Court Opinion

ID: 9446283
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:51:08.42922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:35.840800
License: Public Domain

RIVES, Circuit Judge
(concurring generally and specially).
I concur, and would state an additional reason for my opinion that the Eleventh Amendment does not, in this case, prevent a federal court from acquiring jurisdiction. It is settled that the immunity of a state from suit in a federal court is a personal privilege which may be waived. Clark v. Barnard, 1883, 108 U.S. 436, 447, 2 S.Ct. 878, 27 L.Ed. 780. Such a waiver is not lightly to be inferred, but a “* * * clear declaration of a state’s consent to suit against itself in the federal court on fiscal claims is required.” (Emphasis supplied.) Kennecott Copper Corp. v. State Tax Commission, 1946, 327 U.S. 573, 577, 66 S.Ct. 745, 747, 90 L.Ed. 862. See also, Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury, 1945, 323 U.S. 459, 463, 65 S.Ct. 347, 89 L.Ed. 389, and Great Northern Life Ins. Co. v. Read, 1944, 322 U.S. 47, 54, 64 S.Ct. 873, 88 L.Ed. 1121. Each of those three cases was a suit for refund of taxes paid the state. Ordinarily, federal courts sitting in a state are deemed to be courts of that state, but that must be made particularly clear, “when we are dealing with the sovereign exemption from judicial interference in the vital field of financial administration.” Great Northern Life Ins. Co. v. Read, supra, 322 U.S. at page 54, 64 S.Ct. at page 877, and see the dissenting opinion in Kennecott Copper Corp. v. State Tax Commission, supra, 327 U.S. at page 581, 66 S.Ct. at page 749. The present suit is a simple tort action where the reasons for denying federal jurisdiction are not so cogent as those existing in suits for refund of state taxes.
Assuming arguendo that, in substance, the State Highway Department is the real defendant in this case, the history and terms of the Georgia legislation, I think, clearly indicate an intention to waive its immunity from suit in a federal court. The bridge in question was constructed subsequent to the Act of the General Assembly of Georgia of 1888, page 39, incorporated into the Code of Georgia of 1933 as section 95-1001 and quoted in pertinent part in footnote 1 to the main opinion. From the enactment of the Act of 1888 to 1919, the county alone was liable for damages from the defective construction or maintenance of a public bridge. No possible doubt existed that the county could have been sued in a federal court. Lincoln County v. Luning, 1890, 133 U.S. 529, 10 S.Ct. 363, 33 L.Ed. 766; Chicot County v. Sherwood, 1893, 148 U.S. 529, 13 S.Ct. 695, 37 L.Ed. 546; Port of Seattle v. Oregon & W. R., 1921, 255 U.S. 56, 71, 41 S.Ct. 237, 65 L.Ed. 500.
Since the enactment of the Act of 1919, Georgia Laws, 1919, page 242 et seq., Code §§ 95-1701 et seq., the county’s liability to suits for damages by reason of a defective bridge remains unaffected as to purely county roads, and as to bridges taken into the State-aid system the county is still permitted to be the defendant of record to the lawsuit, and primarily liable, but is required to vouch in the State Highway Department to defend and to be ultimately liable for any damages rendered. There can be no reasonable contention but that a county can now be sued in a federal court for damages arising from a defective bridge on a purely county road. As to a bridge taken into the State-aid system, the State Highway Department is made liable in the same manner as and even under the name of the county. Schwarcz v. Charl-ton County, 211 Ga. 923, 89 S.E.2d 881, 884. Its liability is enforceable by suit against the county, and the intent seems clear to me that such suits can be maintained in the same courts as theretofore, including the federal courts. In my opinion, therefore, if the State Highway Department is considered as the real defendant in this case, its immunity to suit in a federal court has been waived.