SCHOOL SUIT

In a decision that apparently resolves a knotty factional dispute, the California Supreme Court has ruled that former Paramount schools Supt. Richard Caldwell cannot sue the members of the city’s school board who fired him in 1991.

Caldwell, 69, who is white, claimed that he was dismissed from the job he had held for 13 years on the grounds of age and racial discrimination. The board replaced him with Michele Lawrence, a Latina in her 40s. Caldwell has since been elected to the school board he was suing.

In a decision published Thursday, the court ruled that the board members who were defendants in Caldwell’s suit had personal immunity.

A Superior Court jury had denied Caldwell’s claim of damages last year, but the judge granted him a new trial. The district appealed that decision to the state Court of Appeal, which reversed the trial court judge’s finding that the school board members enjoyed immunity.