Larry SNEED v. The CITY OF RED BANK, Tennessee.
No. E2012-02112-COA-R9-CV
Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.
Dec. 2, 2014.
Because
R. Jonathan Guthrie, McKinley S. Lundy, Jr., C. Leland Davis, and Bryan H. Hoss, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellant, Larry Sneed.
Nathan D. Rowell, Dan R. Pilkington, and Brian R. Bibb, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellee, City of Red Bank, Tennessee.
Jennifer B. Morton and Maha M. Ayesh, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the amicus curiae, Tennessee Employment Lawyers Association.
Thomas J. Garland, Jr. and Jeffrey M. Ward, Greeneville, Tennessee, for the amicus curiae, Tennessee Municipal Attorneys Association.
Charles W. Swanson and Devin P. Lyon, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the amicus curiae, City of Knoxville.
OPINION
CORNELIA A. CLARK, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SHARON G. LEE, C.J., and GARY R. WADE, JEFFREY S. BIVINS, and HOLLY M. KIRBY, JJ., joined.
We granted review in this interlocutory appeal to determine whether the analysis the Court of Appeals employed in Young v. Davis, No. E2008-01974-COA-R3-CV, 2009 WL 3518162, at *6-7 (Tenn.Ct.App. Oct. 30, 2009), to conclude that Tennessee Public Protection Act (“TPPA“) claims against governmental entities must be tried without a jury in the manner prescribed by the Governmental Tort Liability Act (“GTLA“), should be applied to determine whether a Tennessee Human Rights Act (“THRA“) claim against a governmental entity is controlled by the GTLA. We reject the analysis Young applied and overrule it to the extent it may be interpreted as holding that the GTLA governs all statutory claims against governmental entities. The analysis used in Cruse v. City of Columbia, 922 S.W.2d 492 (Tenn. 1996), controls the determination of this issue. Applying Cruse, we hold that the THRA is an independent and specific statute, which removed governmental immunity and which controls the adjudication of THRA claims. We further hold that the provisions of the THRA clearly establish legislative intent to afford a right to trial by jury to persons who bring THRA claims against governmental entities in chancery court. Accordingly, based on these holdings, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed. The trial court‘s order transferring this case to circuit court
I. Factual and Procedural Background
The facts pertinent to this interlocutory appeal are not disputed. On July 2, 2010, Larry Sneed, then age fifty-nine, was discharged from his position as Chief of Police for the City of Red Bank, Tennessee (“Red Bank“), a position he had held for seven years.1
On July 13, 2010, Mr. Sneed filed suit in the Chancery Court for Hamilton County (“Chancery Court“), naming as defendants Red Bank and certain Red Bank officials,2 who were sued in both their individual and official capacities. Mr. Sneed alleged numerous common law and statutory claims.3 Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted in part and resulted in Mr. Sneed‘s complaint being4 reduced to two specific claims—statutory retaliatory discharge in violation of the TPPA and age discrimination in violation of the THRA—against one defendant, Red Bank. The case was originally set for a jury trial, but prior to trial, Red Bank filed a motion to transfer the case to the Circuit Court for Hamilton County (“Circuit Court“) and requested that the case be tried without the intervention of a jury pursuant to the GTLA. See
The Chancery Court granted Red Bank‘s request to transfer the case and also granted its request to proceed without a jury on the TPPA claim. In doing so, the Chancery Court relied on Young v. Davis, No. E2008-01974-COA-R3-CV, 2009 WL 3518162 (Tenn.Ct.App. Oct. 30, 2009), which held that the GTLA controls TPPA claims against governmental entities and that such claims must be tried without a jury in the manner prescribed by the GTLA. Id. at *6-7.5 Although the
Two weeks after the case was transferred to Circuit Court, the Chancellor granted Red Bank permission to seek an interlocutory appeal pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 9. In the order doing so, the Chancellor recognized “that there may be a conflict between Young and Farrow” and stated the question presented in this interlocutory appeal as “whether a THRA claim against a governmental entity arises under the GTLA and therefore requires adjudication in Circuit Court without a jury.”
