Opinion ID: 696213
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the Sovereign has Immunized Itself

Text: 24 The Act provides that [a]ll compensation and salaries and all expenses incurred in carrying out the provisions of this act shall be paid solely from funds provided under the authority of this act.... 36 P.S. Sec. 651.8(a). Furthermore, the Act provides that all bonds, notes and other obligations issued by the Commission under the Act 25 shall not be deemed to be a debt of the Commonwealth or a pledge of the faith and credit of the Commonwealth, but such bonds, notes or other obligations shall be payable solely from the revenues of the commission.... All such bonds, notes or other obligations shall contain a statement on their face that the Commonwealth is not obligated to pay the same or the interest thereon except from revenues of the commission ... and that the faith and credit of the Commonwealth is not pledged to the payment of the principal or interest of such bonds, notes or other obligations. The issuance of turnpike revenue bonds, notes or other obligations under the provisions of this act shall not directly or indirectly or contingently obligate the Commonwealth to levy or to pledge any form of taxation whatever therefor or to make any appropriation for their payment. 26 36 P.S. Sec. 651.4. 27 The Commission observes that the General Assembly of Pennsylvania has not expressly immunized the state from responsibility for all of the Commission's possible debts and liabilities. Nowhere in the Commission's original or subsequent enabling acts, the Commission notes, is there a provision disclaiming Pennsylvania's responsibility for the Commission's unassumed liabilities and obligations. One can imagine, the Commission suggests, numerous situations in which the Commission would face unassumed liabilities or debts large enough to exhaust the Commission's funds and necessitate the Commission's rescue by the Commonwealth. 28 In light of our case law, we do not agree that the absence of a blanket disclaimer is significant. What is significant under our case law is the fact that the Commission has failed to establish that Pennsylvania is under any affirmative obligation to pay the Commission's unassumed liabilities in the first place. See Bolden, 953 F.2d at 819 (A state legislature might feel compelled as a practical matter to subsidize a variety of entities that provide necessary services, including financially pressed municipalities. Such discretionary subsidies committed in reaction to a judgment, however, would not necessarily transform the recipients into alter egos of the state.). Although the Commonwealth might well choose to appropriate money to the Commission to enable it to meet a shortfall caused by an adverse judgment, such voluntary payments by a state simply  'do not trigger [Eleventh Amendment] immunity.'  Id. (quoting Fitchik, 873 F.2d at 661). 8 29 The Commission has failed to establish that (1) a judgment against it would be tantamount to a judgment against the Treasury of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; (2) the Commission lacks financial resources sufficient to pay a potential judgment against it; or (3) Pennsylvania would be under any obligation to cover any such potential judgment against the Commission. Accordingly, on the record as it stands before us, the funding factor, the most important of the three, weighs heavily in support of the conclusion that the Commission is not an arm of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and does not enjoy Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit in federal court.