Opinion ID: 1136261
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: whether appellants are required to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing an action in a court of competent jurisdiction when their complaint, inter alia, alleges violations of rights secured under federal law and requests relief outside the jurisdictional authority of the employee appeals board.

Text: Appellants contend that the state civil service statute is pre-empted by 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and is in violation of the federal Constitution. Appellants allege that the state civil service statute directly contradicts with the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, and is therefore unconstitutional, because it limits the type of relief state service employees may obtain. Nothing in the designated record on appeal indicates that the Appellants ever argued below that the state civil service statute is pre-empted by 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and is in violation of the federal Constitution. In fact, the record on appeal indicates that the post-judgment motion for reconsideration was itself untimely and the lower court was without any jurisdiction to consider the new arguments advanced therein if it had wanted to. See Telford v. Aloway, 530 So.2d 179, 181 (Miss. 1988). This Court has repeatedly held that no new issues may be raised on appeal. Crowe v. Smith, 603 So.2d 301, 305 (Miss. 1992) (appellant is not entitled to raise a new issue on appeal); Parker v. Game & Fish Comm'n, 555 So.2d 725, 730 (Miss. 1989) (trial judge will not be put in error on a matter which has not been presented to him); Mills v. Nichols, 467 So.2d 924, 931 (Miss. 1985) (trial court will not be put in error on appeal for matter not presented to it for decision). This Court will not entertain on appeal a new theory of unconstitutionality which could have been raised, but was not advanced, before the trial court until a post-judgment motion. CIG Contractors, Inc. v. Miss. State Bldg. Comm'n, 510 So.2d 510, 514 (Miss. 1987); Estate of Johnson v. Adkins, 513 So.2d 922, 925 (Miss. 1987). In the present case, the circuit court's final judgment vacating the EAB order of transfer and dismissing the complaint was entered on February 9, 1994. The State Defendants' motion to dismiss and vacate was filed on October 7, 1993. The Appellants failed to file or submit any written response opposition to that motion. The Appellants' argument that the state civil service statute is in violation of the federal Constitution was not raised in the lower court until they filed their untimely Rule 59(e) motion for reconsideration of the lower court's judgment on March 10, 1994. This was 29 days after the entry of judgment. Appellants asked the trial court to consider their motion as timely and any delinquency due to the devastating ice storm that struck the area of counsel for Plaintiffs and that this constituted excusable neglect. The time limit for serving a Rule 59 motion for reconsideration is 10 days after judgment, and that period may not be enlarged except by a request being made within the time period provided and such request being granted by the court. M.R.C.P. 59(e); M.R.C.P. 6(b). Additionally, the filing of a notice of appeal transferred jurisdiction of the matter from the lower court to the Supreme Court, and the lower court is generally without authority at that point to amend, modify, or reconsider its judgment. Estate of Moreland, 537 So.2d 1345, 1346-47 (Miss. 1989) (when a proper appeal is taken the case is ipso facto removed to the appellate court). In the present, the matter was transferred to the appellate court by the filing of a notice of appeal, and the new constitutionality arguments subsequently advanced before the lower court were not properly raised in the trial court and may not be considered on appeal. Thus, the Appellants are procedurally barred from arguing on appeal that the state civil service statute is pre-empted by 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and is in violation of the federal Constitution. Finally, this assignment of error is also without merit under the United States Supreme Court's holding in Will v. Michigan Dep't of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989). In Will, the United States Supreme Court held as a matter of federal law that a federal Section 1983 suit for damages may not be brought in state court against states, state agencies, and state officials (as opposed to local political subdivisions). Under Will, even if the state civil service statute could be bypassed, a Section 1983 suit against the state defendants in state court could not be brought. The argument and cases cited by Plaintiff are accordingly inapposite. The state civil service statute and system of administrative appeal or judicial review is not unconstitutional or contrary to the federal Supremacy Clause because, as a matter of federal law, state agencies cannot be sued for damages in state court under Section 1983. Section 1983 does not itself provide any substantive rights. Instead, it is simply the federal statutory vehicle through which claims of alleged violations of federal constitutional rights may be brought and remedied under certain circumstances. Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Org., 441 U.S. 600, 617, 99 S.Ct. 1905, 1915-16, 60 L.Ed.2d 508 (1979). In Will  which was not cited, much less distinguished, by the Appellants  this issue was squarely resolved by the United States Supreme Court. There, the plaintiff, a state employee, filed a Section 1983 federal damages suit in Michigan state court against the Michigan Department of State Police alleging that he was not promoted in his employment for improper reasons in violation of the Constitution. The action was pursued both before the State Civil Service Commission and directly in state court. The Michigan Supreme Court ultimately held that the state was not a person that could be sued in state court under Section 1983, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a conflict among state and lower federal courts. Will, 491 U.S. at 61, 109 S.Ct. at 2307. Based on the language of Section 1983, the intent of Congress in enacting Section 1983, and the relevant legislative history, the United States Supreme Court affirmed. In pertinent part, the Court stated: Given that a principal purpose behind the enactment of § 1983 was to provide a federal forum for civil rights claims, and that Congress did not provide such a federal forum for civil rights claims against States, we cannot accept petitioner's argument that Congress intended nevertheless to create a cause of action against States to be brought in state courts, which are precisely the courts Congress sought to allow civil rights claimants to avoid through § 1983. Id. The Court added: [t]he intent of Congress to provide a remedy for unconstitutional state action does not without more include the sovereign States among those persons against whom § 1983 actions would lie. Construing § 1983 as a remedy for official violation of federally protected rights does no more than confirm that the section is directed against state action  action under color of state law. It does not suggest that the State itself was a person that Congress intended to be subject to liability. Id. at 68, 109 S.Ct. at 2311. The holding in Will includes agencies of the States, and state officials sued in their official capacity. Id. at 70, 109 S.Ct. at 2312. This assignment of error is without merit.