[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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No. 18-13781

Non-Argument Calendar

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D.C. Docket No. 2:18-cv-00675-RDP

STAN MCADAMS, 

 Plaintiff-Appellant,

 versus

JEFFERSON COUNTY 911 EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT, 

INC, THE, 

an Alabama domestic corporation, 

 Defendant-Appellee.

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Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Alabama

________________________

(July 24, 2019)

Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, JILL PRYOR, and ANDERSON, Circuit 

Judges.

PER CURIAM:

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In June 2018 Stan McAdams filed an amended complaint alleging that the

Jefferson County 911 Emergency Communications District demoted him because 

of his multiple sclerosis in violation of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities 

Act. The following month the district court granted Jefferson County 911’s motion 

to dismiss the complaint, finding that Jefferson County 911 was an arm of the State 

of Alabama and thus entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh 

Amendment. We disagree.

I. 

Alabama’s Emergency Telephone Service Act allows municipalities and 

counties to establish emergency communications districts as “political and legal 

subdivisions of the state, with power to sue and be sued in their corporate names 

and to incur debt and issue bonds” that are “solely the obligations of the district 

and not the State of Alabama” and payable only “out of the income, revenues, and 

receipts of the district.” Ala. Code § 11-98-2. Alabama law authorizes these 

municipalities and counties to appoint a board of commissioners with extensive 

independent authority over communications districts. Id. § 11-98-4(a), (f). Boards

of commissioners have “complete and sole authority to appoint a chairman and any 

other officers,” id. § 11-98-4(b), and the ability to “employ such employees, 

experts, and consultants as [the board] deems necessary,” id. § 11-98-4(d). “In 

addition to other authority and powers necessary to establish, operate, maintain, 

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and replace a communication system,” a district’s board of commissioners has the 

authority to “sue and be sued, to prosecute, and defend civil actions in any court,” 

to borrow money, to construct communication systems, and to “enter into contracts 

or agreements with public or private safety agencies” — among other powers. Id.

§ 11-98-4(f).

In 2012 Alabama “substantially overhauled the ETSA,” revamping how 

communications districts were overseen and funded but leaving “intact §§ 11–98–2 

and 11–98–4, which created and gave authority to the emergency-communications 

districts.” Century Tel of Ala., LLC v. Dothan/Houston Cty. Commc’ns Dist., 197 

So. 3d 456, 459 (Ala. 2015). The legislature replaced the Commercial Mobile 

Radio Service Board with a statewide 911 Board, id., whose members are 

appointed by the governor, Ala. Code § 11-98-4.1(b). The amendments 

implemented a single fee collected by the 911 Commission, with proceeds 

deposited into a statewide 911 Fund to be distributed to individual districts

according to a statutory formula. Century, 197 So. 3d at 459; see Ala. Code § 11-

98-5.2(b). But Alabama law stipulates that “revenues deposited into the 911 Fund 

shall not be monies or property of the state and shall not be subject to appropriation 

by the Legislature.” Ala. Code § 11-98-5.2(a). And despite all of the 2012 

amendments’ reforms, “the districts continue to exist and have all the powers and 

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authority set forth by §§ 11–98–2 and 11–98–4 prior to the 2012 amendments to 

the ETSA.” Century, 197 So. 3d at 459. 

II.

In its order granting Jefferson County 911’s motion to dismiss, the district 

court found that communications districts are entitled to sovereign immunity 

despite the Alabama Supreme Court’s opinion in Wassman v. Mobile County 

Communications District, 665 So. 2d 941 (Ala. 1995). In Wassman the Alabama 

Supreme Court determined that the Mobile County Communications District was a 

“government entity” subject to a statutory cap on damages under state law, but was 

not an “agency of the state” entitled to sovereign immunity under the Alabama 

constitution. Id. at 942–43. The Alabama Supreme Court based its conclusion on

two considerations: (1) The district was operated by the county and city and was 

created by a county ordinance as authorized by state law, and (2) “the ‘power to 

sue and to be sued’ language in the empowering statute is incompatible with the 

constitutional immunity with which state agencies are cloaked.” Id. at 943.

The district court in this case found that the subsequent passage of the 2012 

amendments justified distinguishing Wassman for two reasons. First, the court 

found that although communications districts were previously “under the authority 

of counties and municipalities” the amendments put them “under the authority of 

the statewide 911 Board.” Second, the court noted that although “communications 

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districts were funded by the municipalities in each district” before the 2012 

amendments, they are now “funded through statewide 911 charges.” 

