Northern Ins. Co. of NY v. Chatham County

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2005 1

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

NORTHERN INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK v.
CHATHAM COUNTY, GEORGIA

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

No. 04–1618. Argued March 1, 2006—Decided April 25, 2006
Petitioner insurance company filed this admiralty suit against respon
dent County seeking damages resulting from a collision between a
malfunctioning County drawbridge and a boat insured by petitioner.
Granting the County summary judgment, the District Court recog
nized that Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit does not extend
to counties, but relied on Circuit precedent to conclude that sovereign
immunity extends to counties and municipalities that, as here, exer
cise power delegated from the State. The Eleventh Circuit, which
was bound by that same precedent, affirmed. It acknowledged that
the County did not assert an Eleventh Amendment immunity de
fense, which would fail because, under other Circuit precedent, the
County did not qualify as an “arm of the State.” The Court of Ap
peals nonetheless concluded that common law has carved out a “re
sidual immunity” that protects political subdivisions such as the
County from suit.
Held: An entity that does not qualify as an “arm of the State” for Elev
enth Amendment purposes cannot assert sovereign immunity as a
defense to an admiralty suit. Pp. 3–7.
(a) Immunity from suit “is a fundamental aspect of the sovereignty
which the States enjoyed before the ratification of the Constitution,
and which they retain today . . . except as altered by the plan of the
Convention or certain constitutional Amendments.” Alden v. Maine,
527 U. S. 706, 713. Thus, the phrase “ ‘Eleventh Amendment immu
nity’ . . . is convenient shorthand but something of a misnomer, for
the sovereign immunity of the States neither derives from, nor is lim
ited by, the terms of the Eleventh Amendment.” Id., at 713. Because
preratification sovereignty is the source of immunity from suit, only
2 NORTHERN INS. CO. OF N. Y. v. CHATHAM COUNTY

Syllabus

States and arms of the State possess immunity from suits authorized
by federal law. See, e.g., id., at 740. Accordingly, sovereign immu
nity does not extend to counties, see, e.g., Lake Country Estates, Inc.
v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 440 U. S. 391, 401, and n. 19,
even when they “exercise a ‘slice of state power,’ ” id., at 401. The
County argues unconvincingly that this Court has recognized a dis
tinct “residual” immunity that permits adoption of a broader test
than it applies in the Eleventh Amendment context to determine
whether an entity is acting as an arm of the State entitled to immu
nity. The Court has referenced only the States’ “residuary and invio
lable sovereignty” that survived the Constitution. See, e.g., Federal
Maritime Comm’n v. South Carolina Ports Authority, 535 U. S. 743,
751. Because the County may claim immunity neither based upon its
identity as a county nor under an expansive arm-of-the-State test, it
is subject to suit unless it was acting as an arm of the State, as de
lineated by this Court’s precedents, in operating the drawbridge.
E.g., Alden, supra, at 756. The County conceded below that it was
not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity, and both the County
and the Eleventh Circuit appear to have understood this concession
to be based on the County’s failure to qualify as an “arm of the State”
under this Court’s precedent. Moreover, certiorari was granted in
this case premised on the conclusion that the County is not an arm of
the State for Eleventh Amendment purposes, and this Court pre
sumes that to be the case. The County’s concession and this Court’s
presumption are dispositive. Pp. 3–5.
(b) The County’s alternative argument that the Court should rec
ognize a distinct sovereign immunity against in personam admiralty
suits that bars cases arising from a county’s exercise of core state
functions with regard to navigable waters is rejected. Such recogni
tion cannot be reconciled with the Court’s precedents, which applied
the general principle that sovereign immunity does not bar a suit
against a city to an admiralty suit as early as Workman v. New York
City, 179 U. S. 552, 570. The Court disagrees with the County’s con
tention that Workman does not govern the instant case under Ex parte
New York, 256 U. S. 490, 498, where, in extending sovereign immunity
beyond cases “in law or equity” to admiralty cases, the Court concluded
that Workman involved only substantive admiralty law, not the power
of the Court to exercise jurisdiction over a particular defendant. But
Workman did so precisely because the Court there held that admiralty
courts have jurisdiction over municipal corporations. See 179 U. S., at
565. The Workman Court accordingly distinguished between the ques
tion before it—whether admiralty courts may, notwithstanding state
law, “redress a wrong committed by one over whom such courts have
adequate jurisdiction,” id., at 566, such as a municipal corporation—
 Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 3

