Gamble v. Florida Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services

• Decision Date: 14 January 1986
• Docket Number: No. 84-3849,84-3849
• Citation: 779 F.2d 1509
• Parties: Charlotte I. GAMBLE, etc., etc., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1509

779 F.2d 1509

Charlotte I. GAMBLE, etc., etc., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 84-3849.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Jan. 14, 1986.

Levine, Freedman, Hirsch & Levinson, Stevan T. Northcutt, Tampa, Fla., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Walter M. Meginniss, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Legal Affairs, Tallahassee, Fla., for Florida Dept. of HRS.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before HILL and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and GARZA ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Charlotte Gamble, suing as next friend and on behalf of Cynthia Gamble, challenges the district court's dismissal of her complaint under 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1983 against the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services ("HRS"). ¹ Gamble ² claims that her rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments were violated as a result of alleged severe physical and mental mistreatment suffered at the hands of foster parents with whom Gamble was placed by HRS from May 24, 1967, through November 4, 1974. Gamble demanded compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees, and costs.

The district court dismissed Gamble's suit on the ground that the Eleventh Amendment barred Gamble's claim for damages against HRS, an agency of the state of Florida, thereby rejecting Gamble's argument that Florida has waived its immunity from suit in federal civil rights actions. Record at 83; see Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974).

We agree with the district court that Florida has not waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity and that, therefore, HRS is not subject to suit in federal court in this action for damages. Therefore, we affirm.

A. Legal Standards

It is helpful to set out the complicated legal background of Eleventh Amendment doctrine against which the district court's decision must be judged.

The Eleventh Amendment reads 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.

Absent a legitimate abrogation of immunity by Congress or a waiver of immunity by the state being sued, the Eleventh Amendment is an absolute bar to suit by an individual against a state or its agencies in federal court. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). This immunity extends beyond the words of the Eleventh Amendment itself, and includes suits such as the instant case in which a state is being sued by its own citizen. Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890).

In the landmark case of Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), however, a significant exception to Eleventh Amendment immunity was announced. Young allows a federal court plaintiff to enjoin unconstitutional state action by naming the responsible state officer in the complaint, and requesting that the officer be enjoined from further unconstitutional conduct. "This holding has permitted the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution to serve as a sword, rather than merely as a shield, for those whom they were designed to protect." Edelman, 415 U.S. at 664, 94 S.Ct. at 1356.

The Supreme Court has held, however, that the rule of Ex parte Young applies only to prospective, as opposed to retroactive, relief. Edelman, 415 U.S. at 664, 94 S.Ct. at 1356. Generally speaking, then, this will bar damage awards against state officers sued in their official capacities in suits brought in federal court pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1983. ³ Edelman recognized that an award of damages against a state officer in an official capacity "will obviously not be paid out of the pocket of [the officer]," Edelman, 415 U.S. at 664, 94 S.Ct. at 1356, but rather will "inevitably come from the general revenues of the State," id. at 665, 94 S.Ct. at 1357, a result the Court found to be contrary to the purposes of the Eleventh Amendment. Accord Cate v. Oldham, 707 F.2d 1176, 1181 (11th Cir.1983). Despite this bar to damage suits against the states in federal court, there are two ways in which this immunity can be overcome. First, Congress may abrogate the state's immunity by explicit Congressional enactment through its legislative powers granted to it by the states in Sec. 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, see Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, 96 S.Ct. 2666, 49 L.Ed.2d 614 (1976) (Eleventh Amendment no bar to Congressional enactment authorizing damage awards against state governments for violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), or perhaps through its other congressionally-mandated legislative powers. See, e.g., Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon, --- U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 105 S.Ct. 3142, 3147-50, 87 L.Ed.2d 171, 179-82 (1985); Parden v. Terminal Railway of the Alabama State Docks Department, 377 U.S. 184, 84 S.Ct. 1207, 12 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964) (concerning Congress' use of the commerce power in enacting the FELA). Because Sec. 1983 itself has been held not to be a Congressional abrogation of the states' immunity from damage suits, Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. 332, 99 S.Ct. 1139, 59 L.Ed.2d 358 (1979); Edelman, 415 U.S. at 674-77, 94 S.Ct. at 1361-63, there is no Congressional abrogation in the instant case.

