Elliott v. Hinds

• Decision Date: 24 October 1983
• Docket Number: No. L 83-38.,L 83-38.
• Citation: 573 F. Supp. 571
• Parties: Charles R. ELLIOTT, Plaintiff, v. Robert A. HINDS, individually and as Superintendent and Appointing Authority of the Indiana State Veterans' Home; William D. Murchie, individually and as Director of the Indiana State Board of Health Management and Services; Dr. David J. Edwards, individually and as Associate State Health Commissioner of the Indiana State Board of Health; Dr. B.E. Fitzgerald, individually and as Medical Director of Indiana State Veterans Home; and Betty Moore, individually and as Chief Pharmacist of the Indiana State Veterans Home, and Indiana State Veterans Home, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

573 F. Supp. 571

Charles R. ELLIOTT, Plaintiff, v. Robert A. HINDS, individually and as Superintendent and Appointing Authority of the Indiana State Veterans' Home; William D. Murchie, individually and as Director of the Indiana State Board of Health Management and Services; Dr. David J. Edwards, individually and as Associate State Health Commissioner of the Indiana State Board of Health; Dr. B.E. Fitzgerald, individually and as Medical Director of Indiana State Veterans Home; and Betty Moore, individually and as Chief Pharmacist of the Indiana State Veterans Home, and Indiana State Veterans Home, Defendants.

No. L 83-38.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, Hammond Division.

October 24, 1983.

Richard O. Bovey, Lafayette, Ind., for plaintiff.

Louis Pearlman, Lafayette, Ind., Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen. of Ind., Indianapolis, Ind., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

SHARP, Chief Judge.

This action was filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by a former employee of the Indiana State Veterans Home in Lafayette, Indiana, against said Home and various state officials connected therewith. Jurisdiction of this court over the claims presented is predicated on a federal question, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343. In addition to his complaint for damages, plaintiff also seeks declaratory and injunctive relief. 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 et seq. This matter is presently before the court on defendants' motion to dismiss. Both sides having carefully briefed their respective positions, this motion is now ripe for ruling.

The underlying facts in this case, as set forth in plaintiff's complaint, are as follows. The plaintiff was appointed to the position of Registered Professional Pharmacist at the Lafayette, Indiana State Veterans Home on August 27, 1979. During the course of the plaintiff's employment at the Home, he observed pharmacy practices which, in his opinion were violative not only of proper medical procedures but of the law as well. After plaintiff's repeated complaints of such conduct (as well as the complaints of others at the Home) resulted in an investigation which allegedly confirmed plaintiff's charges, plaintiff was discharged from his position on July 9, 1982. In essence, then, plaintiff's complaint is grounded on a state tort law theory of unlawful retaliatory discharge, a claim which has managed to wend its way into federal court because the defendants putatively acted "under color of state law."

In their motion to dismiss, the defendants advance the argument that the portion of plaintiff's complaint seeking "damages and other relief payable from public funds in the state treasury" is barred by the State's Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit in federal court. The defendants contend that the real defending party in interest is the State of Indiana, and that the monetary relief sought is retroactive in nature.

There are three issues presented by this motion to dismiss:

(1) Whether the Eleventh Amendment acts as a bar to that portion of plaintiff's action seeking damages and injunctive relief of a monetary nature (e.g., reinstatement with back pay, etc.).

(2) Assuming the answer to the above to be in the affirmative, whether the defendants waived their Eleventh Amendment immunity.

(3) Whether the defendant Indiana State Veterans Home is an "arm or agency" of the State of Indiana for purposes of Eleventh Amendment immunity.

Each issue will be addressed in its turn.

I.

The Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified on February 7, 1795, in response to the Supreme Court's earlier decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419, 1 L.Ed. 440 (1793), states 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.

While the express language of the above does not specifically bar suits for damages filed by citizens of a particular state against said state, the Amendment has been construed by the Supreme Court to provide the sovereign states with immunity from damage actions brought by any individual. Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 342 (1890); Employees of Dept. of Public Health & Welfare v. Dept. of Public Health & Welfare, 411 U.S. 279, 280, 93 S.Ct. 1614, 1615, 36 L.Ed.2d 251 (1973). Although the Supreme Court per Chief Justice Marshall had originally construed the Amendment to bar suit only where the state was formally a party of record, Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 6 L.Ed. 204 (1824), that narrow reading was modified only four years later to apply to an action against a state officer acting in his official capacity. Governor of Georgia v. Madrazo, 1 Pet. 110, 7 L.Ed. 73 (1828). Thus, even though the State itself is not specifically identified as a party defendant,

when the action is in essence one for the recovery of money from the state, the state is the real, substantial party in interest and is entitled to invoke its sovereign immunity from suit even though individual officials are nominal defendants.

