Rigby v. Auburn University
| Decision Date | 23 March 1984 |
| Citation | 448 So.2d 345 |
| Parties | 17 Ed. Law Rep. 301 Donald R. RIGBY v. AUBURN UNIVERSITY, et al. 83-26. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Jim L. DeBardelaben, Montgomery, for appellant.
Thomas D. Samford, III and Robert C. Black, Opelika, for appellees.
The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court was correct in dismissing plaintiff's complaint against all the named defendants based on the doctrine of sovereign immunity.
The plaintiff filed his complaint against Auburn University; Hanley Funderburk, as President of Auburn University; James O. Williams, as Chancellor of Auburn University at Montgomery; Fob James, as ex officio President of the Board of Trustees of Auburn University; Dr. Wayne Teague, as ex officio member of the Board of Trustees of Auburn University; R.C. Bamberg, as Vice-president of the Board of Trustees of Auburn University; and Robert H. Harris, Charles M. Smith, III, John Pace, III, Henry Steagall, John Denson, Frank P. Samford, Jr., William Nichols, Michael McCartney, and Morris Savage, as members of the Board of Trustees of Auburn University.
Plaintiff alleged that he was hired on December 7, 1981, by Auburn University as a police officer at the Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) campus for an annual salary of $10,500. The authority for Auburn to hire security personnel is found in Code 1975, § 16-48-12. Plaintiff further alleged that the 1974 University Personnel Manual stated that the university policy was to maintain salary schedules for all classifications that would assure uniform treatment of comparable positions, and that under this manual by these schedules plaintiff should have been hired for $11,200. Finally, plaintiff alleged that because he was paid less than authorized by the university compensation plan for his job classification, this constituted fraud, a breach of a confidential relationship, and willful breach of an employment contract.
As a consequence, the plaintiff sought money damages, and an order compelling Auburn to pay him a salary in conformity with the compensation plan. Plaintiff, in his first amendment to the complaint, alleged that the salary for his job classification, as established by the compensation plan, was approximately $11,200, and that the university's agents were guilty of fraud and bad faith and acted beyond their authority when they established his annual salary below the salary set by the university compensation plan. Plaintiff, in his second amendment, added Hanley Funderburk, individually and as President of Auburn University, and James O. Williams, individually and as chancellor of AUM, and substituted Robert T. Phillips and Linda Shonesy, both individually and as agents, servants, or employees of Auburn University, for the fictitious parties named in the original complaint.
Plaintiff originally sought an injunction to compel Auburn University to pay him a salary that conformed with the university compensation plan for his job classification and to compel the university to conform with an overtime plan contained in a 1973 personnel manual, as well as compensatory damages of $100,000. In his amended complaint, he requested a writ of mandamus to compel defendants to pay him a salary as specified in the university compensation plan for his job classification.
The trial court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss and this appeal ensued.
The trial court ruled that the state's constitutional immunity, as set forth in Ala. Const., art. 1, § 14, shielded the defendants from suit in this instance. See Carter v. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, 431 So.2d 529 (Ala.1983); Bell v. Chisom, 421 So.2d 1239 (Ala.1982); First State Bank of Altoona v. Bass, 406 So.2d 896 (Ala.1981); Moody v. University of Alabama, 405 So.2d 714 (Ala.1981); Carter v. Forester, 395 So.2d 65 (Ala.1981), as cited by the trial court in its order granting the defendants' motion to dismiss.
Appellant argues that the doctrine of sovereign immunity should not be applicable in this instance because Auburn University is a public corporation which, as an entity separate and distinct from the state, can issue bonds to which the state's credit is not pledged. See Code 1975, §§ 16-48-1 through 16-48-12; see also Opinion of the Justices, 294 Ala. 571, 319 So.2d 699 (1975). Appellant further contends that because Auburn University receives funds from sources other than the State of Alabama, a contract or property right of the state is not affected.
In the early case of Cox v. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, 161 Ala. 639, 49 So. 814 (1909), the Court stated:
161 Ala. at 648-649, 49 So. at 817.
In a more recent case, the Court, quoting from an earlier case, emphasized:
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