Opinion ID: 2631221
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sovereign immunity and article IV

Text: ¶ 32 Article IV requires the legislature to direct by law in what manner and in what courts suits may be brought against the state. The majority today says these sparse directions empower the legislature to institute or re-institute the doctrine of sovereign immunity and thus forbid the bringing of any action against the state. The majority is reluctant to say that, but what else is meant when it concludes that the legislature has power to control actions against the state and authority to define those instances in which public entities and employees are entitled to immunity? Ante ¶¶ 24 and 25. But the language of article IV says no such thing. Whether actions may be brought is not addressed in the text; if anything, it seems to direct just the opposite. It seems to contemplate and assume such suits may be brought and empowers the legislature to regulate how and where they may be brought, not to forbid them. That interpretation not only follows the text but would harmonize article IV with the anti-abrogation provision of article XVIII, section 6. [15] ¶ 33 The majority, however, disregards the text of article IV and the framers' specific concern with damage actions and interprets article IV as an empowerment provision with respect to the doctrine of sovereign immunity, though nothing in the text of the constitution or the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention supports this or indicates that the concept of sovereign immunity was mentioned, let alone discussed. Indeed, Arizona first recognized the doctrine of sovereign immunitythat the king could do no wrongin 1920 in an action seeking to impose vicarious liability against the state for damages sustained when a derrick used in construction of the state capitol building fell on the plaintiff. State v. Sharp, 21 Ariz. 424, 189 P. 631 (1920). We held that it is well settled by the great weight of authority that the state, in consequence of its sovereignty, is immune from prosecution in the courts and from liability to respond in damages for negligence, except in those cases where it has expressly waived immunity or assumed liability by constitutional or legislative enactment. Id. at 426, 189 P. at 631. ¶ 34 Absent from this holding is any indication that the court believed article IV left the question to the legislature. If so, of course, the legislature's failure to enact sovereign immunity would have meant that the doctrine was not recognized in Arizona because the only legislation implementing article IV had authorized suits against the state on contract or for negligence. See Civil Code of 1913, section 1791. But the Sharp court itself imposed the immunity doctrine as a matter of common law. In fact, the court rejected the argument that the legislature waived or rejected immunity by enacting section 1791, Civil Code of 1913, which provided: All persons who have, or who shall hereafter have claims on contract or for negligence against the state, which have been disallowed, are hereby authorized, on the terms and conditions herein contained, to bring suit thereon against the state in any of the courts of this state of competent jurisdiction, and prosecute the same to final judgment. Quoted in Sharp, 21 Ariz. at 426, 189 P. at 631 (emphasis added). If article IV conferred authority on the legislature with respect to enacting or rejecting sovereign immunity, then the statute was obviously a waiver or rejection. But we held that the effect of this statute was not to reject immunity but merely to give a remedy to enforce a liability, the state submitting itself to the jurisdiction of the court, subject to its right to impose any lawful defense. Immunity from an action is one thing; immunity from liability is another; hence the state does not waive its immunity from liability for the negligence of its agents, servants or employees.... Id. at 428, 189 P. at 632 (emphasis added). ¶ 35 No concern was shown about the legislature's authority under article IV. It was the court's authority under which sovereign immunity was imposed. Nor was the legislature later asked or permitted to play a part in abolishing the defense of immunity. What the court gave in Sharp it took away in Stone v. Arizona Highway Commission , holding that the substantive defense of governmental immunity is now abolished. 93 Ariz. 384, 392, 381 P.2d 107, 112 (1963) (emphasis added). Again, the court seemed unaware of what the majority has today discovered in article IVlegislative authority to institute, abolish, or control the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The matter was simply one of common law. [16] ¶ 36 Thus, the principles developed in our construction of the anti-abrogation clause of article XVIII, section 6 apply. That clause protects not only the causes of action and theories that existed as of statehood in 1912 but also the rights protected by common law as it has evolved since statehood. See Hazine v. Montgomery Elevator Co., 176 Ariz. 340, 343-44, 861 P.2d 625, 628-29 (1993). Under the common law established in Sharp, the wrong was recognized and the right existed, but the state's liability could not be enforced because of the sovereign immunity defense. Stone upset that regime and abolished the defense. We said in Hazine that the law must allow for evolution of common-law actions to reflect today's needs and knowledge. Any other rule would allow those `long dead' to dictate solutions to problems of which they could not have been aware. Id. at 344, 861 P.2d at 629 (quoting Boswell v. Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., 152 Ariz. 9, 18, 730 P.2d 186, 195 (1986)). ¶ 37 Therefore, when Stone abolished the sovereign immunity defense, the common law right to recover damages for the sovereign's torts came under the protection of article XVIII, section 6. The legislature should therefore not be permitted free reign over the doctrine, as today's majority holds.