Ford Motor Co. v. Dept. of Treasury, 323 U.S. 459, 464, 65 S.Ct. 347, 350, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945).

One of the crucial issues in determining whether a state is protected by Eleventh Amendment immunity is whether the relief sought will have a retroactive impact on the state treasury, or whether the relief sought is prospective. The Court in Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974), held that in

a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action ... a federal court's remedial power, consistent with the Eleventh Amendment, is necessarily limited to prospective injunctive relief, Ex parte Young, supra, and may not include a retroactive award which requires the payment of funds from the state treasury, Ford Motor Company v. Department Treasury, supra.

415 U.S. at 677, 94 S.Ct. at 1362.

Edelman, supra, furthermore prohibited the

payment of state funds, not as a necessary consequence of compliance in the future with a substantive federal-question determination, but as a form of compensation ... measured in terms of a monetary loss resulting from a past breach of a legal duty on the part of the defendant state officials.

415 U.S. at 668, 94 S.Ct. at 1358.

In determining whether relief sought will be prospective or retroactive, it is instructive to consider the recent Seventh Circuit case, Buckhanon v. Percy, 708 F.2d 1209 (7th Cir.1983).

The Court took guidance from Edelman, supra, and from subsequent Supreme Court interpretations of it. The Seventh Circuit noted that in Edelman, the Court spoke of "a time when petitioner was under no court-imposed obligation to conform to a different standard," 415 U.S. at 668, 94 S.Ct. at 1358. The Seventh Circuit also cited Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, 451, 96 S.Ct. 2666, 2669, 49 L.Ed.2d 614 (1976), for the proposition that the date for determining whether a monetary award is retroactive or prospective is that upon which the district court determined that the state's conduct was wrongful. Finally, the Seventh Circuit considered one of its own cases, Vargas v. Trainor, 508 F.2d 485 (7th Cir.1974), which found that "the entry of a court order or judgment requiring that payments be made divides the past from the prospective for Eleventh Amendment purposes." 508 F.2d at 491.

It is true, as plaintiff correctly points out, that the line of decisions from Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908) onward has shown a consistent willingness to uphold as an exception to Eleventh Amendment immunity prospective applications of injunctive relief against state officials. However, it is equally clear from the foregoing that should a judgment be entered against the defendants in this case, any monetary award with respect to their actions committed prior to the date of the judgment's entry would be retroactive and therefore barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Thus, as the Supreme Court noted in Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. 332, 337, 99 S.Ct. 1139, 1143, 59 L.Ed.2d 358 (1979), "the distinction between that relief permissible under the doctrine of Ex Parte Young and that found barred in Edelman was the difference between prospective relief on one hand and retrospective relief on the other." See also Florida Dept. of Health & Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Ass'n, 450 U.S. 147, 101 S.Ct. 1032, 67 L.Ed.2d 132 (1981); Wright, Law of Federal Courts 291 (4th ed. 1983).

II.

It is axiomatic that any individual or entity enjoying immunity from suit may freely waive such immunity. In order to determine whether such a waiver has in fact taken place, this court is guided by the standard enunciated in Edelman v. Jordan, supra:

In deciding whether a State has waived its constitutional protection under the Eleventh Amendment, we will find waiver only where stated "by the most express language or by such overwhelming implications from the text as will leave no room for any other reasonable construction." Murray v. Wilson Distilling Co., 213 U.S. 151, 171, 29 S.Ct. 458, 464, 53 L.Ed. 742 (1909).

415 U.S. at 673, 94 S.Ct. at 1360.

Plaintiff is proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He does not and cannot point to any language in that statute which abrogates the state's Eleventh Amendment immunity. In fact, the Supreme Court has held that

Section 1983 does not explicitly and by clear language indicate on its face an intent to sweep away the immunity of the States; nor does it have a history which focuses directly on the question of state liability and which shows that Congress considered and firmly decided to abrogate the Eleventh Amendment immunity of the States.

Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. at 345, 99 S.Ct. at 1147.

Although Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978) held that Congress overrode the states' Eleventh Amendment immunity in enacting the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees...