S.J. v. Hamilton County, Ohio

• Decision Date: 22 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-3852.,02-3852.
• Citation: 374 F.3d 416
• Parties: S.J., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO; Hillcrest Training School; and William H. Hamilton, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

374 F.3d 416

S.J., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO; Hillcrest Training School; and William H. Hamilton, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 02-3852.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued December 9, 2003.

Decided and Filed June 22, 2004.

David Todd Stevenson (argued and briefed), Stephen K. Shaw (briefed), Hamilton County Prosecuting Office, Cincinnati, OH, for Appellants.

Marc D. Mezibov (argued and briefed), Michael N. Budelsky (briefed), Sirkin, Pinales, Mezibov & Schwartz, Cincinnati, OH, for Appellee.

Before BOGGS, Chief Judge; and BATCHELDER and SUTTON, Circuit Judges.

BOGGS, Chief Judge.

This case presents the question of whether Hillcrest Training School, a juvenile facility created pursuant to Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.65, is cloaked with Ohio's sovereign immunity against a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action brought by a former Hillcrest resident. The district court held that Hillcrest was not entitled to sovereign immunity. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.

I

Plaintiff S.J., when a minor, was referred to Hillcrest by order of the Hamilton County Juvenile Court. His complaint alleges that he was sexually assaulted several times by a fellow resident, R.B., who sneaked into his room at night. The last attack took place on the night after S.J. had informed a Hillcrest employee about the assaults. R.B. later admitted attacking S.J., and was adjudicated a delinquent. S.J. sued Hillcrest, its superintendent, and Hamilton County under § 1983, alleging that they violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights by failing to investigate and prevent sexual abuse, and failing to train Hillcrest employees adequately. The defendants moved for summary judgment on the basis of sovereign immunity, arguing that Hillcrest is an arm of the State of Ohio because it was created by state law and is overseen by the juvenile court. The magistrate judge disagreed, and recommended denying the motion. The district court adopted the magistrate's recommendation in relevant part.

Later, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, in effect asking the district court to revisit its ruling on sovereign immunity.¹ The motion argued that dismissal was necessary in light of this court's unpublished decision in Oswald v. Lucas County Juvenile Det. Ctr., 234 F.3d 1269, 2000 WL 1679507 (6th Cir. Oct. 30, 2000), 2000 U.S.App. LEXIS 27990, which held that a "juvenile detention facility" defined under former Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.34 (now Ohio Rev.Code § 2152.41) was "part of the juvenile court, which is an arm of the state," and therefore was entitled to sovereign immunity. Id. at ** 5-6. However, the district court concluded that the "juvenile detention facility" at issue in Oswald was distinguishable from Hillcrest, a juvenile facility defined under Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.65² and it denied the motion to dismiss.

Defendants timely appealed. Under the collateral order doctrine, we have jurisdiction over an appeal from a district court's denial of sovereign immunity to a government entity that claims to be an "arm of the state." Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., 506 U.S. 139, 113 S.Ct. 684, 121 L.Ed.2d 605 (1993); Tenn. v. United States Dep't of Transp., 326 F.3d 729, 733 (6th Cir.2003). We review de novo the legal question of whether Hillcrest is entitled to sovereign immunity, Timmer v. Mich. Dep't of Commerce, 104 F.3d 833, 836 (6th Cir.1997), but accept any pertinent factual findings by the district court unless they are clearly erroneous, Keller v. Cent. Bank of Nigeria, 277 F.3d 811, 815 (6th Cir.2002).

II

A

Hillcrest operates within a statutory framework that vests both the state and Hamilton County with a role in its administration. Juvenile training facilities such as Hillcrest belong to a broader class of facilities referred to in the Ohio Code as "single county or joint-county facilities." Ohio Rev.Code § 307.021(A) (authorizing board of county commissioners to construct such facilities). The same statutory provision states generally that "the juvenile court [is] ... the branch of state government having jurisdiction over any such ... juvenile ... facilities." Ibid. Hillcrest's specific authorizing statute, Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.65, provides:

Upon the advice and recommendation of the juvenile judge, the board of county commissioners may provide by purchase, lease, construction, or otherwise a school ... or other facilit[y] where delinquent children, ... dependent children, abused children, unruly children, ... or neglected children or juvenile traffic offenders may be held for training, treatment, and rehabilitation.... Such ... facility ... shall be maintained as provided in Chapters 2151. and 2152. of the Revised Code. [...]

