Woods v. Rondout Valley Central School

• Decision Date: 10 October 2006
• Docket Number: Docket No. 05-1080-CV.
• Citation: 466 F.3d 232
• Parties: Harold R.A. WOODS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. RONDOUT VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellant, William Cafiero, Principal of Rondout Valley Central High School, Trudi Melamed-Turck, Assistant Principal of Rondout Valley Central High School, and Marilyn Pirkle, Superintendent of Rondout Valley Central School District, sued in their individual capacities, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

466 F.3d 232

Harold R.A. WOODS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. RONDOUT VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellant, William Cafiero, Principal of Rondout Valley Central High School, Trudi Melamed-Turck, Assistant Principal of Rondout Valley Central High School, and Marilyn Pirkle, Superintendent of Rondout Valley Central School District, sued in their individual capacities, Defendants.

Docket No. 05-1080-CV.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: January 5, 2006.

Decided: October 10, 2006.

Mark C. Rushfield, Shaw and Perelson, LLP, Highland, NY, for Defendants-Appellants.

Stephen Bergstein, Thornton, Bergstein & Ullrich, LLP, Chester, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before: FEINBERG, KEARSE, and RAGGI, Circuit Judges.

RAGGI, Circuit Judge:

On this appeal, we consider whether defendant Rondout Valley Central School District Board of Education is an arm of the State of New York entitled to claim Eleventh Amendment immunity. We conclude that it is not.

I. Factual Background

The background facts that follow are taken from the complaint. Plaintiff Harold Woods was first employed as a per diem substitute teacher at Rondout Valley Central High School in September 1999, two months shy of his sixty-ninth birthday. A few years later, in April 2003, Woods published what he describes as "a fact-based and informative article on sexual harassment" in a periodical distributed to members of the Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers. Compl. ¶ 37. The publication of this article apparently coincided with a school district investigation into claims by employees of sexual harassment by defendant William Cafiero, the principal of Rondout Valley Central High School. That investigation ultimately resulted in Cafiero's two-week suspension during the summer of 2003.

Woods asserts that the following fall, on or about November 18, 2003, Cafiero and the high school's assistant principal, defendant Trudi Melamed-Turck, told Woods that, because he was "stressed out," he would be reassigned to one of the district's elementary schools. Id. ¶¶ 14-15. Instead, on December 8, 2003, Woods received a letter from defendant Marilyn Pirkle, the Superintendent of the Rondout Valley Central School District, notifying him that he was terminated.

In a complaint filed in the Northern District of New York on June 17, 2004, and entered on June 22, 2004, Woods charged Cafiero, Melamed-Turck, and Pirkle, as well as the Rondout Valley Central School District Board of Education (the "Board of Education" or the "Board") with unlawful dismissal based on age and in retaliation for his having engaged in protected speech. He sought legal and equitable relief against all defendants pursuant to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), see 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634, the New York Human Rights Law, see N.Y. Exec. Law § 296 et seq. and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The defendants moved for dismissal pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (6), arguing that Cafiero, Melamed-Turck, and Pirkle could not be held individually liable under the ADEA, and that the Board of Education, as an arm of the State of New York, was immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. The district court (Lawrence E. Kahn, Judge) agreed with the former argument and dismissed the ADEA claim against the individual defendants, but it rejected the Board's Eleventh Amendment claim, relying on this court's decisions in Fay v. South Colonie Central School District, 802 F.2d 21, 27-28 (2d Cir.1986) (rejecting school district claim of Eleventh Amendment immunity), overruled on other grounds by Taylor v. Vt. Dep't of Educ., 313 F.3d 768, 786 (2d Cir. 2002),¹ and Mancuso v. New York State Thruway Authority, 86 F.3d 289, 291 (2d Cir.1996). See Woods v. Cafiero, No. 04-0695, 2005 WL 3871601, at *1-2, *5, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5780, at *4-5, *15-16 (N.D.N.Y. Feb. 7, 2005). The Board sought interlocutory review of the district court's Eleventh Amendment ruling.²

