Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority v. Wilson

197 So. 3d 444, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 119, 2015 WL 5658750
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 25, 2015
Docket1131177
StatusPublished

This text of 197 So. 3d 444 (Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority v. Wilson, 197 So. 3d 444, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 119, 2015 WL 5658750 (Ala. 2015).

Opinion

MURDOCK, Justice.

The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority (“ACIFA”) and its ex offi-cio vice president Kim Thomas1 appeal from a judgment entered on a jury verdict awarding $5 million in compensatory damages to Albert Wilson, Donald Simmons, Rufus Barnes, Bryan Gavins, Joseph Dan-zey, and a class of current and former nonexempt correctional officers (“the correctional officers”) employed by the Alabama Department of Corrections (“ADOC”). We reverse the judgment of the Montgomery Circuit Court.

I. Facts and Procedural History

Section 14-2-2, Ala.Code 1975, states that the legislature created ACIFA

“as a public corporation for the purposes of acquiring land, constructing and leasing correctional’ institutions, buildings and facilities, disposing of the Kilby property by sale or lease and to vest such corporation with all powers, authority, rights, privileges and titles that may be necessary to enable it to accomplish such purpose.”

Rodney Blankenship, chief fiscal officér for ADOC, testified at trial in this case that “[b]y statute the Department of Corrections cannot incur debt. So this organization [ACIFA] wás set up as a separate public entity for financing, and [ADOC] passed property through so [ACIFA] could pledge it, and [ACIFA] passed the money back through and [ADOC] made payments on the debt.” Blankenship further explained that ADOC pays ACIFA rent for the prison facilities, which ACIFA then uses to pay the debt service on the bonds it issued to finance the construction of the prison facilities. Blankenship stated that he could not remember the last time ACI-FA issued bonds, but that it was probably at, least 10 years ago.

Section 14-2-6, Ala.Code 1975, provides that the governor is the president of ACI-FA, the commissioner of ADOC is the vice president, the State, finance director is the secretary,. and the-State treasurer is the custodian of the ACIFA’s funds but “shall not be a member .of the authority.” That section also provides that “[t]he members of the authority shall constitute all the members of the board of directors'of the authority, which shall be the governing body of the authority.”

[446]*446This -is the second time this case has come before this Court. In Ex parte Thomas, 110 So.3d 363 (Ala.2012), the Court explained:

“On August 17, 2010, Albert Wilson, Rufus Barnes, Joseph Danzey, Bryan Gavins, and Donald Simmons, all of whom are employed by ADOC as correctional officers (hereinafter referred to collectively as ‘the correctional officers’), sued ADOC and its then commissioner Richard Allen in the Barbour Circuit Court, alleging that ADOC was violating its own regulations and state law in the manner in which it: (1) compensated correctional officers for overtime; (2) restricted the way correctional officers were allowed to use earned leave; and (3) paid correctional officers the daily subsistence allowance provided by law. The plaintiffs also sought class certification on behalf of all other similarly situated correctional officers employed by ADOC and requested injunctive relief, as well as money damages, to include backpay with interest, punitive damages, and litigation costs and expenses, including attorney fees.
“On September 22, 2010, ADOC and Allen moved the trial court to dismiss the correctional officers’ claims for money damages, arguing that ADOC and Allen were entitled to State immunity under Article I, § 14, Ala. Const.1901. Before the trial court ruled on that motion, however, the correctional officers filed an amended complaint adding ACI-FA as a defendant and asserting claims against Allen in his capacity as vice president of ACIFA as well. On December 21, 2010, the trial court entered an order denying ADOC and Allen’s September 22 motion to dismiss, without stating its rationale.
“Thereafter, ADOC, ACIFA, and Allen filed an answer to the correctional officers’ amended complaint. On March 3, 2011, ADOC, ACIFA, and Thomas, who succeeded Allen as commissioner of ADOC and vice president of ACIFA on January 17, 2011, moved the trial court to transfer the action'to the Montgomery Circuit Court pursuant to § 6-3-9, Ala.Code 1975_On or about May 24, 2011, the Barbour Circuit Court granted the motion, and the case was'transferred to the Montgomery Circuit Court.
“The trial court thereafter approved class certification for the action, and, on April 17, 2012, ADOC, ACIFA, and Thomas moved the trial court to enter a partial summary judgment in their favor, arguing that the correctional officers’ claims seeking money ■ damages from ADOC were barred by the doctrine of State immunity and that the claims against ACIFA had no factual or legal basis. The correctional officers filed a response, arguing that the summary-judgment motion was without merit and that, in any event; the Barbour Circuit Court had already rejected the State-immunity argument before the case was transferred to the Montgomery Circuit Court. On May 17, 2012, the trial court conducted a hearing on the summary-judgment motion and, later that day, entered an order denying the motion without stating its rationale. ADOC, ACIFA, and Thomas now petition this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to vacate its order denying their summary-judgment motion and . to enter an order granting the same.”

110 So.3d at 364-65.

In Ex parte Thomas, this Court concluded that ADOC and Thomas in his official capacity as the commissioner ■ of ADOC were entitled to State immunity under § 14, Ala. Const.1901, and thus that the claims against them seeking money damages were due to be dismissed. The Court [447]*447denied mandamus relief to ACIFA and Thomas, in his capacity as vice president of ACIFA, which they sought following the trial court’s denial of their motion for a summary judgment. In that regard, the Court explained:

“ACIFA and Thomas have not argued that they are entitled to State immunity on the claims asserted against ACIFA and against Thomas in his capacity as vice president of ACIFA; rather, they argue that they are entitled to a summary judgment because ‘they have no connection whatsoever to the [correctional officers’] claims’ because ACIFA has no role in personnel or payroll matters affecting ADOC employees. They assert that ACIFA exists solely to facilitate the finance and acquisition of land, institutions, and facilities for ADOC, and they argue that the lack of any connection between the correctional officers’ claims and ACIFA effectively renders those claims nonjusticiable; therefore, review of the trial court’s denial of their summary-judgment motion on a petition for the writ of mandamus is available because, they argue, the issue of subject-matter jurisdiction has been raised. See University of South Alabama Med. Ctr. v. Mobile Infirmary Ass’n, 89 So.3d 735, 740-41 (Ala.2011) (stating that justi-ciability is jurisdictional), and Ex parte Flint Constr. Co., 775 So.2d 805 (Ala.2000) (holding that the question of subject-matter jurisdiction is reviewable by a petition for a writ of mandamus).
“We disagree, however, that a justicia-bility issue has been raised. ‘ “Concepts of justiciability have been developed to identify appropriate occasions for judicial action....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
197 So. 3d 444, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 119, 2015 WL 5658750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alabama-corrections-institution-finance-authority-v-wilson-ala-2015.