Opinion ID: 1939634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the district's claim of immunity from the statutes of limitations and repose

Text: Unlike many other asbestos and toxic tort suits, the claims on appeal were not brought by an injured individual claimant or class, but by a government instrumentality seeking damages for the cost of preventing injury to others. This raises the distinct issue, not usually addressed in toxic tort cases, of a government's legitimate role in protecting the public, and the propriety of characterizing government spending on its own property as either a public or a private function. Here, however, it also raises the more immediate question whether the District government, because or in spite of its unique legal status, is entitled to a privilege accorded state governments but not ordinary litigants: immunity from the passage of time. The District asserts that it enjoys sovereign immunity from the statute of limitations and statute of repose under a common-law principle called nullum tempus occurrit regi (no time runs against the sovereign). This doctrine has sometimes been invoked to defend the propriety of actions commenced by a state after a statute of limitations would ordinarily have run. [11] The District of Columbia, however, has never been admitted to the Union as a state. The District is, of course, a distinct jurisdiction and a governmental entity. For relevant purposes, it has been variously compared to or described as a state, territory, or municipality, and sometimes it has simply been called unique. [12] Our question, therefore, is whether the government of the District is entitled to immunity in any of these capacities. We eschew deciding broader questions about the District's status because, following other jurisdictions, we are satisfied that it is entitled to limited immunity in its municipal capacity. This immunity encompasses the claims now on appeal. We therefore reach only the existence of the immunity and its applicability to the institutions bringing suit.
It is well settled that sovereigns enjoy a common-law immunity from the operation of statutes of limitations and repose. See Guaranty Trust Co. v. United States, 304 U.S. 126, 132, 58 S.Ct. 785, 788-89, 82 L.Ed. 1224 (1938). Like immunity from suit, the sovereign exemption from the running of time originated as a royal privilege, id., and perhaps survived the Revolution more by force of habit or precedent than by reason. See United States v. Lee, 106 U.S. 196, 207, 1 S.Ct. 240, 249, 27 L.Ed. 171 (1982); [13] 3 K. DAVIS, ADMINISTRATIVE LAW TREATISE § 25.01, at 436-37 (1958). Nevertheless, it was long and creditably argued, at least regarding sovereign immunity from suit, that the law could not be invoked against the lawgiver, and consequently, the privilege continued in the states. Kawananakoa, supra note 11, 205 U.S. at 353, 27 S.Ct. at 527 (Holmes, J.). [14] Ultimately, it seems, the lone explanation of historical prerogative was unsatisfactory, perhaps because, in arbitrary fashion, it seemed to give the government a right that was withheld from the people. Especially as the legislatures and courts began limiting the scope of sovereign immunity from suit, [15] a more plausible justification for the parallel doctrine of nullum tempus seemed necessary if immunity from the effect of time was to continue. Therefore the Supreme Court explained in Guaranty Trust, supra, 304 U.S. at 132, 58 S.Ct. at 788-89, that the rule expresses a legitimate public policy of preserving public rights, revenues, and property from injury or loss, by the negligence of public officers. And although this is sometimes called a prerogative right, it is in fact nothing more than a reservation, or exception, introduced for the public benefit, and equally applicable to all governments. Id. (quoting United States v. Hoar, 26 Fed.Cas. 329, 330 (C.C. D.Mass.1821) (No. 15,373)). Thus, the policy of protecting the lawgiver was reunited with more democratic principles, for it was recognized that the people, as sovereign, are entitled to immunity from government functionaries' lax prosecution of public rights. Id. [16] The inherent limitation of this doctrine, of course, is that the rights protected must be of a public nature, and not merely the private or proprietary interests of particular institutions. See District of Columbia v. Weiss, 263 A.2d 638, 639 (D.C.1970); Stonewall Construction Co. v. McLaughlin, 151 A.2d 535, 536 (D.C.1959). There is substantial authority for the application of the nullum tempus doctrine to actions brought by state government authorities. See supra note 10. The existence of the doctrine is not, and cannot be, in issue. Rather, the applicability of the doctrine to municipalities, and to the District of Columbia in particular, are debated in this case. The dispute boils down to a perceived conflict between the Supreme Court's disposition in Metropolitan Railroad, supra note 11, 132 U.S. at 22, 10 S.Ct. at 20, and our own holdings in Weiss, supra, and Stonewall Construction, supra . In Metropolitan Railroad the District of Columbia sued a private company, which was under congressional charter to provide local transit service in the District and maintain the pavement adjacent to its trackbeds, for damages in the amount the District had expended to repair pavements defendant had failed to maintain. 