Syllabus

and the question not before it, but before the Court in Ex parte New
York—whether admiralty courts may “give redress in a case where ju
risdiction over the person or property cannot be exerted,” 179 U. S., at
566. In the former circumstance, the court should apply general admi
ralty principles, while in the latter the court lacks the power to do so.
See id., at 570; Ex parte New York, supra, at 499–500, 502–503. Be
cause here, as in Workman and in contrast to Ex parte New York, the
defendant was an entity generally within the District Court’s jurisdic
tion, Ex parte New York is inapposite, and Workman compels the con
clusion that the County is unprotected by sovereign immunity. Pp. 5–
7.
129 Fed Appx. 602, reversed.

THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
 Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 04–1618
_________________

NORTHERN INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK,
PETITIONER v. CHATHAM COUNTY, GEORGIA
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
[April 25, 2006]

JUSTICE THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioner Northern Insurance Company of New York
(Northern) filed suit against respondent Chatham County,
Georgia (County), in the United States District Court for
the Southern District of Georgia, seeking damages result
ing from an alleged tort committed by employees of the
County. The District Court granted the County’s motion
for summary judgment on the ground that the suit was
barred by sovereign immunity. Relying on Circuit prece
dent, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit af
firmed. We granted certiorari to consider “[w]hether an
entity that does not qualify as an ‘arm of the State’ for
Eleventh Amendment purposes can nonetheless assert
sovereign immunity as a defense to an admiralty suit.”
546 U. S. ___ (2005).
I
The County owns, operates, and maintains the Causton
Bluff Bridge, a drawbridge over the Wilmington River. On
October 6, 2002, James Ludwig requested that the bridge
be raised to allow his boat to pass. The bridge malfunc
tioned, a portion falling and colliding with Mr. Ludwig’s
2 NORTHERN INS. CO. OF N. Y. v. CHATHAM COUNTY

Opinion of the Court

boat. As a result of the collision, Mr. Ludwig and his wife
incurred damages in excess of $130,000.
The Ludwigs submitted a claim for those damages to
their insurer, Northern, which paid in accordance with the
terms of their insurance policy. Northern then sought to
recover its costs by filing suit in admiralty against the
County in the District Court. The County sought sum
mary judgment, arguing that Northern’s claims were
barred by sovereign immunity. The County conceded that
Eleventh Amendment immunity did not extend to coun
ties, but nonetheless contended that it was immune under
“the universal rule of state immunity from suit without
the state’s consent.” Defendant’s Brief in Support of Mo
tion for Summary Judgment, Case No. CV403–099, App.
33a. The District Court agreed, relying on Broward
County v. Wickman, 195 F. 2d 614 (CA5 1952), to conclude
that sovereign immunity extends to counties and munici
palities that, as here, “exercis[e] power delegated from the
State.” Zurich Ins. Co. v. Chatham County, No. CV403–
99, App. 77a.
The Eleventh Circuit, which was bound to follow Wick-
man as Circuit precedent, affirmed.1 The Court of Appeals
acknowledged that the County did not assert an Eleventh
Amendment immunity defense, which would fail because,
under Circuit precedent, the County did not qualify as an
arm of the State. Zurich Ins. Co. v. Chatham County, No.
04–13308 (Jan. 28, 2005), App. 83a, n. 1, judgt. order
reported at 129 Fed. Appx. 602. The Court of Appeals
nonetheless concluded that “common law has carved out a
‘residual immunity,’ which would protect a political subdi
vision such as Chatham County from suit.” App. 83a. We
granted certiorari to review the judgment of the Court of
Appeals. 546 U. S. ___ (2005).
——————
1 See Bonner v. Prichard, 661 F. 2d 1206, 1209 (CA11 1981) (en banc)