III.

We review de novo a district court’s order granting or denying an Eleventh 

Amendment sovereign immunity defense. Garrett v. Univ. of Ala. at Birmingham 

Bd. of Trs., 344 F.3d 1288, 1290 (11th Cir. 2003). “Under the traditional Eleventh 

Amendment paradigm, states are extended immunity, counties and similar 

municipal corporations are not, and entities that share characteristics of both 

require a case-by-case analysis.” United States ex rel. Lesinski v. S. Fla. Water 

Mgmt. Dist., 739 F.3d 598, 601 (11th Cir. 2014). 

The Eleventh Amendment shields a state’s “officers and entities when they 

act as an ‘arm of the state.’” Id. at 601. We balance four factors to determine 

whether an entity acts as an “arm of the state” entitled to sovereign immunity: “(1)

how state law defines the entity; (2) what degree of control the State maintains 

over the entity; (3) where the entity derives its funds; and (4) who is responsible 

for judgments against the entity.” Manders v. Lee, 338 F.3d 1304, 1309 (11th Cir. 

2003). These factors “must be assessed in light of the particular function in which 

the defendant was engaged when taking the actions out of which liability is 

asserted to arise.” Id. at 1308. 

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The first factor weighs against granting Jefferson County 911 sovereign 

immunity because the Alabama Supreme Court held in Wassman that the Mobile 

County Communications District was not an agency of the state. See Tuveson v. 

Fla. Governor’s Council on Indian Affairs, Inc., 734 F.2d 730, 732 (11th Cir. 

1984) (stating that the “most important factor” in evaluating whether an entity is 

entitled to sovereign immunity “is how the entity has been treated by the state 

courts.”). We disagree with the district court’s conclusion that Wassman is 

distinguishable because it was decided before the 2012 amendments were enacted.

The district court found that the amendments significantly changed how Alabama 

law defines communications districts because the amendments undermined local 

authority over districts and changed how they are funded. But we are unconvinced 

that communications districts are no longer “under the authority of counties and 

municipalities,” as the district court believed. The Alabama Supreme Court has 

recognized that the 2012 amendments “left intact” the significant independent 

authority that §§ 11–98–2 and 11–98–4 bestow on locally appointed boards of 

commissioners. Century, 197 So. 3d at 459. And although the district court is 

correct that the amendments changed how communications districts are funded, 

this was not a factor that the Alabama Supreme Court considered in Wassman. 

That decision was instead based on two considerations that remain just as relevant 

today: (1) communications districts are created by local ordinance and operated by 

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local authorities as authorized by state law, and (2) the “power to sue and be sued” 

language “is incompatible with the constitutional immunity with which state 

agencies are cloaked.” Wassman, 665 So. 2d at 943. 

The second factor also weighs strongly against considering communications 

districts arms of the state because there is no evidence that the State of Alabama

exerts any control over the particular function at issue here: personnel decisions 

within a communications district. Jefferson County 911 has pointed to no 

authority indicating that the 911 Board or any other state agency has control over 

such personnel decisions, and Alabama law stipulates that a local board of 

commissioners has the power to “employ such employees, experts, and consultants

as [the board] deems necessary,” Ala. Code § 11-98-4(d). So personnel decisions 

are made by local boards of commissioners, which are in turn appointed by 

counties and municipalities.

The third factor, where the entity derives its funds, does not support granting 

sovereign immunity. Although the 2012 amendments created a statewide 911 

Fund, they specifically stated that revenues deposited into the fund are not “monies 

or property of the state.” Ala. Code § 11-98-5.2(a). It is true that the 911 Fund 

pools revenues statewide before redistributing them to particular districts. But 

these distributions are determined by statute and not by the 911 Board or any 

legislative oversight committee. See id. § 11-98-5.2(b)(2).

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The final factor, whether Alabama is responsible for judgments against 

communications districts, weighs against considering them arms of the state. 

Under state law a communications district can “sue and be sued” and incur debts 

that are “solely the obligations of the district and not the State of Alabama” and 

payable only “out of the income, revenues, and receipts of the district.” Id. § 11-

98-2. So it does not appear that Alabama would be financially responsible for a 

judgment against Jefferson County 911.

After considering all of these factors, we conclude that when Jefferson 

County 911demoted McAdams it did not act as an arm of the state entitled to 

sovereign immunity.

VACATED AND REMANDED. 

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