132 U.S. at 2, 10 S.Ct. at 20. The Court held the District's suit barred by the statute of limitations, reasoning that the District was a municipal body merely, id. at 3, 10 S.Ct. at 20, having a right to sue and be sued according to the ordinary rules governing suits between private parties. Id. at 9, 10 S.Ct. at 22. The Court further held that the sovereign power of the District was lodged in the federal government, not the District corporation. Id. Significantly, however, the Court reserved judgment as to whether a municipality could be time-barred from asserting a right where the alleged offense infringed on the sovereign power itself, and where the municipality had acquired a right in the interest protected by that sovereign power. Id. at 11, 10 S.Ct. at 23. The Court explained: What may be the rule in regard to purprestures [wrongful enclosures of public spaces by private parties] and public nuisances, by encroachments on the highways and other public places, it is not necessary to determine. They are generally offenses against the sovereign power itself, and, as such, no length of time can protect them. Where the right of property in such places is vested in the municipality, an assertion of that right may or may not be subject to the law of limitations. We express no opinion on that point, since it may be affected by considerations which are not involved in the present case. Id. Thus, the Court intimated that the right asserted in Metropolitan Railroad was not inherently sovereign, and that the District, being a municipality, lacked intrinsic sovereignty. However, it left open the question whether the District might be protected by nullum tempus when it did acquire a right to protect an intrinsically sovereign interest or when exercising any right which is peculiarly that of a sovereign. As discussed further below, we conclude that the immunities asserted by the District in this case are distinct from those asserted in Metropolitan Railroad in that they are not claimed as sovereign or quasisovereign privileges belonging intrinsically to the District government, but rather, solely in connection with public functions delegated to it to be performed in the posture of a municipality. Facially, our decisions in Weiss and Stonewall Construction appear to contradict the Supreme Court's holding in Metropolitan Railroad. In Weiss, supra, 263 A.2d at 639-40, an action the District brought to compel appellee to pay for services at a public hospital, we held that the District could not be time-barred from asserting a public right. Similarly, in Stonewall Construction, supra, 151 A.2d at 536, an action brought by the District of Columbia Unemployment Compensation Board to recover unpaid compulsory unemployment contributions, we held that the Board's action was not barred by the statute of limitations because it asserted a public right. Appellees argue that Metropolitan Railroad renders Weiss invalid, and, citing dictum in Ward v. District of Columbia, 494 A.2d 666, 668 n. 1 (D.C.1985), that Stonewall Construction is inapposite because in it the sovereignty of Congressnot that of the District of Columbiablocked application of the statute. Id. The latter argument begs the question. All authority exercised by the District government is derived from congressional mandate. [17] The issue is therefore not whether the relevant power belongs to the District or to Congress, but whether a municipality may wield a congressionally mandated power subject to the protections ordinarily accorded the wielder of that power. This is the crux of the question that the Supreme Court left open in Metropolitan Railroad. It is in this legal context that we must examine whether the exercise of a particular power is subject to time-bars or exempt from them. We conclude that in initiating law suits like the one before us, the District enjoys municipal immunity from the running of time. To this day, the District is legally organized as a municipal corporation. D.C. Code § 1-102 (1987 Repl.). There is, of course, a significant distinction between legislative and municipal powers. The authority that the Constitution grants Congress over the District is unlike any other Article I power, however, in that it necessarily includes state or municipal functions. [18] An objective reading of the Home Rule Act demonstrates that Congress has delegated at least these municipal functions, as well as significant legislative authority, to the District. [19] This delegation includes the authority to perform public functions, such as providing for public health and safety. [20] Nevertheless, there is no need for us to decide that the District has all the sovereignty of a state to conclude that it enjoys the protection of the nullum tempus doctrine. There is considerable authority in other jurisdictions that when a municipality performs a public function, it enjoys legal immunity from the running of time. [21] We acknowledge that contrary authority exists, [22] but it is clear that a circumscribed municipal immunity in the performance of public functions is today the rule in an overwhelming majority of states, and we recognize its authority here. [23] Our opinions in Weiss and Stonewall Construction merely apply the majority rule. Moreover, today's holding is consistent with Metropolitan Railroad because the Supreme Court there expressly declined to hold that no municipal activities are insulated from the statute of limitations by the doctrine of nullum tempus. 132 U.S. at 12, 10 S.Ct. at 23. The Court did note that a municipal corporation generally has the right to sue and be sued, and [is] subject to the ordinary rules that govern the law of procedure between private persons. Id. at 9, 10 S.Ct. at 22. Yet today a host of jurisdictions hold that municipalities enjoy a limited immunity not shared by private parties. Do they contradict a holding of the Supreme Court? The answer lies in the question: they are not contradicting the Supreme Court. The issue in Metropolitan Railroad was not, as it is here, the existence of municipal immunity, but rather, whether the District of Columbia might invoke sovereign immunity. The answer was that it could not do so, because the District was not a state, and Congress had then narrowly restricted the rights and powers that the District was authorized to exercise. By sovereign immunity, of course, we refer to the immunity a political community or institution enjoys by right of its political status, and not merely by virtue of the legal function it performs at a given time. [24] While sovereign immunity may be waived by permission or by statute, Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, 370 U.S. 530, 563-64, 82 S.Ct. 1459, 1479-80, 8 L.Ed.2d 671 (1962) (immunity from tort liability), it continues to exist as a privilege the sovereign may reclaim. Maricopa County