convert the action to one for declaratory judgment; (2) K.S.A. 71-301(b) as applied violates the provisions of article 2, section 17 of the Kansas Constitution; (3) K.S.A. 71-301(b) violates the provisions of article 11, section l(b) of the Kansas Constitution; and (4) portions of the community colleges' claims are barred by K.S.A. 71-301(d)(2). The appeal was transferred to this court pursuant to K.S.A. 20-3018(c). At oral argument, this court informed counsel for the parties that if the settlement agreement constituted an acquiescence in the trial court's judgment, the County Commissioners' right to appeal the trial court's judgment was waived.