Opinion ID: 782965
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Akers's tort-of-outrage claim against the Cabinet

Text: 24 The Cabinet argues that Akers's tort-of-outrage claim against it was properly dismissed because the Cabinet is protected from such a claim by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. This issue was not addressed by the district court, however, because it held that the Cabinet's conduct was not outrageous as a matter of law. 25 Akers cites the case of Gragg v. Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development, 289 F.3d 958, 963 (6th Cir.2002), for the proposition that an entity's defense of sovereign immunity will be deemed waived absent evidence in the record of how a state defines the entity, what degree of control the state has over the entity, and how the entity is funded. According to Akers, the record in this case is bereft of such evidence, resulting in a waiver of the Cabinet's sovereign immunity defense. In Gragg, however, the defendants failed to identify the claims to which the sovereign immunity defense applied, failed to argue immunity before the district court, and included only a single paragraph addressing the immunity argument in their appeal. The Cabinet in the present case, on the other hand, raised the argument in the district court and has briefed it fully on appeal. As a result, Gragg is easily distinguishable and Akers's waiver argument is without merit. We therefore affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment as to Akers's tort-of-outrage claim against the Cabinet on the grounds that such a claim is barred by sovereign immunity. 26