Montgomery v. Board of Trs. of Purdue Univ.

• Decision Date: 29 June 2006
• Docket Number: No. 79S05-0508-CV-354.,79S05-0508-CV-354.
• Parties: Michael B. MONTGOMERY, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. The BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF PURDUE UNIVERSITY, Appellee (Defendant below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

849 N.E.2d 1120

Michael B. MONTGOMERY, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. The BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF PURDUE UNIVERSITY, Appellee (Defendant below).

No. 79S05-0508-CV-354.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

June 29, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Raymond J. Hafsten, Jr., Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Deborah B. Trice, Karen R. Orr, Lafayette, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 79A05-0411-CV-591

BOEHM, Justice.

We hold that units of state government with twenty or more employees are subject to the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and therefore are not governed by the Indiana Age Discrimination Act. We also hold that there is no private civil damage remedy under the Indiana Age Discrimination Act.

Facts and Procedural History

Purdue University employed Michael Montgomery from 1973 until he was terminated in 2002 at the age of 57 or 58. In May 2003, Montgomery sued Purdue's Board of Trustees ("Purdue") in Tippecanoe Superior Court alleging that the Indiana Age Discrimination Act ("IADA") "creates a public policy exception to employment at will" and that Montgomery's termination was because of his age and therefore in violation of the Act.

Purdue moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The trial court entered judgment on the pleadings for Purdue without indicating the basis for its judgment. The Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that Montgomery's complaint failed to state a claim. Montgomery v. Bd. of Trs. of Purdue Univ., 824 N.E.2d 1278, 1282-83 (Ind.Ct.App.2005). We granted transfer. 841 N.E.2d 181 (Ind.2005).

I. "Employers" under the Indiana Age Discrimination Act

The IADA prohibits discrimination by "employers" on the basis of age. A "governmental entity which is subject to the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act" ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621, et. seq., is specifically excluded from the definition of "employer" in Indiana's act. Ind.Code § 22-9-2-1 (2004). The parties agree that Purdue is a "governmental entity." Accordingly, if Purdue is "subject to" the ADEA, the trial court properly concluded that Montgomery had no claim under the IADA.

The parties agree that Purdue meets the statutory definition of "employer" under the ADEA,¹ and is required to comply with the ADEA's substantive provisions. In this sense, Purdue is plainly "subject to" the ADEA. Montgomery argues, however, that there is no private civil remedy against a state agency under the ADEA and therefore Purdue, admittedly an arm of the State, is not "subject to" the ADEA as that term is used in the IADA. Specifically, Montgomery argues that Purdue is not "subject to" the federal ADEA: because (1) the Eleventh Amendment shields state agencies from private actions for monetary damages under the ADEA and (2) enforcement of the ADEA against state agencies through other mechanisms is "rarely pursued" and "meaningless." For the reasons explained below, we conclude that Purdue and other arms of Indiana government are subject to the ADEA and therefore are not "employers" subject to the IADA.

A. ADEA Enforcement Mechanisms and Remedies

The ADEA has two primary enforcement mechanisms. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") provisions incorporated by reference into the ADEA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") can bring suit on behalf of an aggrieved individual for injunctive and monetary relief. 29 U.S.C. § 626(b). The incorporated FLSA provisions, in concert with section 626(c) of the ADEA, also authorize private civil actions "for such legal or equitable relief as will effectuate the purposes of this Act." Id. at § 626(b), (c). A private civil action may not be commenced until 60 days after a charge of discrimination has been filed with the EEOC,² and if the EEOC exercises its discretion to bring suit, no private suit may be brought unless the aggrieved individual has already filed a private action. Id. at § 626(c)(1), (d). Whether the plaintiff is a private individual or the EEOC, if a trial court finds a violation of the ADEA, the statute authorizes the court to "grant such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate" including without limitation "judgments compelling employment, reinstatement or promotion, or enforcing the liability for amounts owing to a person" as a result of a violation of the Act. Id. at § 626(b). Liquidated damages are payable only for willful violations of the Act. Id.

B. The Eleventh Amendment

The Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides:

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.

