Dawkins v. Craig

• Decision Date: 12 September 1973
• Docket Number: No. 72-2460.,72-2460.
• Citation: 483 F.2d 1191
• Parties: Barbara Jean DAWKINS and Jacqueline Denise Dawkins, a minor by her mother and next friend, Barbara Jean Dawkins, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Clifton M. CRAIG, Individually and as North Carolina Commissioner of Social Services et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

483 F.2d 1191 (1973)

Barbara Jean DAWKINS and Jacqueline Denise Dawkins, a minor by her mother and next friend, Barbara Jean Dawkins, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Clifton M. CRAIG, Individually and as North Carolina Commissioner of Social Services et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 72-2460.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 4, 1973.

Decided September 12, 1973.

Robert S. Weathers, Asst. Atty. Gen., North Carolina (Robert Morgan, Atty. Gen., North Carolina, on brief), for defendants-appellants.

Donald S. Gillespie, Jr., Charlotte, N.C., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, BOREMAN, Senior Circuit Judge, and WIDENER, Circuit Judge.

WIDENER, Circuit Judge:

The parties to this appeal agree that the sole issue is whether the District Court properly ordered the State of North Carolina to make retroactive payments in the program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children. It is contended by appellant that such order is in contravention of the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Plaintiff Dawkins is a resident of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and is the mother of Jacqueline Dawkins, who was 14 years of age at the time the complaint was filed and who resides with her mother. The defendants are the state personnel and the state administrative agencies responsible for administration of the North Carolina public assistance programs which relate to this appeal.

During July, 1970, plaintiff applied to the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits on behalf of herself and her daughter Jacqueline Dawkins. On August 12, 1970, she received a notice from the county director which said that her "application for public assistance was not approved for payment because of refusal to file a warrent sic against the deserting parent." She noted an administrative appeal from the action taken by the county director, and her appeal was heard on August 25, 1970 before a hearing examiner representing appellant State Commissioner. On September 25, 1970, Dawkins received a "Notice of Final Decision" from the State Commissioner dated September 21, 1970, which stated that the county director's decision was correct because it was in accordance with § 2210 of the North Carolina Financial Services Manual which provides that "if it is established that a parent (or parents) has deserted or abandoned his children, the applicant or recipient payee should agree to institute non-support action against the deserting parent (or parents) where the applicant or recipient can identify the parent (or parents)."

On October 13, 1970, Dawkins filed a civil action in the District Court. The complaint alleges that appellants have construed the above regulation so that the filing of a non-support action against a deserting parent is a prerequisite to eligibility for AFDC benefits. The complaint alleges that the regulation is unconstitutional and prays not only for declaratory and injunctive relief but also for payment of sums allegedly wrongfully withheld.

On May 8, 1972, the parties filed a stipulation which indicated that the regulation in question had been revised and amended, to the satisfaction of the plaintiffs, so that there no longer existed the necessity for any prospective relief. The stipulation further recited that the only issues left for determination were the propriety and extent of class action relief and the propriety and extent of retroactive payments to plaintiffs. The District Court ordered that the case was properly maintainable as a class action and defined the class. The defendants have not challenged such action. We are thus faced with the issue of whether the District Court's order that payments be restored retroactively contravenes the Eleventh Amendment.

The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution provides as follows:

"The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State."