Red Bank‘s Rule 9 application to the Court of Appeals included a single issue.6 The Court of Appeals granted Red Bank‘s Rule 9 application, and in its opinion, restated the issue presented for review as, “Whether the GTLA applies to claims brought against a municipality pursuant to the THRA.” Sneed v. City of Red Bank, No. E2012-02112-COA-R9-CV, 2013 WL 3326133, at *2 (Tenn.Ct.App. June 27, 2013). In reversing the decision of the trial court, the Court of Appeals, relying on Young, distinguished between statutes which create a private right of action against both governmental entities and private citizens and statutes which apply solely to governmental entities. The Court of Appeals pointed out that the “THRA create[s] a private right of action against governmental entities and private citizens.” Id. at *4. Applying the reasoning of Young, the Court of Appeals interpreted the GTLA as “generally applicable to suits against governmental entities unless the act at issue specifically provides otherwise or is only applicable to governmental entities and provides its own reme-
We granted Mr. Sneed‘s Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 11 application for permission to appeal.
II. Standard of Review
Unlike an appeal as of right under Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 3, in which both the appellant and the appellee have broad latitude with regard to the issues that may be raised, the questions this Court may address when considering an interlocutory appeal are limited to “those matters clearly embraced within” the issues certified in the orders of the trial court and the intermediate appellate court. Tenn. Dep‘t of Mental Health & Mental Retardation v. Hughes, 531 S.W.2d 299, 300 (Tenn.1975); see also Banks v. Elks Club Pride of Tenn. 1102, 301 S.W.3d 214, 227 n. 16 (Tenn.2010) (declining to address an issue because it was “beyond the scope of the issue certified on the interlocutory appeal“); In re Bridgestone/Firestone, 286 S.W.3d 898, 902 (Tenn.Ct.App.2008) (citing Heatherly v. Merrimack Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 43 S.W.3d 911, 914 (Tenn.Ct.App.2000)) (recognizing that the scope of issues in interlocutory appeals is limited). Although the Chancellor, Red Bank, and the Court of Appeals stated only one issue for review, this single issue embraces the following two questions, which we will address herein: (1) Whether the GTLA controls a THRA claim against a governmental entity?; and (2) If the GTLA does not control, does a plaintiff who files a THRA claim against a governmental entity in chancery court have a right to trial by jury?7
The answers to these questions depend upon the construction of statutes. Statutory construction is a question of law that appellate courts review de novo without any presumption of correctness. In re Estate of Tanner, 295 S.W.3d 610, 613 (Tenn.2009); see also Carter v. Quality Outdoor Prods., Inc., 303 S.W.3d 265, 267 (Tenn.2010) (citing Perrin v. Gaylord Entm‘t Co., 120 S.W.3d 823, 826 (Tenn.2003)).
III. Analysis
A. Statutory Construction
Our primary objective when construing statutes is to determine and carry out legislative intent without broadening or restricting the statutes beyond their
When construing multiple statutes, we adopt the most reasonable construction “which avoids statutory conflict and provides for harmonious operation of the laws.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). To accomplish this task, we presume that the Legislature knows the state of the law and makes new laws accordingly. Johnson v. Hopkins, 432 S.W.3d 840, 848 (Tenn.2013). “If provisions of different titles or chapters of the code appear to contravene each other, the provisions of each title or chapter shall prevail as to all matters and questions growing out of the subject matter of that title or chapter.”
B. Does the GTLA govern THRA claims against governmental entities?
We must first determine whether the Court of Appeals erred by reversing the Chancery Court and holding that Mr. Sneed‘s THRA age discrimination claim against Red Bank is controlled by the GTLA, and as a result, must be tried in Circuit Court without the intervention of a jury. A brief history of the common law origins of the doctrine of sovereign immunity and how it was modified by the GTLA is useful to our analysis.
The doctrine of sovereign immunity, which provides that suit may not be brought against the government unless the government has consented to be sued, Lucius v. City of Memphis, 925 S.W.2d 522, 525 (Tenn.1996), originated in “feudal notions of the divine right of kings. In feudal England the King was at the very pinnacle of the power structure and was answerable to no court since ‘the King can do no wrong.‘” Cruse v. City of Columbia, 922 S.W.2d 492, 495 (Tenn.1996) (quoting Cooper v. Rutherford Cnty., 531 S.W.2d 783, 786 (Tenn.1975) (Henry, J., dissenting)). The doctrine is now embodied in the Tennessee Constitution, which provides that “[s]uits may be brought against the State in such manner and in such courts as the Legislature may by law direct.”
Although the immunity included in article I, section 17 refers specifically to suits against the State, at common law, local
developed in an effort by the courts to shield from tort liability essential governmental functions.... The distinction, however, was a blurred one at best, particularly as between county governments on the one hand and city governments on the other. Numerous cases had been decided dealing with each type of local government, and the identical function was sometimes held to be “governmental” with respect to one government and “proprietary” with the other.