II. Discussion

A. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review

In general, this court's appellate jurisdiction is confined to final judgments. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Because the denial of a motion to dismiss is not a final judgment, it is "not immediately appealable unless it satisfies the `collateral order' exception articulated in Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 545-46, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949)." Bernard v. County of Suffolk, 356 F.3d 495, 501 (2d Cir.2004); see Mancuso v. New York State Thruway Auth., 86 F.3d at 291. Under the collateral order doctrine, a non-final order is appealable only if it conclusively determines the disputed question, resolves an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action, and is effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment. See Will v. Hallock, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 126 S.Ct. 952, 957, 163 L.Ed.2d 836 (2006). The Supreme Court has held that orders rejecting Eleventh Amendment immunity claims fall squarely within the collateral order exception: "`States and state entities that claim to be "arms of the state" may take advantage of the collateral order doctrine to appeal a district court order denying a claim of Eleventh Amendment immunity.'" Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U.S. 509, 514 n. 1, 124 S.Ct. 1978, 158 L.Ed.2d 820 (2004) (quoting Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., 506 U.S. 139, 147, 113 S.Ct. 684, 121 L.Ed.2d 605 (1993)). Accordingly, because the Board claims to be an arm of the State of New York, we have jurisdiction to consider its appeal from the district court's denial of its motion to dismiss on the ground of Eleventh Amendment immunity.

We review de novo a district court's denial of a motion to dismiss. See Toussie v. Powell, 323 F.3d 178, 181 (2d Cir.2003).

B. Eleventh Amendment Immunity Does Not Extend to the Defendant Board of Education

1. Eleventh Amendment Immunity

The Eleventh Amendment states 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." U.S. Const., amend. XI. The Amendment is "`rooted in a recognition that the States, although a union, maintain certain attributes of sovereignty, including sovereign immunity,'" Hess v. Port Auth. Trans-Hudson Corp., 513 U.S. 30, 39, 115 S.Ct. 394, 130 L.Ed.2d 245 (1994) (quoting Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., 506 U.S. at 146, 113 S.Ct. 684), and "`it is inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without [the sovereign's] consent,'" Seminole Tribe v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44, 54, 116 S.Ct. 1114, 134 L.Ed.2d 252 (1996) (quoting Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 13, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890)) (emphasis removed). Although the Amendment, by its terms, bars only federal suits against state governments by citizens of another state or foreign country, it has been interpreted also to bar federal suits against state governments by a state's own citizens, see Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. at 15, 10 S.Ct. 504, as well as state court actions against state governments, see Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 712, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999). While Congress may abrogate the states' Eleventh Amendment immunity when acting pursuant to its authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, see U.S. Const., amend. XIV, § 5; Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U.S. at 518, 124 S.Ct. 1978, as a general rule, state governments may not be sued in federal court unless they have waived their Eleventh Amendment immunity, see Lapides v. Bd. of Regents, 535 U.S. 613, 618-19, 122 S.Ct. 1640, 152 L.Ed.2d 806 (2002).

The immunity recognized by the Eleventh Amendment extends beyond the states themselves to "state agents and state instrumentalities" that are, effectively, arms of a state. Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Doe, 519 U.S. 425, 429, 117 S.Ct. 900, 137 L.Ed.2d 55 (1997); see also McGinty v. New York, 251 F.3d 84, 95 (2d Cir.2001). It does not, however, extend to "suits prosecuted against a municipal corporation or other governmental entity which is not an arm of the State." Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. at 756, 119 S.Ct. 2240; see also Board of Trustees v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356, 369, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866 (2001). Thus, as this court has explained, a governmental entity is entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity only if "`it is more like an arm of the State,' such as a state agency, than like `a municipal corporation or other political subdivision.'" Mancuso v. New York State Thruway Auth., 86 F.3d at 292 (quoting 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)).

In determining whether a putative state entity is, in fact, an arm of the state, courts look to "the relationship between the State and the entity in question." Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Doe, 519 U.S. at 429, 117 S.Ct. 900. This inquiry has sometimes focused on the "`essential nature and effect of the proceeding,'" id. (quoting Ford Motor Co. v. Dep't of Treasury, 323 U.S. 459, 464, 65 S.Ct. 347, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945)), and, at other times, has looked to the "`nature of the entity created by state law,'" id. (quoting Mt. Healthy City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. at 280, 97 S.Ct. 568). Because the Supreme Court has instructed that the latter inquiry is appropriate when the named defendant is a board of education, see Mt. Healthy City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. at 280, 97 S.Ct. 568, our Eleventh Amendment inquiry in this case looks to those provisions of New York State law that define the Board's character. Notwithstanding our necessary reference to state law, the ultimate question whether a particular governmental entity is an arm of the state for Eleventh Amendment purposes is one of federal law. See Regents of the Univ. of Cal....