For A Song

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment to St. Albans School in connection with claims brought by former attorney  Montgomery Blair Sibley.

The facts, as gleaned from the evidence presented by the parties for consideration on summary judgment are as follows. St. Albans School, a private, all-boys school, and the National Cathedral, both in the District of Columbia, operate under an umbrella corporation, PECF. In July 2007, appellant‟s then-10-year-old son, A.B.S., began to audition for the National Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys and he was offered a place as a Boy Chorister in 2008. One of the conditions of the offer was attendance at St. Albans School, and A.B.S.‟s admission to the school was, in turn, contingent upon A.B.S.‟s commitment to the chorister program through the eighth grade. Appellant was required to sign a letter accepting A.B.S.‟s appointment to the choir “beginning in September 2008 until June 2013 or early voice change.” A.B.S. joined the choir and enrolled at St. Albans School as a fifth-grader (Form B) for the 2008-09 school year. For his participation in the choir he received a stipend of $13,514, approximately forty-three percent of that year‟s school tuition. That year appellant‟s father signed the enrollment contract with St. Albans School and paid the remainder of A.B.S.‟s tuition for the school year.

 In February of 2009, appellant signed a contract re-enrolling A.B.S. in sixth grade (Form A) for the 2009-10 school year. By signing the contract, appellant promised to pay A.B.S.‟s tuition for the year, less his choral stipend (that year, $8,907, or twenty-seven percent of tuition) and financial aid (in the amount of $6,000), leaving a balance of $17,990, with the initial payment due July 3, 2009. On July 16, 2009, appellant notified St. Albans that he would need to secure A.B.S.‟s tuition from the estate of his father, who had recently died. On January 25, 2010, Gregory A. Parker, St. Albans School‟s Director of Finance, sent a letter informing appellant that A.B.S. would be expelled and not permitted to reenroll for the following year if the outstanding tuition was not paid. On February 17, in a telephone conversation, appellant informed Parker that he would be able to pay $2,000 in the near future and would pay the rest of the tuition once his father‟s estate was settled, but that the matter was in litigation because his father‟s will had not explicitly provided for A.B.S.‟s tuition payments. During a telephone conversation on February 24, Parker offered that A.B.S. could complete the school year if appellant paid $2,000, but that he would not be allowed to reenroll for the following school year. On March 2, appellant contested this decision with Vance Wilson, the Headmaster of St. Albans School. Wilson responded in writing on March 10, and again informed appellant that A.B.S. would be allowed to finish the year if the $2,000 payment was received before spring break but that he would not be permitted to return for the 2010-11 school year if the outstanding tuition balance was not also paid in full.

Appellant and St. Albans School exchanged several letters in March and April of 2010, attempting to establish a payment schedule based on the expected probate of appellant‟s father‟s estate. On March 17, St. Albans School agreed to reconsider its decision not to allow A.B.S. to re-enroll if it received confirmation by March 19 that the estate would pay the outstanding tuition balance by the end of March and the following year‟s tuition by July 5. On March 19, St. Albans received a check for $2,000 from A.B.S.‟s step-grandmother. Appellant approved that the check be applied to payment of outstanding tuition to ensure that A.B.S. could finish the 2009-10 school year. Consequently, St. Albans School agreed to refrain from expelling A.B.S.; it also agreed to again modify the deadline for payment, upon receipt by April 8 of a letter on behalf of the estate confirming that settlement had been reached and that the estate would pay the remaining 2009-10 tuition ($15,990) by April 13, and the 2010-11 tuition (less any choir stipend and financial aid) by July 5. On March 25, appellant asked to meet with Parker to discuss additional flexibility in the payment schedule due to further delay in the  probate proceedings. Appellant provided a copy of appellant‟s settlement agreement with the estate, which provided for payment of the outstanding tuition, and the following year‟s tuition by the dates set by St. Albans School. He also attached a copy of a letter from the estate‟s attorney setting out the steps necessary to obtain court approval and implement the settlement.2 St. Albans School remained firm, however, and on April 1, Parker informed appellant that A.B.S. would not be able to return for the 2010-11 school year if the tuition (for both 2009-10 and 2010-11) was not paid in accordance with the previously established timetable.

On April 2, appellant wrote a letter to Wilson, in which he reprised the situation and the impossibility due to legal requirements in the probate proceeding of a payment from his father‟s estate by the deadlines in Parker‟s letter. “[I]nvoking the last available option to me,” appellant stated that he would institute litigation if St. Albans School did not agree “to wait the 45 or 50 days it will take to get the Florida Probate Court‟s approval for the payments that are due St. Albans.” He attached a copy of the proposed complaint naming the School, the National Cathedral and PECF as defendants that, appellant said, would “open a Pandora‟s box of legal issues.” On April 15, Parker responded on Wilson‟s behalf, stating that although A.B.S. would be permitted to complete the year, “[i]n light of the fact that the deadline for paying your son‟s long past-due tuition has come and gone,” A.B.S. could not return for the following school year. On April 22, the Director of Music of the National Cathedral notified appellant that if A.B.S. was no longer enrolled at St. Albans School, he could not continue as a Boy Chorister the following term.

The court – Senior Judge Ruiz writing the opinion – rejected a variety of challenges to the rulings of the trial court. (Mike Frisch)