Estes v. Wyoming Dept. of Transp., 00-8069.

• Decision Date: 05 September 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-8069.,00-8069.
• Citation: 302 F.3d 1200
• Parties: Connie M. ESTES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

302 F.3d 1200

Connie M. ESTES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 00-8069.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

September 5, 2002.

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Jay A. Jerde, Senior Assistant Wyoming Attorney General, (Hon. Gay Woodhouse, Wyoming Attorney General, and John W. Renneisen, Deputy Attorney General, with him on the brief), Office of the Wyoming Attorney General, Cheyenne, WY, for Defendant-Appellant.

Colette B. Davies, (L.B. Cozzens, with her on the brief), Cozzens, Warren & Harris, P.L.L.P., Billings, MT, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge, BRORBY, Senior Circuit Judge, and LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

Connie Estes began her employment with the Wyoming Department of Transportation ("WDOT") as a driver's license examiner in January 1997. In April 1997, she injured her back at work, and in March 1998, she underwent lumbar decompressive surgery. On November 10, 1998, Estes's surgeon released her for work with three restrictions: lifting limited to twenty-five pounds; no repetitive bending at the waist, stooping, or crawling; and no sitting or standing without being able to move for more than one hour. At the request of WDOT, a physician reviewed Estes's medical records and concluded on November 16, 1998, that she was unable to perform her functions as a driver's license examiner because she could not lift fifty pounds. In December 1998, Estes was dismissed by WDOT.

Estes filed suit in state court alleging that WDOT violated Title I of the American with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), committed breach of contract, and violated Wyoming's workers' compensation law when it dismissed her. She sought lost pay and fringe benefits, compensatory damages, reinstatement, court costs, and attorney's fees. WDOT removed the case to federal court and stated in the Notice of Removal that it was not waiving any constitutional challenges to the district court's jurisdiction. Later WDOT filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, arguing the district court lacked jurisdiction because WDOT is entitled to sovereign immunity and, alternatively, that Estes failed to exhaust state administrative remedies for her breach-of-contract claim. Denying the motion in part and granting it in part, the district court held that Congress validly abrogated the States' sovereign immunity for violations of Title I of the ADA; that WDOT waived its sovereign immunity from the breach-of-contract claim when it removed the case to federal court; and that the state-law workers' compensation claim was barred by the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act, Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-39-101 to-121. WDOT timely appealed, raising two main questions for our resolution: (1) whether Congress validly abrogated the States' sovereign immunity for violations of Title I of the ADA, and (2) whether WDOT waived its sovereign immunity when it removed the case to federal court.

We abated this case to await the Supreme Court's then-pending decision in Lapides v. Board of Regents, ___ U.S. ___, 122 S.Ct. 1640, 152 L.Ed.2d 806 (2002). That case has now been decided in a manner that definitively resolves one of the jurisdictional issues before us and provides substantial guidance on another. Exercising jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I

The Eleventh Amendment provides that "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." U.S. Const. amend. XI. As interpreted, "an unconsenting State is immune from suits brought in federal courts by her own citizens as well as by citizens of another State." Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 662-63, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). Sovereign immunity is not absolute. Congress can, for example, abrogate a State's sovereign immunity "in the exercise of its power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment," and a State may waive its immunity by consenting to suit. Coll. Savings Bank v. Fla. Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd., 527 U.S. 666, 670, 119 S.Ct. 2219, 144 L.Ed.2d 605 (1999). However, the requirements for abrogation and waiver are strict. Before Congress can abrogate a State's sovereign immunity pursuant to Article I, § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress "must identify conduct transgressing the Fourteenth Amendment's substantive provisions, and must tailor its legislative scheme to remedying or preventing such conduct." Fla. Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. v. Coll. Savings Bank, 527 U.S. 627, 639, 119 S.Ct. 2199, 144 L.Ed.2d 575 (1999). Before we will conclude that a State has waived its sovereign immunity, there must be "an unequivocal waiver specifically applicable to federal-court jurisdiction." Atascadero State Hosp. v. Scanlon, 473 U.S. 234, 241, 105 S.Ct. 3142, 87 L.Ed.2d 171 (1985).