Fretwell, 652 S.W.2d at 756 (emphasis added). This distinction became “a source of inconsistent decisions,” which resulted in “a confused area of law,” Crowe, 579 S.W.2d at 892, and “[m]uch dissatisfaction,” Fretwell, 652 S.W.2d at 756.
Not surprisingly, given the confusion, the doctrine of sovereign immunity as applied to local governmental entities became the focus of “scathing” criticism in this State. Crowe, 579 S.W.2d at 892. For example, one esteemed Tennessee jurist described the doctrine as “a cankered, corroded and corrupted area of our law,” and “the flaming sword used by cities and counties in Tennessee to banish the innocent victims of their wrongs and deny them their traditional day in court,” and “the defense by which governmental entities stoop to conquer their own citizens.” Cooper, 531 S.W.2d at 785 (Henry, J., dissenting); see also Johnson v. Oman Constr. Co., 519 S.W.2d 782, 786 (Tenn.1975) (“This Court does not regard with favor the doctrine of sovereign immunity as applied to municipal or county governments.“); id. (describing the doctrine “as an anachronism and as at variance with modern concepts of justice“).
By the time these criticisms were voiced by Tennessee judges, legislators and judges in many other states had already modified or abrogated the doctrine. Johnson, 519 S.W.2d at 786 (quoting legislative history and stating that a majority of other states had modified or abrogated the doctrine); Crowe, 579 S.W.2d at 891 (“The doctrine of municipal sovereign immunity has been strongly criticized, and at least [twenty-seven] states have eliminated it either by legislative or judicial action.“). Judicial abrogation of the doctrine did not bring clarity, however, and “led to a quagmire of problems,” which threw “both the claimants and the governmental bodies into confusion and chaos.” Cruse, 922 S.W.2d at 496 (citing Simpson v. Sumner Cnty., 669 S.W.2d 657, 659-60 (Tenn.Ct.App.1983) (quoting Hearing on S.B. 654 on the House Floor, 88th Gen. Assemb. (Tenn. May 2, 1973) (statement of Rep. Cletus McWilliams))). Thus, in 1973, the General Assembly enacted the GTLA “in an attempt to avoid some of the confusion experienced by other states that had waived immunity by judicial decisions.” Id. (citing Chapman v. Sullivan Cnty., 608 S.W.2d 580, 582 (Tenn.1980)).
The GTLA governs only claims against counties, municipalities, and other local governmental entities and does not apply to claims against the State. Lucius, 925 S.W.2d at 525; see also Hughes, 531 S.W.2d at 300.
Except as may be otherwise provided in this chapter, all governmental entities shall be immune from suit for any injury which may result from the activities of such governmental entities wherein such governmental entities are engaged in the exercise and discharge of any of their functions, governmental or proprietary.
The GTLA vests circuit courts with “exclusive original jurisdiction over any action brought under this chapter [the GTLA]” and declares that circuit courts “shall hear and decide such suits without the intervention of a jury.”
However, the GTLA does not control every single action against a governmental entity. See id.; Jenkins v. Loudon Cnty., 736 S.W.2d 603, 608 (Tenn.1987), abrogated on other grounds by Limbaugh, 59 S.W.3d at 81-83; J.S. Haren Co. v. City of Cleveland, No. E2002-01327-COA-R3-CV, 2003 WL 21276662, at *5 (Tenn.Ct.App. May 30, 2003) (holding that the remedy provided by a statute independent of the GTLA was not subject to the GTLA). Only those claims which are “brought under” the GTLA and for which “immunity is removed by” the GTLA are subject to its provisions.
In Cruse, this Court considered whether the procedural requirements of the GTLA are applicable to claims brought against local governmental entities pursuant to statutes independent of the GTLA. Cruse, 922 S.W.2d at 496. In Cruse, the City of Columbia argued that the GTLA‘s one-year statute of limitations applied and barred the action, even though the plaintiff‘s claim was brought under a different statute,
Relying on Cruse, the Court of Appeals later refused to apply the GTLA‘s one-year statute of limitations to a utility company‘s claim against a municipality, which was brought under
1. THRA As An Independent Statute
The Legislature enacted the THRA in 1978, just five years after the GTLA was enacted. One of the purposes of the THRA is “to [p]rovide for execution within Tennessee of the policies embodied in the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1968 and 1972, . . . and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.”
