For immediate release - Dec. 2, 2005
Newsbrief

(DALLAS) – The Texas Supreme Court today reversed a ruling of the state’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case DCCCD et al v. Bolton et al, favoring the Dallas County Community College District and denying the plaintiffs any compensation from the original $12 million judgment handed down by the lower courts.

The case was originally filed in 1998. In 2002, the appellate court ruled that the district did not have statutory authority to enact a technology fee in 1994 or to charge an increase in the student services fee on its campuses effective 1997. Members of the DCCCD board of trustees voted in August 2002 to appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. 

In today’s ruling, the Texas Supreme Court reversed both findings, voting 9-0 that DCCCD could charge a technology fee and voting 6-3 that the student services fee was paid voluntarily by students and cannot be recouped.

“We pursued the case to its final determination,” said Robert Young, DCCCD’s general counsel, “and we are extremely pleased with the outcome and the almost $12 million reversal.”

For more information, contact Young at (214) 860-2470.



Press contact: Ann Hatch, 214-860-2470