Opinion ID: 356200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: state's waiver

Text: 8 Congress, had it chosen to do so, could have conditioned California's operation of bridges over navigable waters on a waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity. Parden v. Terminal Railway of the Alabama State Docks Dept., 377 U.S. 184, 192, 84 S.Ct. 1207, 12 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964); Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Commission, 359 U.S. 275, 281-282, 79 S.Ct. 785, 3 L.Ed.2d 804 (1959). Parden found an express waiver in the Federal Employer's Liability Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 51, 60, which specifically authorized certain plaintiffs to sue a class of defendants which, the Court held, included the states as operators of railroads. 377 U.S. at 185-190, 84 S.Ct. 1207. Petty held that there was an express waiver in the sue-and-be-sued language of an interstate compact taken together with the language of a condition attached by Congress when it approved the compact as required by the Constitution (Article I, § 10, cl. 3). 359 U.S. at 277-278, 281-282, 79 S.Ct. 785. 9 The Supreme Court's later decision in Employees v. Missouri Public Health Dept., 411 U.S. 279, 93 S.Ct. 1614, 36 L.Ed.2d 251 (1973) stands in sharp contrast to Parden and Petty. In Employees, the Court refused to apply Parden to make the state subject to suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), on grounds that Congress had not expressly done so and would not be presumed to take such action silently. 411 U.S. at 284-285, 93 S.Ct. at 1618. 5 The Court continued: 10 It is not easy to infer that Congress, in legislating pursuant to the Commerce Clause, which has grown to vast proportions in its applications, desired silently to deprive the States of an immunity they have long enjoyed under another part of the Constitution. 11 411 U.S. at 285, 93 S.Ct. at 1618. Thus, as the Fifth Circuit concluded in Intracoastal Transportation, Inc. v. Decatur County, Georgia, supra, the decision in Employees added an additional requirement to the test for Eleventh Amendment waiver: 12 It is no longer sufficient merely to show that a State has entered a federally regulated sphere of activity and that a private cause of action is created for violating the applicable federal provision, but in addition the private litigant must show that Congress expressly provided that the private remedy is applicable to the States. 13 482 F.2d at 365. Accord, Williamson Towing Co., Inc. v. State of Illinois, supra, 534 F.2d at 762 (7th Cir. 1976). 14 This interpretation of Employees is reinforced by the later decision of Edelman v. Jordan, supra, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 622, where the Supreme Court held that a state's participation in federal programs under the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1381-1385, did not constitute waiver of the state's Eleventh Amendment immunity. Noting that, unlike the statutes construed in Parden and Petty, there was in the Social Security Act no express congressional authorization to sue a class of defendants which included the states, the Court in Edelman concluded: 15 In deciding whether a State has waived its constitutional protection under the Eleventh Amendment, we will find waiver only where stated by the most express language or by such overwhelming implications from the text as (will) leave no room for any other reasonable construction. Murray v. Wilson Distilling Co., 213 U.S. 151, 171, 29 S.Ct. 458, 53 L.Ed. 742 (1909). 16 415 U.S. at 673, 94 S.Ct. at 1360. Accord, DeLong Corporation v. Oregon State Highway Commission, 233 F.Supp. 7, 19 (D.Ore.1964), aff'd 343 F.2d 911 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 877, 86 S.Ct. 161, 15 L.Ed.2d 119 (1965). 17 Appellant has not cited, nor do we find, any provision in the Rivers and Harbors Appropriations Act or the Bridge Act of 1906 which would amount to congressional authorization of suits against the states, or meet the explicit waiver requirements announced in Employees and Edelman. We therefore conclude that California has not waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity by operating and maintaining a bridge in navigable waters of the United States. 6 18 Appellant's second theory of liability is that, by enactment of its Tort Claims Act (Cal.Govt.Code § 810 et seq.), California waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity to suits in federal courts. This is a question of state rather than federal law as it involves California's intent in enacting a particular statutory scheme. Parden v. Terminal Railway of the Alabama State Docks Dept., supra, 377 U.S. at 194-196, 84 S.Ct. 1207, 12 L.Ed.2d 233; Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Commission, supra, 359 U.S. at 278-279, 79 S.Ct. 785, 3 L.Ed.2d 804. At the same time, however, there are federal guidelines which will aid the Court in its interpretation of California's legislative intent. 19 A state may waive immunity from suit in its own courts without thereby waiving its Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit in federal courts. Kennecott Copper Corp. v. Tax Commission, 327 U.S. 573, 577-580, 66 S.Ct. 745, 90 L.Ed. 862 (1946); Great Northern Ins. Co. v. Read, 322 U.S. 47, 54, 64 S.Ct. 873, 88 L.Ed. 1121 (1944). In Great Northern, the Supreme Court held: 20 When a state authorizes a suit against itself . . . it is not consonant with our dual system for the Federal courts to be astute to read the consent to embrace federal as well as state courts. 21 322 U.S. at 54, 64 S.Ct. at 877. The Ninth Circuit has been similarly strict. In Skokomish Indian Tribe v. France, supra, 269 F.2d 555 (1959), the Court was asked to find that by consenting to quiet title actions in its own courts, the State of Washington had consented to suits in federal court. Refusing to accede to this logic, the Court held: 22 The absence of an express statutory prohibition of suits against the state in federal court is beside the point. An express or implied consent to be sued in federal court, or waiver of immunity from suit in such court, must be found. In our opinion, it is not found in a statutory provision waiving state immunity to suit in a state court. 23 269 F.2d at 561. 24 The California Tort Claims Act does not appear to contain a waiver of immunity which extends further than the California state courts. Enacted by the state legislature in 1963, the act recognizes the abrogation of governmental immunity from tort liability announced by the California Supreme Court in Muskopf v. Corning Hospital District, 55 Cal.2d 211, 11 Cal.Rptr. 89, 359 P.2d 457 (1961). See 4 Witkin, Summary of California Law, Torts §§ 79, 82. At the same time, however, the act abolished all common law tort liabilities of public entities (Cal.Govt.Code § 815), and created instead a scheme whereby public entities are liable in tort only to the extent declared by statute. See City of Orange v. Valenti, 37 Cal.App.3d 240, 245, 112 Cal.Rptr. 379 (1974). See also Witkin, Summary of California Law, supra. Thus, for example, while the California Govt.Code § 945 provides that (a) public entity may sue and be sued, some other statute must be found which imposes substantive liability. Law Revision Commission Comment to § 945. See also Cal.Govt.Code § 944 (Nothing in this part (including § 945) imposes liability upon a public entity unless such liability otherwise exists.) 7 Moreover, Cal.Govt.Code § 955.2 (the venue statute of California's Tort Claims Act), 8 seems to indicate that California's consent to be sued in tort is intended to apply only to state courts. See State of California v. Superior Court, 238 Cal.App.2d 691, 695, 48 Cal.Rptr. 156, 158 (1965) (phrase Notwithstanding any other provision of law in § 955.2 includes federal law under Cal.Govt.Code § 811 and thus seems to make § 955.2 the exclusive venue rule in any action or proceeding described in which the state is named as defendant). 9