Denying WDOT's motion for partial judgment on the pleadings, the district court decided that Congress validly abrogated the States' sovereign immunity when it enacted the ADA and that WDOT waived its immunity on the state-law claims when it removed the case from state court to federal court. We review de novo the denial of a motion for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c), applying the same standard as the district court — accepting all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true, and construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Ramirez v. Dep't of Corr., 222 F.3d 1238, 1240 (10th Cir.2000).

A

Applying Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866 (2001), decided after the district court entered its decision in this case, we reverse the district court's conclusion that Congress validly abrogated the States' sovereign immunity in Title I of the ADA. In Garrett, the Supreme Court held that Congress did not validly abrogate the States' sovereign immunity from suit by private individuals for money damages under Title I of the ADA. Id. at 374 n. 9, 121 S.Ct. 955. We proceed to consider whether WDOT's removal of the case to federal court constitutes a waiver of its sovereign immunity in this case.

B

We initially consider WDOT's waiver argument regarding the state-law breach-of-contract claim. WDOT argues that a State's mere removal of a case from state court to federal court does not constitute a waiver of its sovereign immunity. WDOT contends that the State must additionally litigate the merits of the case in that forum.

Lapides forecloses this argument. Lapides clearly holds that a State waives its sovereign immunity to suit in a federal court when it removes a case from state court. Id. at 1646. The Court stressed that its holding is limited "to the context of state-law claims, in respect to which the State has explicitly waived immunity from state-court proceedings." Id. at 1643. Because WDOT is a division of the State of Wyoming, and Wyoming Statutes Annotated § 1-39-104 waives Wyoming's sovereign immunity for contract-claim suits in its own courts, Lapides is dispositive.

Lapides holds that "removal is a form of voluntary invocation of a federal court's jurisdiction sufficient to waive the State's otherwise valid objection to litigation of a matter (here of state law) in a federal forum." Id. at 1646. Therefore it is irrelevant that appellant removed the case to federal court simply to challenge the district court's jurisdiction to hear the case. See id. at 1645 ("A benign motive ... cannot make the critical difference for which [the State] hopes. Motives are difficult to evaluate, while jurisdictional rules should be clear.").

C

In limiting its holding to state-law claims, Lapides does not squarely answer whether the mere act of removing federal-law claims waives a State's sovereign immunity in federal court. However, based on the Supreme Court's analysis in Lapides and our own circuit's precedent in this area, we conclude that WDOT has waived its sovereign immunity for the ADA claim.

Three of our cases address whether a State's removal of federal-law claims to federal court effects a waiver of sovereign immunity. See McLaughlin v. Bd. of Trustees, 215 F.3d 1168 (10th Cir.2000); Sutton v. Utah State Sch. for the Deaf & Blind, 173 F.3d 1226 (10th Cir.1999); Gallagher v. Continental Ins. Co., 502 F.2d 827 (10th Cir.1974). We first addressed the general issue in Gallagher, which involved a suit challenging the pay of additional compensation for the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel on Interstate 70, near Loveland Pass in Colorado. Citizens and taxpayers of the State of Colorado and the United States sued the State, project contractors, contractors' sureties, and various Colorado officials in state court. All defendants removed the case to federal court, based on federal question and diversity jurisdiction, and the district court dismissed. Ultimately dismissing this case for lack of standing, we initially addressed whether Colorado was entitled to sovereign immunity. We noted that "the state made a general appearance, joined in the removal petition and the resistance to plaintiffs' remand motion, [and] moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim...." Gallagher, 502 F.2d at 830.

Twenty-five years later, we built upon this statement in Sutton. A mother of a student at the Utah State School for the Deaf and Blind sued both school and principal under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and various state laws in state court on behalf of her son, who had been sexually assaulted at the school by a fellow student. 173 F.3d at 1229-30. Defendants removed the case to federal court. The district court dismissed the § 1983 claim for failure to state a claim, declined to retain supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims, and dismissed the state claims without prejudice. Id. at 1230. On...