Board of Ed. of Baltimore Cty. v. Zimmer-Rubert

973 A.2d 233

409 Md. 200

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF BALTIMORE COUNTY v. Mireille ZIMMER-RUBERT.

No. 69, September Term, 2008.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 11, 2009.

Leslie R. Stellman (Shani K. Whisonant, Hodes, Pessin & Katz, P.A., Towson), on brief, for Petitioner.

John B. Stolarz (Stolarz Law Firm, Baltimore), on brief, for Respondent.

Argued before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ALAN M. WILNER (Retired, Specially Assigned), LAWRENCE F. RODOWSKY (Retired, Specially Assigned), and RAYMOND G. THIEME, JR. (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.

GREENE, Judge.

Md.Code (1974, 2006 Repl.Vol.), § 5-518(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article provides that "[a] county board of education may not raise the defense of sovereign immunity to any claim of $100,000 or less." This case, brought pursuant to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., for the amount of $100,000, requires us to discern the extent to which § 5-518(c) waives the governmental immunity of the Baltimore County Board of Education ("Board"). The issue is essentially one of statutory interpretation, and we conclude that § 5-518(c) waives the Board's governmental immunity, meaning its general sovereign immunity and the immunity guaranteed by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution,¹ for all claims in the amount of $100,000 or less. Therefore, we shall affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals.

I.

We shall adopt the facts as set forth in the reported opinion of the Court of Special Appeals. See Zimmer-Rubert v. Board of Ed., 179 Md.App. 589, 947 A.2d 135 (2008). The intermediate appellate court recited the facts as follows:

Born on January 16, 1949, [Ms. Zimmer-Rubert] is an experienced educator qualified to teach English, Spanish, German, and French. In March of 2004, [she] filed an application to teach foreign language in [the Baltimore County] high schools. Unsuccessful in her quest to secure a teaching position and, upon learning that young teachers were hired to fill vacant positions for which she was qualified, [Zimmer-Rubert] filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On March 17, 2006, [Zimmer-Rubert] was granted a Right to Sue letter.

Within ninety days, [Zimmer-Rubert] filed a Complaint in the [C]ircuit [C]ourt² against [the Board], alleging age discrimination and "demanding judgment for compensatory damages in the amount of $100,000, attorney fees, pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 626(b), interest and the costs of the action." [The Board] subsequently moved to dismiss [Zimmer-Rubert]'s suit [contending that it was entitled to the immunity guaranteed by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution].

A hearing on [the Board]'s motion was held on May 25, 2007. In a ruling from the bench on that same day, the trial court granted [the Board]'s motion, finding that [Zimmer-Rubert]'s ADEA claim was barred by [the Board]'s Eleventh Amendment immunity. Explaining her decision, the trial judge opined that, "on further reflection in looking at C.J. § 5-518, as well as Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999), that [sic] the 11th Amendment immunity must be specifically waived, and it's not."

Zimmer-Rubert, 179 Md.App. at 592-93, 947 A.2d at 137.

The Court of Special Appeals reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court. Zimmer-Rubert, 179 Md.App. at 612, 947 A.2d at 149. In so doing, the intermediate appellate court first reasoned that the Board is an "arm of the state" entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity. Zimmer-Rubert, 179 Md.App. at 603, 947 A.2d at 143. The court held ultimately, however, that § 5-518(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article waived such immunity as to Zimmer-Rubert's claim. Zimmer-Rubert, 179 Md.App. at 612, 947 A.2d at 149. According to the court, "[u]nder the settled approach to statutory interpretation, the words `any claim' [in § 5-518(c)] cannot reasonably be read to exclude certain categories of claims." Id. The Board petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari, and we granted the Board's petition. The dispositive question before us is "[w]hether the State of Maryland, pursuant to Section 4-105 of the Education Article and Section 5-518(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, enacted a valid waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity?"³

II.