v. Valley National Bank, 318 U.S. 357, 362, 63 S.Ct. 587, 589, 87 L.Ed. 834 (1943) (immunity from liability to suit); Pass v. McGrath, 89 U.S.App.D.C. 371, 372, 192 F.2d 415, 416 (1951) (immunity from liability to suit). By contrast, the derivative immunity a municipality enjoys inheres in it only when it performs a sovereign function, such as the vindication of a public right, and then only with reference to the function performed. [25] We do not reach the issue of sovereignty here; we merely hold that in its municipal capacity, the District enjoys a common-law immunity under the doctrine of nullum tempus. [26] Underlying our recognition of a doctrine widely applied elsewhere is a functional rather than a formalistic reading of the immunity issue. We have already noted that, like immunity from suit, immunity from statutes of limitations and repose is the artifact of a royal prerogative. Nevertheless, courts did not vest this right in the successor governments as a mere legal inheritance, but adopted a more substantive justification consistent with the public good: defense of the public interest and public fisc from the negligence of the government's agents. The administration of the public interest and the public fisc in the District of Columbia has been vested by act of Congress in the District of Columbia government. That government has been charged, among other things, with seeing to the health and safety of the citizens in its jurisdiction. See D.C.Code § 1-315 (1987 Repl.) (authorizing specific police regulations); D.C.Code § 1-319 (1987 Repl.) (authorizing general regulations for the protection of lives, limbs, health, comfort and quiet of all persons and the protection of all property). Under such circumstances, to hold that legal immunity resides in the actor rather than the act would divorce the principle from its purpose. It would expose the citizenry of the District, unlike the citizens of any other United States jurisdiction, to hazard without redress. Indeed, it would render nugatory the very functions Congress intended to strengthen by vesting them in a local government.
Appellees attempt to persuade us that because Congress is sovereign in the District, the government of the District of Columbia is devoid of the authority necessary to enjoy municipal immunity. They contend by analogy to the relationship between a state and its municipal subdivisions that Congress is sovereign, and is thus the sole repository of sovereign immunity in the District. We disagree. The abundance of cases holding that municipal subdivisions enjoy limited immunities belies this position, and the logic underlying Congress' delegation of powers renders it completely untenable. There is general agreement that the Constitution gives Congress plenary power over the District of Columbia. [27] Thus there can be no doubt that theoretically, if Congress chose, it could govern the District directly, without the help of a municipal government or its agencies. Since Congress is sovereign in the District, it enjoys the usual sovereign immunities, including the benefit of nullum tempus. In creating a municipal government, and in ultimately granting it broad governmental powers, Congress intended, among other things, to relieve [itself] of the burden of legislating upon essentially local District matters. Home Rule Act, § 102(a) (Statement of Purposes). The Home Rule Act explicitly provides that the legislative power of the District shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation within the District consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this Act subject to all the restrictions and limitations imposed upon the States by the tenth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States. Id., § 302. Thus Congress granted broad, but not exclusive, legislative powers to the District, analogous to the powers of the states, and directed to the performance of many public functions typically exercised by the government of a state. The supposition that Congress delegated to the District government all rightful subjects of legislation ... consistent with the Constitution, and established the foundations of self-rule, without also granting the District immunity under the doctrine of nullum tempus, engenders serious logical difficulties. It involves admitting that, except when Congress explicitly disapproves District legislation, it becomes the law of the jurisdiction, and that all significant public policy and public services originate with the agencies and instrumentalities of the District, yet only Congress enjoys immunity from the running of the statutes of limitations and repose. It suggests that while the District government performs practically all public functions in this jurisdiction, only Congress, which rarely participates directly in local affairs, enjoys the benefit of an immunity designed to protect those public functions. Thus, under this theory, Congress' immunity is irrelevant when the District acts, even if the District performs functionsas it mustwhich are within the scope of congressional immunity. The protection is thereby separated from its purpose, and the public, which is supposed to be the beneficiary of the immunity, is bereft of it. Of course, [t]his would be to overthrow in fact what was established in theory; ... an absurdity too gross to be insisted on. [28] It cannot be argued that Congress intended to remove this protection or diminish its own power by the mere act of delegating it to the District. Yet this is the inevitable consequence of a formalistic, rather than functionalistic, reading of the nullum tempus doctrine. Common sense counsels that the protection of nullum tempus, if it is to be meaningful, must follow the function performed, and not reside only in institutions that, as a matter of policy, refrain from exercising the functions the doctrine was designed to insulate. [29] We therefore conclude that the District of Columbia is immune from the running of the statutes of limitations and repose when it brings suit seeking to vindicate public rights and involving the performance of public functions.