Opinion ID: 2638592
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Court of Appeals' Disposition on Remand from the Supreme Court

Text: {9} On remand from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals addressed whether the State had waived its sovereign immunity from suit under the FLSA. The Court determined, based on this Court's opinion in Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Ass'n v. County of Bernalillo, 114 N.M. 695, 699, 845 P.2d 789, 793 (1992), that an FLSA claim sounds in contract and that any consent to Plaintiff's FLSA claim must be inferred from [the] waiver of sovereign immunity [in NMSA 1978, § 37-1-23(A) (1976) ] for `actions based on a valid written contract.' Cockrell v. Bd. of Regents of N.M. State Univ., No. 19,346, slip op. at 3 (N.M.Ct.App. Apr. 28, 2000). The Court of Appeals remanded the matter for the district court to determine whether Cockrell's complaint alleged a valid written contract within the meaning of Section 37-1-23(A). If Plaintiff establishes a contract within Section 37-1-23(A)'s waiver of immunity and that the contract incorporates the FLSA, then Plaintiff may assert FLSA claims arising out of that contract. Cockrell, slip op. at 4. NMSU then petitioned this Court to review the Court of Appeals' determination that Cockrell could pursue an FLSA claim if the provisions of the FLSA were incorporated, either by express or implied-in-fact agreement or by operation of law, into a valid written contract with NMSU. In the context of NMSU's petition, it is significant that the Court of Appeals, evaluating this identical issue, reached a different conclusion on remand from the Supreme Court in its published opinion in Whittington v. State Department of Public Safety, 2000-NMCA-055, 129 N.M. 221, 4 P.3d 668, cert. granted, 129 N.M. 250, 4 P.3d 1241, (2000). In that case, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's dismissal of the plaintiffs' direct FLSA claims on the basis of sovereign immunity. Id. ¶ 5. Unlike the mandate in NMSU's interlocutory appeal in the present case, under which Cockrell could have pursued a direct FLSA claim if he was able to demonstrate an implied contract, the Court of Appeals did not remand the FLSA claims in Whittington. See id. The Court, instead, merely noted that the dismissal of the FLSA claims did not control the resolution of the plaintiffs' separate contract claim that was not a part of the plaintiffs' appeal. Id. The plaintiffs in Whittington then petitioned this Court for review of the Court of Appeals' dismissal of the FLSA claims. This Court granted NMSU's petition for writ of certiorari in this case in order to review the Court of Appeals' analysis of sovereign immunity in the wake of Alden. We also granted the petitions in both this case and Whittington in order to resolve the inconsistent holdings from the Court of Appeals in these two cases.