In this case, there is no contention that the Board is not a State agency entitled to governmental immunity. See Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Doe, 519 U.S. 425, 429-30, 117 S.Ct. 900, 903-04, 137 L.Ed.2d 55, 60-61 (1997) (holding that only the states themselves, or a state agency or instrumentality that functions as an "arm of the state," may invoke sovereign immunity or the immunity afforded by the Eleventh Amendment (internal quotations omitted)); Condon v. State, 332 Md. 481, 492, 632 A.2d 753, 758 (1993) ("The doctrine [of sovereign immunity] is applicable to the State's agencies and instrumentalities, unless the legislature has explicitly or by implication waived governmental immunity."). We have long considered county school boards to be State agencies rather than independent, local bodies. See, e.g., State v. Board of Education, 346 Md. 633, 635 n. 1, 697 A.2d 1334, 1335 n. 1 (1997) ("The various county boards of education are State agencies."); Board v. Secretary of Personnel, 317 Md. 34, 44 n.5, 562 A.2d 700, 705 n. 5 (1989) ("It is settled that county boards of education are State agencies."); Bd. of Educ. v. P.G. Co. Educators' Ass'n, 309 Md. 85, 95 n. 3, 522 A.2d 931, 936 n. 3 (1987) ("County boards of education are, of course, state agencies and not agencies of the county governments."); Montgomery Co. Ed. Ass'n v. Bd. of Educ., 311 Md. 303, 317, 534 A.2d 980, 987 (1987) (recognizing the local boards as State agencies); McCarthy v. Bd. of Education of A.A. Co., 280 Md. 634, 639-50, 374 A.2d 1135, 1138-43 (1977) (examining the history of Maryland public education from colonial times, through the Constitutions of 1864 and 1867 and the concomitant statutes, to conclude that the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County is a State agency); Bd. of Ed. v. Montgomery County, 237 Md. 191, 197, 205 A.2d 202, 205 (1964) (noting that a local school board is neither a branch of the county government nor an agency under its control); see also Norville v. Board of Education, 160 Md. App. 12, 35-62, 862 A.2d 477, 489-507 (2004) (discussing, and ultimately holding, that the Anne Arundel Board of Education is an arm of the State for purposes of Eleventh Amendment immunity), vacated on other grounds, 390 Md. 93, 887 A.2d 1029 (2005).

The question before this Court is, essentially, whether § 5-518(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article waives the Board's Eleventh Amendment immunity as to Zimmer-Rubert's ADEA suit.⁴ As stated, § 5-518(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article provides that "[a] county board of education may not raise the defense of sovereign immunity to any claim of $100,000 or less." The Board contends that § 5-518(c) constitutes a general waiver of sovereign immunity that is insufficient to waive the Board's Eleventh Amendment immunity. According to the Board, "states enjoy Eleventh Amendment immunity in their own courts" that can only be waived by explicitly consenting to suit in federal court. (Petr.'s Br. 13, 20). Conversely, Zimmer-Rubert maintains that the Board's Eleventh Amendment immunity is but a manifestation of its broader sovereign immunity that the General Assembly waived by virtue of § 5-518(c).

The Eleventh Amendment reads: "The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State." U.S. CONST. amend. XI. Although the Amendment, by its terms, applies only to suits brought against a state by citizens of another state or foreign state in federal court, the United States Supreme Court has "looked to `history and experience and the established order of things,' rather than `adhering to the mere letter' of the Eleventh Amendment, in determining the scope of the States' constitutional immunity from suit." Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 727, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 2253, 144 L.Ed.2d 636, 661 (1999) (quoting Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 13, 14, 10 S.Ct. 504, 506, 33 L.Ed. 842, 847 (1890)). Thus, for example, the Supreme Court has held that the Eleventh Amendment bars suits against states by their own citizens, Hans, 134 U.S. at 11, 10 S.Ct. at 505, 33 L.Ed. at 845, and by Native-American tribes, Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44, 47, 116 S.Ct. 1114, 1119, 134 L.Ed.2d 252, 261 (1996). In so holding, the Supreme Court "ha[s] understood the Eleventh Amendment to stand not so much for what it says, but for the presupposition of our constitutional structure which it confirms: that the States entered the federal system with their sovereignty intact; that the judicial authority in Article III is limited by this sovereignty...." Blatchford v. Native Vill. of Noatak, 501 U.S. 775, 779, 111 S.Ct. 2578, 2581, 115 L.Ed.2d 686, 694 (1991); see Fed. Mar. Comm'n v. S.C. State Ports Auth., 535 U.S. 743, 754, 122 S.Ct. 1864, 1871, 152 L.Ed.2d 962, 974 (2002) ("[T]he sovereign immunity enjoyed by the States extends beyond the literal text of the Eleventh Amendment.").

In Alden, 527 U.S. at 735, 754, 119 S.Ct. at 2257, 2266, 144 L.Ed.2d at 666, 678, while recognizing that the Eleventh Amendment served previously to limit only the Article III jurisdiction of the federal courts, the United States Supreme Court pointed out that states have the right to assert the defense of sovereign immunity in state court proceedings. Alden involved a suit by a group of probation officers against their employer, the State of Maine, pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The Supreme Court held that Congress...