Court Opinion

ID: 9470497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:07:40.737229+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:56.093559
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
While I would affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of appellee, I do so for reasons other than those stated in the majority opinion.
The majority implicitly holds that if appellant had joined Putnam County as a defendant, plaintiff’s complaint would have stated a cause of action. In my view, nonjoinder of Putnam County does not determine whether Noone is or is not an agent of Putnam County. While courts in other jurisdictions have held a county liable for a political subdivision’s breach of the statutory requirements of Title VII,1 this must be *522determined by the law of the state in which the county lies. While 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e(b) (1981) defines an employer to include the responsible person and “any agent of such a person,” the section gives no guidelines for determining the agency relationship. It seems logical that a person should not be liable for Title VII derelictions of another as agent unless the person has some supervisory control over the “agent.” Such control would be indicated if the terms of employment such as pay, hours, and benefits are fixed by the “employer” rather than by the “agent.” Other facts that assist in making a judgment would be the source of funds for salaries and wages, whether the employees of the two parties have a common pension fund, and whether the employees are subject to a common civil service employment and grievance policy. In a case such as this, inquiry must be made into the constitution and laws of the state to determine the relationship between the county and the political subdivision of the county.
I conclude from the Florida constitutional and statutory scheme and the facts in this case that Noone was not an agent of the county within the terms of the federal statute. The office of tax collector in Florida is created by the constitution of that state, Fla. Const, art. 7, sec. 1(d). The tax collector receives his commission from the governor of Florida, and in the case of the death of a tax collector a vacancy in the office is filled by the governor and not by the county commissioners. See In re Advisory Opinion to the Governor, 313 So.2d 717 (Fla.1975). The law of Florida makes the tax collector of each county an arm of the state Department of Revenue. See Title XIII, Taxation and Finance, commencing at chapter 192 of the Florida Statutes, 1975. See also Fla.Stat. 195.002, et seq., 1975, for the description of the supervisory powers by the Department of Revenue of tax collectors. The amount of money necessary for operating a tax collector’s office and the amount and type of expenditures are prescribed in the budget submitted by the tax collector to the Department of Revenue, over which the county has no authority. See Fla.Stat. 195.087. The lack of authority of a board of county commissioners over the operation of a tax collector’s office is described in Advisory Opinion 076-173 (Aug. 19, 1976) of the Florida Attorney General and is exemplified by a portion of the opinion as follows:
As to tax collector fee officers in noncharter counties, the board of county commissioners is without statutory authority to expend any part of the excess fees of the office of county tax collector or any county funds under its control for the purpose of equipping and maintaining the offices of a tax collector fee officer, and it possesses no statutory authority, and is not charged with any statutory responsibility or duty, to equip and maintain the office of a tax collector fee officer. Rather, the annual budget established by tax collector fee officers should provide for all items of expense including operating capital outlays or equipment.
Annual Report of the Attorney General (1976), p. 326.
Appellant argues that the tax collector in Florida is simply one part of the operation of the particular county government involved. She also argues that the employees of the tax collector’s office, like other county employees, are members of the state retirement plan, which is provided by Florida statutes and made applicable to all state and county employees. She further points out that the employees of the tax collector are participants in the Putnam County group health and life insurance plan. However, appellant presents no other facts or law to support a conclusion that the board of county commissioners of Putnam County bore any responsibility with respect to fixing the salaries, wages, hours, qualifications, and the myriad other employment policies that go into a determination of who is or is not employed or discharged by the tax collector of Putnam County.2 Given *523these facts and the law of Florida, I conclude that the tax collector of Putnam County is not an agent of that county within the terms of the federal statute previously cited.
I construe the majority opinion to mean that if there is a future Title VII case against the tax collector of Putnam County or any tax collector in Florida who has less than 15 employees and the plaintiff joins the board of county commissioners as a defendant, the plaintiff employee would have a cause of action under Title VII. Since I do not agree that joinder or nonjoinder is the determinative factor, I have written separately.

. Owens v. Rush, 636 F.2d 283 (10th Cir.1980); Vulcan Society v. Fire Department of White Plains, 82 F.R.D. 379 (S.D.N.Y.1979). But see *522Aguilera v. Cook County Merit Board, 21 F.E.P. 731 (N.D.Ill.1979).

. Fla.Stat. 125.01 prescribes the powers and duties of a county government and grants a *523county the power to: “(u) Create civil service systems and boards.”
Fla.Stát. 112.042(1) states:
It shall be against the public policy of this state for the governing body of any county or municipal agency, board, commission, department, or office, solely because of the race, color, sex, religious creed, or national origin of any individual, to refuse to hire or employ, to bar, or to discharge from employment such individuals or to otherwise discriminate against such individuals with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, if the individual is the most competent and able to perform the services required.
In the present case, appellant has offered no evidence with respect to whether Putnam County has a civil service commission. Its existence or nonexistence and the relationship of the tax collector’s employees to such a commission, if it does exist, would help determine whether the county should be liable.