Court Opinion

ID: 9623637
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:38:54.703123+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:49:34.647694
License: Public Domain

COCHRAN, J.,
dissenting.
I cannot agree that the statute of limitations is applicable to the Board of Supervisors of Stafford County functioning as the governing body of The Aquia Sanitary District. In my view, the Sanitary District is nothing more or less than a legal entity established by the county as a convenient means of providing certain services for the benefit of county residents in a specified area. A sanitary district has been characterized as a limited purpose corporation. Marsh v. Gainesville-Haymarket, 214 Va. 83, 86, 197 S.E.2d 329, 331 (1973).
A county is an agency of the State, Board of Supervisors v. Cox, 155 Va. 687, 710, 156 S.E. 755, 762 (1931), and it is entitled to the same immunity from tort liability as the State. Mann v. County Board, 199 Va. 169, 174, 98 S.E.2d 515, 518 (1957); Fry v. County of Albemarle, 86 Va. 195, 197-200, 9 S.E. 1004, 1005-06 (1889). By contrast, a city, established as a municipal corporation, is entitled to the same immunity from tort liability as the State only for governmental rather than proprietary functions. *365Burson v. Bristol, 176 Va. 53, 63, 10 S.E.2d 541, 545 (1940). No such distinction between governmental and proprietary functions has been applied to counties. Arguably, cities and counties should be placed on the same footing as to tort liability, but the General Assembly has not seen fit to change by statutory enactment what has been the long-established distinction between the two kinds of political subdivisions. Accordingly, I am constrained to hold that a county sanitary district is an integral part of the county and entitled to the same privileges and immunities enjoyed by the county. By analogy, immunity from tort liability leads to immunity from the bar of the statute of limitations.
Code § 8-35, since recodified as Code § 8.01-231, provided:
No statute of limitations which shall not in express terms apply to the Commonwealth shall be deemed a bar to any proceeding by or on behalf of the same. This section shall not, however, apply to agencies of the State incorporated for charitable or educational purposes.
The crucial question, therefore, is whether the reference in § 8-35 to “the Commonwealth” includes an agency of the Commonwealth. In my opinion, it does. Otherwise, the second sentence of § 8-35 is meaningless. The exception would be unnecessary if all agencies were excluded under the first sentence.
In County School Bd. v. Whitlow, 223 Va. 157, 286 S.E.2d 230 (1982), the School Board of Fairfax County relied on the statute in contending that the statute of limitations was inapplicable. We held, however, that the second sentence excluded the School Board from exemption from the bar of limitations because it was incorporated for educational purposes. Implicit in this holding is the rationale that the first sentence would have exempted the School Board, as an agency of the Commonwealth, from the bar of limitations but for the express exception in the second sentence.
Johnson v. Black, 103 Va. 477, 49 S.E. 633 (1905), upon which the majority rely, stating that counties are subject to statutes of limitation, was decided before the second sentence of § 8-35 was added to the statute.* Addition of the second sentence demonstrates a clear legislative intent to protect all agencies of the Commonwealth, except those specifically designated, from the running *366of statutes of limitation. The General Assembly could have expressly included counties in the first sentence. In amending the statute after Johnson, however, the legislature used more comprehensive terminology by dealing inferentially with all state agencies, including counties. Moreover, the statement in Johnson that counties are subject to statutes of limitation was dictum, in that the plaintiffs in that case were private citizens, rather than Norfolk County itself.
In VEPCO v. Hampton Red. Authority, 217 Va. 30, 225 S.E.2d 364 (1976), we held that a municipal housing authority, created under Code §§ 36-1, et seq., “is an entity purely local in nature and not a state agency performing a function of state government.” 217 Va. at 33, 225 S.E.2d at 367. The authority, therefore, was not entitled to the State’s immunity from tort liability. “For certain purposes, local political subdivisions, similar to the entity involved here, are treated as municipal corporations.” Id. See Hampton Rds. San. Dist. Comm. v. Smith, 193 Va. 371, 68 S.E.2d 497 (1952). There is no authority, however, for treating a county agency as a municipal corporation.
In the present case, the counterclaim in question was filed by the Board of Supervisors on behalf of the Sanitary District. Thus, the county was inextricably involved in the litigation. Whether the claim be deemed to be a county claim or a claim of a county agency, I consider that the claim was being prosecuted by an agency of the Commonwealth. Accordingly, I would hold that under Code § 8-35, the claim is not barred by the statute of limitations. I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
CARRICO, C.J., and COMPTON, J., join in dissent.

 The first sentence has been a part of the statute law of the Commonwealth for many years. See Code of 1849, p. 225, § 23; Code 1887, § 2937.