City of El Paso v. Heinrich

• Decision Date: 01 May 2009
• Docket Number: No. 06-0778.,06-0778.
• Citation: 284 S.W.3d 366
• Parties: The CITY OF EL PASO, et al., Petitioners, v. Lilli M. HEINRICH, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

284 S.W.3d 366

The CITY OF EL PASO, et al., Petitioners, v. Lilli M. HEINRICH, Respondent.

No. 06-0778.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued November 13, 2007.

Decided May 1, 2009.

Jennifer F. Callan, Laura P. Gordon, Asst. City Attys., Michele Little Locke, John Lomax Anderson, El Paso, Eric G. Calhoun, Richard J. Pradarits Jr., Travis & Calhoun, P.C., Dallas, Robert D. Klausner, Stuart A. Kaufman, Klausner & Kaufman, P.A., Plantation, FL, for Petitioners.

Stewart W. Forbes, Forbes & Forbes, El Paso, for Respondent.

Philip Durst, Deats Durst Owen & Levy, P.L.L.C., Austin, for Amicus Curiae Texas State Association of Fire Fighters.

Kristofer S. Monson, Asst. Solicitor Gen., Austin, for Amicus Curiae State of Texas.

Chief Justice JEFFERSON delivered the opinion of the Court.

"Sovereign immunity protects the State from lawsuits for money damages." Tex. Nat. Res. Conservation Comm'n v. IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d 849, 853 (Tex.2002). But "an action to determine or protect a private party's rights against a state official who has acted without legal or statutory authority is not a suit against the State that sovereign immunity bars." Fed. Sign v. Tex. S. Univ., 951 S.W.2d 401, 405 (Tex.1997). Today we examine the intersection of these two rules. We conclude that while governmental immunity generally bars suits for retrospective monetary relief, it does not preclude prospective injunctive remedies in official-capacity suits against government actors who violate statutory or constitutional provisions. We affirm in part and reverse in part the court of appeals' judgment and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.

I Background

Lilli M. Heinrich is the widow of Charles D. Heinrich, a member of the El Paso Police Department who died in August 1985 from wounds received in the line of duty. Shortly after Charles died, the El Paso Firemen & Policemen's Pension Fund began paying Heinrich monthly survivor benefits equal to 100% of the monthly pension her husband had earned.¹ The parties contest how those payments were apportioned. The City of El Paso, the El Paso Firemen & Policemen's Pension Fund ("the Fund"), the Fund's Board of Trustees ("the Board"), and the individual board members contend that the Fund's bylaws assigned only two-thirds of this payment to Heinrich, the other third being paid to her on behalf of her then-minor child. Heinrich, on the other hand, contends that, notwithstanding the bylaws, the Board voted to award her 100% of Charles' pension benefits in her own right, as more fully explained below.

Accordingly, when in 2002 the Board reduced the monthly payments to Heinrich by one-third after Heinrich's son turned 23, Heinrich filed this lawsuit, alleging that petitioners violated the statute governing the Fund by reducing her benefits retroactively. Heinrich sought both declaratory relief and an injunction restoring Heinrich to the "status quo from [the] date of the illegal act." Petitioners filed pleas to the jurisdiction asserting that governmental immunity shielded the governmental entities from suit and that the individual board members enjoyed official immunity. The trial court denied the pleas, and petitioners filed an interlocutory appeal.

The court of appeals affirmed, holding that "a party may bring a suit seeking declaratory relief against state officials who allegedly act without legal or statutory authority and such suit is not a `suit against the state.'" 198 S.W.3d 400, 406. The court acknowledged that, if successful, Heinrich would be entitled to past and future benefits, but held that Heinrich's suit made a valid claim for her vested right to pension benefits rather than money damages. Id. at 407. We granted the petition for review in order to clarify the types of relief that may be sought without legislative consent.² 50 Tex. Sup.Ct. J. 910 (June 22, 2007).

II Discussion

A Ultra Vires Claims

Petitioners contend that although Heinrich requests declaratory and equitable relief, her claim is essentially for past and future money damages, and that governmental immunity therefore bars her suit. As we said in Reata Construction Corp. v. City of Dallas, "`[s]overeign immunity protects the State from lawsuits for money damages.' Political subdivisions of the state ... are entitled to such immunity— referred to as governmental immunity— unless it has been waived." Reata, 197 S.W.3d 371, 374 (Tex.2006) (citations omitted); see also Wichita Falls State Hosp. v. Taylor, 106 S.W.3d 692, 694 n. 3 (Tex. 2003). We have said repeatedly that the Legislature is in the best position to waive or abrogate immunity, "because this allows the Legislature to protect its policymaking function." IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d at 854 (citations omitted) (collecting cases).