This Amendment was adopted in 1798 in response to Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419, 2 Dall. 419, 1 L.Ed. 440 (1793), which upheld a common law action for assumpsit brought by two South Carolinians against the State of Georgia to collect a revolutionary war debt. Georgia had refused to appear, claiming that federal courts could not hear suits against a sovereign State, but the Supreme Court affirmed a default judgment for the plaintiffs.

Recent Supreme Court precedent has made clear that the Eleventh Amendment has a broader reach than merely stripping federal courts of jurisdiction over claims against one State by citizens of another. Rather, the Amendment reflects the constitutional principle that a State may not be sued in federal court without its consent whether the suit is brought by a foreign citizen, a citizen of another state, or the state's own citizens. See Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 98, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984) ("the principle of sovereign immunity is a constitutional limitation on the federal judicial power established in Art. III"). This doctrine applies to federal legislation that is grounded in the Commerce Clause or any of Congress' other enumerated Article I powers. See, e.g., Nev. Dep't of Human Res. v. Hibbs, 538 U.S. 721, 727, 123 S.Ct. 1972, 155 L.Ed.2d 953 (2003). Moreover, Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 754, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999) established that Congress may not subject unconsenting States to suit in a state court under legislation passed pursuant to Congress' Article I powers. Thus, even though there may be concurrent state and federal court jurisdiction over claims asserting rights under a federal statute, a State may not be sued in either federal or state court without its consent under a federal statute grounded in Article I powers. The Court explained that states' Eleventh Amendment immunity is a "convenient shorthand but something of a misnomer, for sovereign immunity of the States neither derives from, nor is limited by, the terms of the Eleventh Amendment." Id. at 713, 119 S.Ct. 2240. Instead, that immunity stems from "the structure of the original Constitution itself" which incorporated the traditional understanding that a sovereign was not subject to suit without its consent. Id. at 728, 119 S.Ct. 2240. The Alden majority explained that until Chisholm, "the Constitution was understood, in light of its history and structure, to preserve the States' traditional immunity from private suits. As the [Eleventh] Amendment clarified the only provisions of the Constitution that anyone had suggested might support a contrary understanding, there was no reason to draft with a broader brush." Id. at 724, 119 S.Ct. 2240. Thus, though the Eleventh Amendment speaks only of states' immunity from suit in federal court, the "original constitutional design" which the Amendment acted "to restore" embraced the fundamental structural principle that unconsenting states are shielded from private suits under federal law in their own courts as well as in the federal courts. Id. at 722, 119 S.Ct. 2240.

Congress' Article I powers cannot support a claim against a State because the sovereign immunity reflected in the Eleventh Amendment trumps "antecedent provisions of the Constitution." Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Fla., 517 U.S. 44, 66, 116 S.Ct. 1114, 134 L.Ed.2d 252 (1996) (internal quotations omitted). Congress may, however, abrogate unconsenting States' sovereign immunity by exercising its power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment which authorizes Congress to enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment by "appropriate legislation." See, e.g., Hibbs, 538 U.S. at 726, 123 S.Ct. 1972. In Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, 528 U.S. 62, 91, 120 S.Ct. 631, 145 L.Ed.2d 522 (2000), however, the Court concluded that the ADEA was not an exercise of Congress' power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore the provisions of the ADEA authorizing state employees to sue their state employers in federal or state court for monetary damages violated the Eleventh Amendment. Purdue and Montgomery agree that Kimel precludes a claim for monetary damages under the ADEA by state employees against their unconsenting state employers.

Indiana has not consented to suit under the ADEA by enacting the IADA. As we explain more fully in Part II of this opinion, the IADA, though prohibiting discrimination in employment in terms similar to the ADEA, does not authorize aggrieved employees to bring private civil actions against their employers. Moreover, even if the IADA authorized private civil actions against state agencies, it would not constitute consent to suit by private individuals under the ADEA. Waiver of Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity by the states must be express, unequivocal and voluntary. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 673, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). It must be done "by the most express language or by such overwhelming implications from the text as [will] leave no room for any other reasonable construction." Id. (...