The juvenile court shall determine:

(A) The children to be admitted to any school ... or other facility maintained under this section;

(B) The period such children shall be trained, treated, and rehabilitated at such facility;

(C) The removal and transfer of children from such facility.

Thus, by the terms of the statute, the initial request to create a facility such as Hillcrest originates from the juvenile court, which is a division of the Ohio Court of Common Pleas. Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.08. The county possesses the discretion to grant or refuse this initial request. However, if the county agrees, the facility must "be maintained as provided in [Ohio Rev.Code §§] 2151. and 2152." Ibid. These sections authorize the juvenile court to demand funds from the county that are reasonably necessary to operate Hillcrest, as part of the court's annual appropriation for "administrative expenses." Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.10. The county must provide the funds requested if they are "reasonably necessary to meet... [the] administrative expenses of the court" and its facilities. Ibid.; see § 2151.13; State ex rel. Wilke v. Hamilton County Bd. of Comm'rs, 90 Ohio St.3d 55, 734 N.E.2d 811, 818 (2000) (county must pay court's funding request unless it can prove that request is an abuse of discretion). The statutory scheme also authorizes the juvenile court to appoint Hillcrest's superintendent and to determine his compensation. Ohio Rev.Code § 2151.70.

Hillcrest receives the large majority of its funding from Hamilton County. It also receives some funds from the Ohio Department of Youth Services and the Ohio Department of Mental Health, and it is subject to standards promulgated by the Department of Youth Services.

B

The text of the Eleventh Amendment explicitly refers to the immunity of the states from suits "commenced or prosecuted ... by Citizens of another State." U.S. Const., amend. XI. However, the Supreme Court has made clear that the sovereign immunity of the states "neither derives from nor is limited by the terms of the Eleventh Amendment," Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 713, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999), and that it extends to actions brought against a state by its own citizens, Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 15, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890). Sovereign immunity applies not only to the states themselves, but also to "state instrumentalities," Regents of Univ. of Calif. v. Doe, 519 U.S. 425, 429, 117 S.Ct. 900, 137 L.Ed.2d 55 (1997), or, in other words, to those government entities that act as "arm[s] of the State." Mt. Healthy City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 280, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). However, it "does not extend to counties and similar municipal corporations." Ibid.

Because Ohio counties lack sovereign immunity, see ibid. (holding that an Ohio school board lacked immunity because it was "more like a county" than an arm of the state); Alkire v. Irving, 330 F.3d 802, 811 (6th Cir.2003), we affirm, without further discussion, the portion of the district court's order denying immunity to defendant Hamilton County.

The difficult issue is determining whether the same is true of Hillcrest itself — and, derivatively, of its superintendent, Mr. Hamilton, since for the purpose of sovereign immunity "individuals sued in their official capacities stand in the shoes of the entity they represent." Alkire, 330 F.3d at 811; see Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 165, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985).³ Hillcrest presents a two-step argument in support of its claim of sovereign immunity. It contends that the Hamilton County Juvenile Court is itself an arm of the state, and that Hillcrest is sufficiently bound to the Juvenile Court to count as "a part of" the court, thereby entitling it to share in the court's immunity. Appellant Br. at 7.

To determine whether an entity is an arm of the state, courts have traditionally looked to several factors, including: (1) whether the state would be responsible for a judgment against the entity in question; (2) how state law defines the entity; (3) what degree of control the state maintains over the entity; and (4) the source of the entity's funding. Brotherton, 173 F.3d at 560 (summarizing past decisions). In an earlier case whose analysis focused upon state law, we held that an Ohio Court of Common Pleas was an arm of the state cloaked with sovereign immunity. Mumford v. Basinski, 105 F.3d 264, 269 (6th Cir.1997); see also Kelly v. Mun. Cts., 97 F.3d 902, 907-08 (7th Cir.1996) (holding that municipal court was a unit of the judicial branch of the state entitled to sovereign immunity); Franceschi v. Schwartz, 57 F.3d 828, 831 (9th Cir.1995) (per curiam) (same); Harris v. Mo. Ct. of App., W. Dist., 787 F.2d 427, 429 (8th Cir.1986) (same; Missouri state court); cf. Foster v. Walsh, 864 F.2d 416, 418-19 (6th Cir.1988) (per curiam) (determining that state court is not a "person" suable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983).

Our recent decisions have modified this arm-of-the-state framework, in light of Supreme Court opinions that "ha[ve] ... explicitly [stated] that ... the most important factor bearing on the Eleventh Amendment question" is "who would pay...