The THRA provides broad remedies to prevailing parties, including reinstatement, damages for humiliation and embarrassment, reasonable attorney‘s fees, and costs of litigation.
2. THRA Claims Not Subject to GTLA
Applying the reasoning of Cruse, we agree with Mr. Sneed that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the GTLA governs his THRA age discrimination claim. We hold that the THRA is an independent statutory scheme that creates remedies and removes governmental immunity. Thus, the THRA controls the adjudication of Mr. Sneed‘s age discrimination claim.
Our conclusion that THRA claims are not subject to the GTLA is supported by the history and text of the GTLA itself. The GTLA was enacted five years before the THRA, and the GTLA has been amended numerous times since its enactment in 1973, yet the Legislature did not initially include THRA claims within the GTLA and has not since amended the GTLA to encompass such claims. To the contrary, the Legislature has expressly declared that the GTLA does not remove immunity for civil rights claims.
The title of the GTLA itself—“Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act“—communicates the Legislature‘s intent to address governmental immunity for specific and enumerated tort claims, not discrimination claims.
3. The Application of Young
Red Bank‘s argument that the GTLA applies to Mr. Sneed‘s THRA age discrimination claim is based largely on the Court of Appeals’ decision in Young, which held that a TPPA retaliatory discharge claim against a governmental entity is subject to the GTLA. 2009 WL 3518162, at *6. In so holding, Young relied on Farmer v. Tennessee Department of Safety, 228 S.W.3d 96 (Tenn.Ct.App.2007), in which the Court of Appeals was asked to determine whether a TPPA claim against the State could be saved from the applicable statute of limitations by the saving statutes found in
The reasoning of Young and its interpretation of Farmer are unpersuasive. Farmer was simply adhering to a long line of Tennessee decisions, which have held that general saving statutes do not apply to suits against the State or other governmental entities unless the statute waiving sovereign immunity expressly permits their application. See, e.g., Cunningham v. Williamson Cnty. Hosp. Dist., 405 S.W.3d 41, 46 (Tenn.2013) (concluding that the 120-day extension provided by Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-26-121(c)
Because Mr. Sneed brought his age discrimination claim under the THRA and not the GTLA,
C. Is there a right to a jury trial under the THRA?
Having determined that the GTLA and its prohibition on a trial by jury do not apply to the THRA, we must now determine whether Mr. Sneed has a right to a jury trial on his THRA age discrimination claim. Because Mr. Sneed filed his THRA claim in chancery court, to which we are remanding this matter, our discussion is limited to THRA claims filed in chancery court.
The right to a jury trial in this State is guaranteed by article I, section 6 of the Tennessee Constitution, which provides “[t]hat the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate.”8 Article I, section 6 does not guarantee the right to a jury trial in every case. Helms v. Tenn. Dep‘t of Safety, 987 S.W.2d 545, 547 (Tenn.1999). Rather, it guarantees the right to trial by jury as it existed at common law “under the laws and constitution of North Carolina at the time of the adoption of the
In the classic common law system of courts, matters inherently legal in nature were tried in the law courts by a jury while matters inherently equitable were tried by the Chancellor without a jury. Therefore, there is no constitutional right to a trial by jury in a matter inherently equitable. Smith Cnty. Educ. Ass‘n v. Anderson, 676 S.W.2d 328, 336 (Tenn.1984). Mr. Sneed, who filed this action in chancery court, has not asserted a state constitutional right to trial by jury on his THRA claim. Thus, we limit our decision to Mr. Sneed‘s argument that the THRA affords him a statutory right to trial by jury.
The THRA does not expressly grant the right to trial by jury. However, unlike the GTLA, the THRA does not expressly prohibit a jury trial on THRA claims against governmental entities. Rather, as already noted, the THRA defines “employer” broadly to include governmental entities. Additionally, the THRA makes no distinction between governmental and non-governmental employers when it expressly grants persons injured by a violation of the THRA the right to bring a “civil cause of action in chancery court or circuit court.”
Either party to a suit in chancery is entitled, upon application, to a jury to try and determine any material fact in dispute, save in cases involving complicated accounting, as to such accounting, and those elsewhere excepted by law or by provisions of this Code, and all the issues of fact in any proper cases shall be submitted to one (1) jury.
