Title: State v. University of Arkansas Board of Trustees

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

407 S.W.2d 916 (1966) STATE of Arkansas, Bill Laney, Comm. of Labor etc., Appellant, v. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS BOARD OF TRUSTEES etc., Appellee. No. 5-3939. Supreme Court of Arkansas. November 14, 1966. Curtis E. Rickard, Department of Labor, Little Rock, for appellant. Owens, McHaney & McHaney, Little Rock, for appellee. McFADDIN, Justice. The decisive question is whether the Commissioner of Labor of the State of Arkansas can successfully sue the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas, in the teeth of the Constitutional Provision (Art. 5, Sec. 20), which reads: "The State of Arkansas shall never be made defendant in any of her courts." The Chancery Court held that the suit could not be maintained; and we affirm that holding. The University of Arkansas maintains a food service at Fayetteville and employs a number of persons, among whom are 68 women, for whose benefit the present suit was filed. In August 1965 Bill Laney, as Commissioner of Labor of the State of Arkansas, filed this suit, naming as defendant, "University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, d/b/a University of Arkansas and University Food Service." The complaint alleged that the 68 named women, working for the University Food Service, had been required to work in excess of eight hours per day and had not received overtime pay, as required by Ark.Stat.Ann. § 81-613 et seq. (Repl.1960). The prayer of the complaint was: The defendant Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas, after first unsuccessfully objecting to venue (and we do not pass on that issue), then pleaded that the suit against the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas was a suit against the State and could not be maintained because of the language of Art. 5, Sec. 20 of the Arkansas Constitution, as previously quoted. From the ruling of the Chancery Court sustaining such plea, the Commissioner of Labor brings this appeal. In the light of the holding of the United States Supreme Court in State of Arkansas *917 v. State of Texas,[1] we hold that this suit against the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees is a suit against the State. In the cited case, Arkansas sued Texas in the United States Supreme Court. It was alleged that the Wm. Buchanan Foundation had made a contract with the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas, and that the State of Texas was interfering with the contract. The basis of the jurisdiction was because of Art. 3, Sec. 2 of the United States Constitution, which gives the Supreme Court of the United States jurisdiction of suits between States. Texas denied the jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court, claiming that the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas was a body politic and corporate entirely separate from the State of Arkansas. Thus, the status of the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas was the decisive point on the matter of jurisdiction. The United States Supreme Court sustained Arkansas' claim of jurisdiction, saying: Our own cases are to the same effect as is the said holding of the United States Supreme Court. The Allen Engineering Co. v. Kays, 106 Ark. 174, 152 S.W. 992; and Watson v. Dodge, 187 Ark. 1055, 63 S.W.2d 993. Since the present suit by the Commissioner of Labor against the "Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas" is a suit against the State, it cannot be maintained; and there is no necessity for us to consider any of the other questions presented. The decree of the Chancery Court is affirmed. [1] 346 U.S. 368, 74 S. Ct. 109, 98 L. Ed. 80.