Parks v. U.S., 85-1491

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
• Writing for the Court: Before COFFIN, BOWNES and TORRUELLA; BOWNES
• Citation: Parks v. U.S., 784 F.2d 20 (1st Cir. 1986)
• Decision Date: 18 February 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-1491,85-1491
• Parties: , 4 Fed.R.Serv.3d 568 Joseph PARKS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff, Appellee, v. MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME ACADEMY, Third-Party Defendant, Appellant.

Page 20

784 F.2d 20

1987 A.M.C. 83, 4 Fed.R.Serv.3d 568

Joseph PARKS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff, Appellee, v. MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME ACADEMY, Third-Party Defendant, Appellant.

No. 85-1491.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Argued Dec. 2, 1985.

Decided Feb. 18, 1986.

Christopher H. Worthington, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom Francis X. Bellotti, Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., were on brief for third-party defendant, appellant Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Richard K. Willard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., with whom William F. Weld, U.S. Atty., Boston, Mass., and Robert S. Greenspan and Mark B. Stern, Washington, D.C., were on brief for U.S David J. Ansel with whom David E. Meier and Flannery & Ansel, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for plaintiff, appellee.

Before COFFIN, BOWNES and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges.

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy (the Academy) appeals an order of the district court entering judgment against the Academy as third-party defendant in an action brought by Joseph Parks (Parks) against the United States, third-party plaintiff.

Parks' action was filed under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C. Secs. 741-52, and the Public Vessels Act, 46 U.S.C. Secs. 781-90. He sued to recover for hand injuries incurred in the course of his employment as Engineering Training Watch Officer on the T.S. BAYSTATE.

At the time of the accident, the T.S. BAYSTATE was on loan to the Academy pursuant to a written agreement between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States. The agreement was executed under the authority of the Maritime Academy Act of 1958, 46 U.S.C. Secs. 1381 et seq., ¹ and it incorporated the Act's implementing regulations, 46 C.F.R. Secs. 310 et seq. (1985). ² The Act provides states with federal assistance to operate and maintain maritime academies for the training of Merchant Marine officers, and it authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to furnish vessels for use as training ships, 46 U.S.C. Sec. 1382(a). ³ As a condition to obtaining the use of a vessel, state academies are required to conform to the standards for training facilities, instructors and entrance requirements set by the Maritime Administration. 46 U.S.C. Sec. 1384(a)(2). ⁴

Because the T.S. BAYSTATE was in the control and custody of the Academy at the time of the accident, and because of the duties and obligations imposed upon the Academy by statute, regulation and written agreement, the United States filed a third-party complaint against the Academy for all or part of any amount awarded to Parks in his action against it. A motion filed by the Academy to dismiss the third-party complaint on the ground that it was barred by the eleventh amendment was denied, and the case proceeded to trial.

Parks alleged that his injuries resulted from the United States' negligence. The evidence at trial showed that the accident occurred when he attempted to discover why the auxiliary generator of the ship was overheating. The testimony established that he placed his hand behind the protective guard at one end of the duct leading from the auxiliary generator room to the engine to check whether air was flowing through the duct to the engine's cooling system. His hand slid into a gap between the guard and the machinery and was severely damaged when a fan blade hit his fingers.

The court found that the guard had not been properly designed or installed so as to effectively protect against accidental contact with the machinery. It also found that Parks should have investigated using other reasonable methods for ascertaining whether air was flowing from the duct before placing his hand behind the guard. The court concluded that the United States, the Academy, and Parks had all been negligent and apportioned the relative fault between them. It attributed forty percent of the fault to Parks himself, thirty percent to the United States, for its negligence in delivering the vessel with the guard in that condition, and thirty percent to the Academy, for its failure to discover and correct the defect. Judgment was entered against the United States for $23,455.34 and against the Academy for $23,455.34.