Heinrich concedes that the City, Fund, and Board enjoy governmental immunity from suit, but argues that because her claim alleges a reduction in her benefits that was unauthorized by law, it is not barred. This is so, she says, because "[p]rivate parties may seek declaratory relief against state officials who allegedly act without legal or statutory authority." Id. at 855 (citing Tex. Educ. Agency v. Leeper, 893 S.W.2d 432 (Tex.1994) (suit challenging state officials' construction of compulsory school-attendance law)); see also Fed. Sign., 951 S.W.2d at 404 ("A private litigant does not need legislative permission to sue the State for a state official's violations of state law.") (citations omitted). We explained the rationale behind this exception to governmental immunity in Federal Sign:

A state official's illegal or unauthorized actions are not acts of the State. Accordingly, an action to determine or protect a private party's rights against a state official who has acted without legal or statutory authority is not a suit against the State that sovereign immunity bars. In other words, we distinguish suits to determine a party's rights against the State from suits seeking damages. A party can maintain a suit to determine its rights without legislative permission.

Fed. Sign, 951 S.W.2d at 404 (citations omitted).

On this basis, Heinrich argues that rather than money damages, she seeks only equitable and injunctive relief under the Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act. That Act is a remedial statute designed "to settle and to afford relief from uncertainty and insecurity with respect to rights, status, and other legal relations." TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 37.002(b). It provides: "A person ... whose rights, status, or other legal relations are affected by a statute, municipal ordinance, contract, or franchise may have determined any question of construction or validity arising under the ... statute, ordinance, contract, or franchise and obtain a declaration of rights, status, or other legal relations thereunder." Id. § 37.004(a). The Act, however, does not enlarge a trial court's jurisdiction, and a litigant's request for declaratory relief does not alter a suit's underlying nature.³ IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d at 855; State v. Morales, 869 S.W.2d 941, 947 (Tex.1994). It is well settled that "private parties cannot circumvent the State's sovereign immunity from suit by characterizing a suit for money damages ... as a declaratory-judgment claim." IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d at 856 (citing W.D. Haden Co. v. Dodgen, 158 Tex. 74, 308 S.W.2d 838, 842 (1958)).

Heinrich relies on State v. Epperson, 121 Tex. 80, 42 S.W.2d 228, 231 (1931), in which we held that a suit against a tax collector for the recovery of money (alleged to be due under a contract and withheld unlawfully) was not barred by immunity. There, we noted that the tax collector had no discretion under the governing law to deny payment on Epperson's contract:

By legislative act the state has constituted the tax collector of the county its agent to receive delinquent taxes collected under such contract, and it is the duty of such officer to pay all fees and commissions lawfully incurred in the collection thereof to the various parties who may be entitled thereto. Under such circumstances, the tax collector's duty with reference to money belonging to persons who are entitled under valid contracts to receive the same from him is purely ministerial. If he withholds the payment of such funds when a person is lawfully entitled to receive same, he has failed to discharge a duty imposed upon him by law and his act is a wrongful one.

Epperson, 42 S.W.2d at 231. We therefore concluded that although the trial court would "not possess jurisdiction to enforce the specific performance of the contract relied upon by Epperson or to award damages for any breach of said contract," Epperson's suit was "simply an action to compel an officer, as agent of the state, to pay over funds to a party who claims to be lawfully entitled thereto." Id.

Thus, the rule arising out of Epperson is that while suits for contract damages against the state are generally barred by immunity, where a statute or the constitution requires that government contracts be made or performed in a certain way, leaving no room for discretion, a suit alleging a government official's violation of that law is not barred, even though it necessarily involves a contract. We explained this distinction in W.D. Haden Co. v. Dodgen:

[A]lthough [Epperson] ar[ose] out of [ ] contract transaction ... [it] appears to fall into the class of cases projected by United States v. Lee, [106 U.S. 196, 1 S.Ct. 240, 27 L.Ed. 171 (1882)].⁴ In that class of cases it is held that suits for property alleged to be unlawfully or wrongfully withheld from the rightful owner by officers of the state are not suits against the sovereign itself and may be maintained without permission of the sovereign.

158 Tex. 74, 308 S.W.2d 838, 841 (1958). In other words, where statutory or constitutional provisions create an entitlement to payment, suits seeking to require state officers to comply with the law are not barred by immunity merely because they compel the state to make those...