Second, the state itself may waive its Eleventh Amendment immunity and, thereby, consent to suit in federal court. This type of waiver cannot easily be inferred from state legislative action. As the Edelman Court put it:

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."

Id. at 673, 94 S.Ct. at 1360 (quoting Murray v. Wilson Distilling Co., 213 U.S. 151, 171, 29 S.Ct. 458, 464, 53 L.Ed. 742 (1909)); see also Atascadero State Hospital, --- U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 3146, 87 L.Ed.2d at 178; Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Ass'n, 450 U.S. 147, 150, 101 S.Ct. 1032, 1034, 67 L.Ed.2d 132 (1981) (per curiam).

Furthermore, a state officer may also be sued in an individual or personal capacity. "Personal-capacity suits seek to impose personal liability upon a governmental official for actions he takes under color of state law." Kentucky v. Graham, --- U.S. ----, ----, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3105, 87 L.Ed.2d 114, 121 (1985). As opposed to suits in which the defendant is the state, one of the state's agencies, or a responsible state officer sued in an official capacity, the Eleventh Amendment provides no bar to federal court adjudication of suits With these principles in mind, we proceed to apply them to the facts of the instant case. Because it is clear that there has been no congressional waiver of the states' immunity in this case, Quern v. Jordan, supra, we address only the claim that the State of Florida has waived its immunity.

                against state officers individually.   See Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974);  Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961). 4   Whether a state officer is being sued for damages in an official or an individual capacity is not mere semantics;  the question is whether the plaintiff is reasonably seeking relief from the state coffers or from the individual's assets. 5   See generally Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 873, 83 L.Ed.2d 878 (1985);  Scheuer, 416 U.S. at 238, 94 S.Ct. at 1687.  If, as was the case in Edelman, the damage award was obviously sought from the state treasury, the suit will be deemed to be one against the officer in an official capacity, and the Eleventh Amendment will therefore preclude such relief.   Edelman, 415 U.S. at 664-65, 94 S.Ct. at 1356-57 (Eleventh Amendment bars suit against state welfare official for retroactive benefits wrongfully withheld);  see also Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. at ---- - ----, 105 S.Ct. at 877-79, 83 L.Ed.2d at 884-86.  If, however, the plaintiff seeks damages from the state officer personally for redress of that officer's particular unconstitutional acts, "[a]n award of damages against ... [that] official in his personal capacity can be executed only against the official's personal assets."   Kentucky v. Graham, --- U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 3105, 87 L.Ed.2d at 121;  see also Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473 (officers' unconstitutional search and seizure)
                

B. Has Florida Waived its Eleventh Amendment Immunity to Suit in Federal Court?

In dismissing the instant case, the district court relied on Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Ass'n, 450 U.S. 147, 101 S.Ct. 1032, 67 L.Ed.2d 132 (1981) (per curiam). In Florida Nursing Home, the Supreme Court held that HRS had not waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity to suit in federal court by virtue of a general waiver of sovereign immunity which stated that HRS was a "body corporate" with a capacity to "sue and be sued." Id. at 149, 101 S.Ct. at 1033; see also Atascadero State Hospital, --- U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 3147, 87 L.Ed.2d at 179 (California's constitutional provision that "[s]uits may be brought against the State in such manner and in such courts as shall be directed by law" does not waive Eleventh Amendment immunity); Tuveson v. Florida Governor's Council on Indian Affairs, Inc., 734 F.2d 730, 734 (11th Cir.1984) (statute which provided that non-profit corporation can "[s]ue and be sued ... to the same extent as a natural person" did not constitute waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity).

Gamble argues, however, that other, more specific, statutory provisions indicate that Florida has waived...