Both Parks and the Academy filed post-trial motions to alter or amend judgment. Parks' motion urged that judgment should have been entered against the United States for the full amount. He maintained that admiralty did not recognize contribution among joint tortfeasors and that the United States' claim against Massachusetts was separate and distinct from his claim against the United States. He also requested prejudgment interest. The Academy's motion urged that the subsidiary findings of the court did not support its judgment, that Parks had no direct claim against the Commonwealth, and that the United States' third-party claim was barred by the eleventh amendment. The United States filed an opposition to both motions. It opposed every ground of the Academy's motion but confined its opposition to Parks' motion to the issue of contribution. The court amended its judgment to include an award of prejudgment interest but denied the motions in all other respects.

The appeal raises three main issues: (a) whether the eleventh amendment barred the United States from impleading the Academy; (b) whether, assuming the eleventh amendment does not pose such a bar, the United States can obtain contribution or indemnity from the Academy; and (c) whether the trial court erred in awarding Parks prejudgment interest.

I. THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT ISSUE

The Academy's contention that the eleventh amendment prohibits the United States from filing a third-party complaint against the Academy is without merit. The amendment provides that "[t]he 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." Its prohibition has been extended by judicial decision to actions brought against a state by that state's own citizens, unless the state consents to be sued. Della Grotta v. State of Rhode Island, 781 F.2d 343, 346 n. 2 (1st Cir.1986) (citing Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 3142, 3144-45, 87 L.Ed.2d 171 (1985); Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 662-63, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1355, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974); Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890)). But it has never been held to apply to actions brought by the United States against a state. See United States v. State of Illinois, 454 F.2d 297, 300 (7th Cir.1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 918, 92 S.Ct. 1767, 32 L.Ed.2d 117 (1972). The Academy contends, nonetheless, that the United States' claim violates the spirit and intendment of the eleventh amendment as interpreted in Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984). This misconstrues both the scope of the amendment and of the Pennhurst decision.

The Pennhurst opinion relied on by the Academy stemmed from the effects of an earlier opinion by the Court in the same case, Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981). In that case, the Court reversed the Third Circuit's ruling that the conditions at Pennhurst violated, inter alia, the plaintiffs' rights under the Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 6001 et seq. The Court held that that Act did not create any substantive rights and remanded to the court of appeals for a determination as to whether its remedial order could be supported on the basis of the other grounds alleged in the complaint, i.e., the Constitution, the Vocational Rehabilitation and Other Rehabilitation Services Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 701-796, and the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966, Pa.Stat.Ann., tit. 50, Secs. 4101-4704. On remand, the Third Circuit held that the Pennsylvania statute supported its prior judgment. It did not reach the remaining issues of federal law and it rejected the appellees' argument that the eleventh amendment barred a federal court from considering this pendent state law claim. This latter argument was the key issue raised in Pennhurst's subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Court held for Pennhurst in a two-step opinion. First, it held that a federal court's grant of relief against state officials (the officers of Pennhurst) constituted an intrusion on state sovereignty in direct conflict with the principles of federalism underlying the eleventh amendment, 465 U.S. at 106, 104 S.Ct. at 911. Second, it held that the court of appeals' assumption that the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction gave it the right to hear the state law claims once jurisdiction was established over the federal claims was incorrect. 465 U.S. at 119. The Court stated that the doctrine had a different scope when applied to suits against a state. Id. at 120, 104 S.Ct. at 919. It pointed out that the eleventh amendment was an explicit limitation on the power of federal courts to decide certain claims that would otherwise be within their jurisdiction, and held that a court must examine each claim before it separately to see if its jurisdiction over any claim is barred by the eleventh amendment. Id. at 121, 104 S.Ct. at 919. Nothing in Pennhurst expands the reach of the eleventh amendment's bar to actions brought against a state by the United States.

The Academy maintains, however, that the district court's assertion of jurisdiction over the United States' third-party claim is analogous to the Third Circuit's assertion of pendent jurisdiction in Pennhurst. This misconstrues the nature of a third-party action. The United States' claim against the Academy was filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 14(c) ⁵ which governs impleader in admiralty and...