Opinion ID: 436310
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Edelman v. Jordan and State Indemnification

Text: 30 Defendants assert that they are in a different position from most section 1983 defendants because California has enacted a law requiring the state to pay damage awards levied against California officials for acts performed in the course of their official duties. Cal.Gov't Code Sec. 825 (West 1980). 5 Defendants argue that because any damages Dr. Demery is awarded must, under California's law, be paid from public funds in the state treasury, Dr. Demery's claim is a suit against California under the rule that a suit by private parties seeking to impose a liability which must be paid from public funds in the state treasury is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 663, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1356, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). That argument lacks merit. 31 Defendants' argument is foreclosed by our post-Edelman holding in Ronwin v. Shapiro, 657 F.2d 1071 (9th Cir.1981). In that case, student members of the Arizona Law Review were sued for publishing allegedly libelous material. We held that the defendants were not immune even though Arizona had a law that, we assumed, would have required the state to indemnify them if they lost. 657 F.2d at 1074 n. 5. The Arizona law, we said, was  'a purely intramural arrangement'  between a state and its officers that a state should not be able to turn into an extension of sovereign immunity. 657 F.2d at 1074 (quoting L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law, 133 n. 22 (1978)). We noted the incongruity that would result if a state,  'by creating a fund to compensate victims, has somehow extended immunity [to state employees] so as to deny payment to the class of intended beneficiaries.'  Id. at 1075 (quoting Palmer v. Penn-Ohio Road Materials, Inc., 470 F.Supp. 1199, 1203 (W.D.Pa.1979)). 6 32 Our holding applies as strongly in the instant case. Indeed, a contrary holding would be even more anomalous when, as here, federal rights are at stake 7 --a state would then have the power effectively to prevent vindication of federal rights in federal court. As the Court stated in Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 159-60, 28 S.Ct. 441, 453-54, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), and repeated in Scheuer, 416 U.S. at 237, 94 S.Ct. at 1687, [a] state has no power to impart to [state officers] any immunity from responsibility to the supreme authority of the United States. We are thus unable to accept the proposition that a state may extend sovereign immunity to state officials merely by enacting a law assuming those officials' debts. See also Rochester Methodist Hospital v. Travelers Insurance Co., 728 F.2d 1006 (8th Cir.1984); Downing v. Williams, 624 F.2d 612 (5th Cir.1980), vacated on other grounds, 645 F.2d 1226 (5th Cir.1981). 33 Our holding is fully consistent with Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). Although the Edelman language defendants rely on, see supra at 2664, superficially supports defendants' argument, the rest of Justice Rehnquist's opinion makes it clear that the Court did not intend that a state may extend eleventh amendment immunity to its officials simply by enacting a statute by which it undertakes to indemnify officials for damage awards assessed against them. 34 In Edelman, the defendants were state officials responsible for administering federal-state disability benefits. The complaint charged that the state officials had violated federal regulations and the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs asked the district court to issue an injunction ordering the state officials to release all benefits wrongfully withheld. The complaint thus prayed that the federal court order the state officials to disburse state funds they were responsible for administering. In holding that the eleventh amendment barred the federal courts from granting such relief, the Court laid great stress on the federalism concerns underlying the eleventh amendment, concerns that it felt would be subverted if federal courts could order [state officials] to use state funds to make reparations for the past. 415 U.S. at 665, 94 S.Ct. at 1357 (quoting Rothstein v. Wyman, 467 F.2d 226, 237 (2d Cir.1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 921, 93 S.Ct. 1552, 36 L.Ed.2d 315 (1973)). See also Pennhurst II, 104 S.Ct. at 915-17 (stressing the eleventh amendment's basis in federalism). 35 The federalism concerns that influenced the Court's holding in Edelman are entirely absent from this case. When, as here, the state's obligation to pay damages derives not from the nature of plaintiff's claim, but from an entirely collateral, voluntary undertaking on the part of the state, the federal court is in no way exerting power over the state or the state's treasury. If plaintiff prevails on the merits, the court will not be ordering the state to do anything; it will only be ordering the official to pay damages. If the state official desires indemnification under the state statute, he must bring suit in a state court. See Pennhurst II. And if plaintiff prevails in his suit against the officials, any suit by him seeking to enforce his award against the state in federal court would be barred by the eleventh amendment. See Glosen v. Barnes, 724 F.2d 1418 (9th Cir.1984). 36 Because the problems the Edelman Court faced are absent here, and because a contrary rule would produce considerable and unacceptable incongruities, see supra, we read the Edelman language defendants rely on as simply another articulation of the general rules mentioned above. That the Court was restating, not modifying, these general rules is demonstrated by its citation of the Ford Motor test immediately before using the language defendants rely on. In fact, in a subsequent opinion, Justice Rehnquist, again writing for the Court, described the holding in Edelman expressly as a reaffirm[ation] [of] the rule that had evolved in ... earlier [Supreme Court] cases. Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. 332, 337, 99 S.Ct. 1139, 1143, 59 L.Ed.2d 358 (1979). If, as the Court has maintained, Edelman does not depart from prior law on this point, the language cited by defendants must be read in light of the following implicit qualification: the eleventh amendment bars suits that seek to impose a liability that, because of the nature of the claim asserted, must be paid from public funds in the state treasury. 37 Here, the state's obligation to pay does not derive from the nature of plaintiff's claim. Defendants Rowland and Cosentino are being sued for damages for which, as Scheuer makes clear, the United States has made them individually liable. The suit is not essentially one against the state: California's law does not, and cannot, change the nature of the federal claim. California's obligation to pay the damages awarded against its employees derives from an entirely collateral and voluntary undertaking on the part of the state. The Edelman rule thus does not apply. 38 Defendants also cite Rutledge v. Arizona Board of Regents, 660 F.2d 1345 (9th Cir.1981), to support their eleventh amendment argument. In Rutledge, we held that the eleventh amendment did not bar a federal civil rights suit against state officials. In so holding, we noted that [n]either the district court nor [the state official] have pointed to any law of the State of Arizona that would require that any damages, for which [the state official] would be liable ..., be paid from state funds. 660 F.2d at 1350. While that statement may suggest that state payment of damages is necessary for eleventh amendment immunity to apply, it does not indicate that such payment is sufficient to give rise to eleventh amendment immunity. Because the state was not required to pay the damages, it was not necessary for us to consider in Rutledge whether the defendants would have been entitled to eleventh amendment immunity had Arizona been required to indemnify the state officials. We considered and rejected that argument in Ronwin. Ronwin, not the negative inference defendants invite us to draw from Rutledge, states the rule in this Circuit.