We therefore conclude that Mr. Sneed is entitled to a jury trial on the THRA age discrimination claim he filed in chancery court. The Legislature has clearly and definitively expressed its intent to afford such a right by: (1) defining employer to include governmental and non-governmental entities; (2) choosing not to prohibit jury trials on THRA claims against governmental entity employers; (3) authorizing persons injured by violations of the THRA to file civil actions, without distinguishing between governmental and nongovernmental employers; and (4) vesting jurisdiction of such civil actions in chancery court, where the right to trial by jury has long been statutorily guaranteed. See Hannah v. Pitney Bowes, Inc., 739 F.Supp. 1131, 1133 (E.D.Tenn.1989) (analyzing the THRA and holding that it included a broad right to trial by jury for sex discrimination claims pursuant to section 21-1-103, notwithstanding the unavailability at that time of jury trials for claims brought under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act); Farrow, 2001 WL 935467, at *5 (relying on section 21-1-103 to find a right to trial by jury on a THRA claim against a governmental entity); Sledge v. Phillips, No. 89-367-II, 1990 WL 62852 (Tenn.Ct.App. May 16, 1990) (finding a right to trial by jury on THRA claims).
We observe as well that, while the right to trial by jury was not available under Title VII until 1991, see Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub.L. No. 102-166, 105 Stat. 1071, in 1978, the United States Supreme Court construed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA“) as affording the right to trial by jury. See Age Discrimination in Employment Act Amendments of 1978, Pub. Law 95-256, 92 Stat. 189; Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 98 S.Ct. 866,
Furthermore, although not dispositive of the issue on appeal, we note that since its enactment in 1978, numerous THRA claims have been tried before juries in chancery courts all over this State. See, e.g., Regnier v. Metro. Gov‘t of Nashville, No. M2004-00351-COA-R3-CV, 2006 WL 1328937 (Tenn.Ct.App. May 11, 2006); Mountjoy v. City of Chattanooga, No. E2001-02017-COA-R3-CV, 2002 WL 707467 (Tenn.Ct.App. Apr. 23, 2002); Woods v. Herman Walldorf & Co., 26 S.W.3d 868 (Tenn.Ct.App.1999); Steele v. Superior Home Health Care of Chattanooga, Inc., No. 03A01-9709-CH-00395, 1998 WL 783348 (Tenn.Ct.App. Nov. 10, 1998); Lowe v. Johnson Cnty., No. 03A01-9309-CH-00321, 1995 WL 306166 (Tenn.Ct.App. May 19, 1995); Roberson v. Univ. of Tenn., 829 S.W.2d 149 (Tenn.Ct.App.1992). The Legislature is presumed to know the state of the law, and its failure during the preceding thirty years to amend the THRA to expressly exclude the right to trial by jury on THRA claims against governmental entity employers is further evidence of its intent to permit jury trials on such claims. See Thompson, 395 S.W.3d at 629 (“The [L]egislature‘s failure to express disapproval of a judicial construction of a statute is persuasive evidence of legislative adoption of the judicial construction.“); Freeman Indus., 172 S.W.3d at 519 (same).
Finally, the Legislature recently amended the THRA to provide: “The court shall not inform a jury of the limitations in subsection (a), but the court shall conform any judgment to comply with the limitations.”
IV. Conclusion
For all the reasons stated herein, we hold that the GTLA does not govern Mr. Sneed‘s THRA claim and that the Legislature has afforded a statutory right to trial by jury, as described in
Diane WEST et al. v. SHELBY COUNTY HEALTHCARE CORPORATION d/b/a Regional Medical Center at Memphis
Supreme Court of Tennessee, AT JACKSON.
April 9, 2014 Session
Filed December 19, 2014
Notes
(a) The chancery court has concurrent jurisdiction, with the circuit court, of all civil causes of action, triable in the circuit court, except for unliquidated damages for injuries to person or character, and except for unliquidated damages for injuries to property not resulting from a breach of oral or written contract; and no demurrer for want of jurisdiction of the cause of action shall be sustained in the chancery court except in the cases excepted.
(b) Any suit in the nature of the cases excepted in subsection (a) brought in the chancery court, where objection has not been taken by a plea to the jurisdiction, may be transferred to the circuit court of the county, or heard and determined by the chancery court upon the principles of a court of law.
The trial court did not base its decision to transfer the case on
In 1972 when we adopted Rules of Civil Procedure, there were certain code sections that were repealed and this was one of them and it was felt that the present rules do not cover this situation of jury trials in Chancery and this just puts back the old law into effect.Anderson, 676 S.W.2d at 337.