The Eleventh Amendment was declared to have been ratified on January 8, 1798.^A1 The amendment was proposed to the several states on March 4, 1794 as a consequence of the Supreme Court's decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419, 1 L.Ed. 440 (1793). In Chisholm, the Supreme Court held that a State could be sued by a citizen of another State in assumpsit. The amendment on its face does not speak to the situation where, as here, a State is sued by one of its own citizens. However, the Supreme Court has ruled that an unconsenting State is immune from suits brought in federal courts by its own citizens, as well as by citizens of another State.¹ Employees of the Department of Public Health & Welfare v. Department of Public Health & Welfare, 411 U.S. 279 at 280, 93 S.Ct. 1614, 36 L.Ed.2d 251 (1973); Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1899); Duhne v. New Jersey, 251 U.S. 311, 40 S.Ct. 154, 64 L.Ed. 280 (1920); see Great Northern Ins. Co. v. Read, 322 U.S. 47, 51, 64 S.Ct. 873, 88 L.Ed. 1121 (1944). In Employees, etc., supra, 411 U.S. at 286, 93 S.Ct. 1614, the court made it clear that, where the suit is by a citizen against his own State, the constitutional constraint imposed by the Eleventh Amendment upon the judicial power of the United States is invoked. See also Hans, supra, 134 U.S., at 15, 10 S.Ct. 504, and Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 150, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). The amendment covers not only suits brought against a State by name but those also against its officers, agents and representatives, where the State, though not named as such, is nevertheless the only real party against which, in fact, relief is asked, and against which the judgment operates. In re Ayers, 123 U.S. 443, 505-506, 8 S.Ct. 164, 31 L.Ed. 216 (1887); Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 150, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908); Cf. Employees, etc., supra. Of course, it has long been the law that the Eleventh Amendment is no bar to a suit brought to direct a State officer to bring his conduct into conformity with federal law. In re Ayers, supra; Ex parte Young, supra; Employees, etc., supra, 411 U.S. at 293, n. 9, 93 S.Ct. 1614. Thus, while the Eleventh Amendment may have been no bar to the jurisdiction of the court below insofar as the suit sought to require North Carolina officials to act in accordance with the constitution, the order to make retroactive payments is a different matter. Such relief looks directly to the payment of public funds out of the State treasury. See N.C. Const. Art. V, § 7. Such an order, in our opinion, is contrary to the Eleventh Amendment. In re Ayers, supra, 123 U.S., at 505, 506, 88 S.Ct. 164; Rothstein v. Wyman, 467 F.2d 226 (2nd Cir.1972); Francis v. Davidson, 340 F.Supp. 351, 370 (D.Md. 1972, three-judge court), aff'd, 409 U.S. 904, 93 S.Ct. 223, 34 L.Ed.2d 168 (1972); Like v. Carter, 353 F.Supp. 405 (E.D.Mo.1973); contra Jordan v. Weaver, 472 F.2d 985 (7th Cir.1973). See also Williams v. Dandridge, 297 F.Supp. 450 (D.Md.1968), rev'd. on other grounds, 397 U.S. 471, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491.

Appellees urge that the Supreme Court has decided this issue by affirming several decisions which ordered retroactive payments, although none of the cases in that court mentions one word about the Eleventh Amendment. Sterrett v. Mothers and Children's Rights Organization, 409 U.S. 809, 93 S.Ct. 68, 34 L.Ed.2d 70 (1972); State Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Zarate, 407 U.S. 918, 92 S.Ct. 2462, 32 L.Ed.2d 803 (1972); Wyman v. Bowens, 397 U.S. 49, 90 S.Ct. 813, 25 L.Ed.2d 38 (1969); Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969). We do not agree with the reasoning of the Seventh Circuit in Jordan, supra, that such cases require a holding that the Eleventh Amendment for some reason does not apply to this situation. We believe that the most that can be said for these cases is that the issue was not discussed. Accord Rothstein, supra. We also believe that plaintiffs' argument that such cases are pertinent to the Eleventh Amendment issues is without merit because, most recently, the Supreme Court, in Employees, etc., supra, which squarely dealt with the Eleventh Amendment, made no mention of those district court cases relied on in Jordan. We note also that the Supreme Court affirmed Francis v. Davidson, supra. Francis expressly noted that the Eleventh Amendment bars the type of relief sought herein. 409 U.S. 904, 93 S.Ct. 223, 34 L.Ed.2d 168 (1972).

Plaintiffs also urge that any protection which the Eleventh Amendment might provide has been waived by the State. Of course, the immunity of the Eleventh Amendment may be waived. Parden v. Terminal Ry. Co., 377 U.S. 184, 84 S.Ct. 1207, 12 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964); see Employees, etc., supra. North Carolina has not, by any formal act, waived its immunity. Nor do any of the AFDC provisions condition federal funding upon a State's waiver of its immunity. It is argued that the mere participation by a State in the AFDC program constitutes at least an implied waiver of the protection of the Eleventh Amendment. We cannot agree. As pointed out by Mr. Justice Marshall, concurring in Employees, etc., supra, waiver of a constitutional protection is not to be inferred lightly. And, we do not think that mere participation in the AFDC program constituted a waiver. Rothstein, supra; Like, supra. The petitioners, in Employees, etc., supra, were employees of State health facilities. They brought suit for overtime pay due them under § 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the district court dismissed the action on the basis of the immunity provided by the Eleventh Amendment. The Supreme Court affirmed the district court's dismissal of the action. The court turned first to Parden v....