(adopting all decisions of the former Fifth Circuit announced prior to
October 1, 1981, as binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit).
 Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006)
3

Opinion of the Court

II

This Court’s cases have recognized that the immunity of
States from suit “is a fundamental aspect of the sover
eignty which the States enjoyed before the ratification of
the Constitution, and which they retain today . . . except
as altered by the plan of the Convention or certain consti
tutional Amendments.” Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706,
713 (1999); see Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U. S.
44, 55–56 (1996); Principality of Monaco v. Mississippi,
292 U. S. 313, 322–323 (1934). Consistent with this rec
ognition, which no party asks us to reexamine today, we
have observed that the phrase “ ‘Eleventh Amendment
immunity’ . . . is convenient shorthand but something of a
misnomer, for the sovereign immunity of the States nei
ther derives from, nor is limited by, the terms of the Elev
enth Amendment.” Alden, supra, at 713.
A consequence of this Court’s recognition of pre-
ratification sovereignty as the source of immunity from
suit is that only States and arms of the State possess
immunity from suits authorized by federal law. See
Alden, supra, at 740; Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle,
429 U. S. 274, 280 (1977). Accordingly, this Court has
repeatedly refused to extend sovereign immunity to coun
ties. See Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional
Planning Agency, 440 U. S. 391, 401 (1979); id., at 401,
n. 19 (gathering cases); Workman v. New York City, 179
U. S. 552, 565 (1900); Lincoln County v. Luning, 133 U. S.
529, 530 (1890). See also Jinks v. Richland County, 538
U. S. 456, 466 (2003) (“[M]unicipalities, unlike States, do
not enjoy a constitutionally protected immunity from
suit”). This is true even when, as respondent alleges here,
“such entities exercise a ‘slice of state power.’ ” Lake Coun
try Estates, supra, at 401.
The County argues that this Court’s cases recognize a
distinct “residual” immunity that permits adoption of a
broader test than we apply in the Eleventh Amendment
4 NORTHERN INS. CO. OF N. Y. v. CHATHAM COUNTY

Opinion of the Court

context to determine whether an entity is acting as an arm
of the State and is accordingly entitled to immunity.2
Brief for Respondent 28. But this Court’s use of that term
does not suggest the County’s conclusion; instead, this
Court has referenced only the States’ “residuary and
inviolable sovereignty” that survived the Constitution.
See The Federalist No. 39, p. 245 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (J.
Madison); Federal Maritime Comm’n v. South Carolina
Ports Authority, 535 U. S. 743, 751 (2002).
Because the County may claim immunity neither based
upon its identity as a county nor under an expansive arm-
of-the-State test, the County is subject to suit unless it
was acting as an arm of the State, as delineated by this
Court’s precedents, in operating the drawbridge. Alden,
supra, at 756; Lake Country Estates, supra, at 400–401.
The County conceded below that it was not entitled to
Eleventh Amendment immunity, and both the County and
the Court of Appeals appear to have understood this con
cession to be based on the County’s failure to qualify as an
arm of the State under our precedent. See App. 83a, n. 1
(recognizing that the County rightly disclaimed an Elev
enth Amendment immunity defense because such a de
fense would be inconsistent with the court’s holding in
Vierling v. Celebrity Cruises, Inc., 339 F. 3d 1309 (CA11
2003), that the Broward County Port Authority was not an
arm of the State); Brief of Appellee Chatham County in
——————
2 It
is unclear whether respondent believes that residual immunity is
a common-law immunity that has been unaltered by federal substan
tive law, see Brief for Respondent 18 (“Chatham County’s sovereign
immunity derives from the common law which pre-dates Eleventh
Amendment immunity”), or, as the Solicitor General appears to believe,
a constitutionally based immunity that is distinguishable from the one
drawn from the constitutional structure, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 16 (“What
respondent calls residual sovereign immunity . . . is the doctrine of
constitutional sovereign immunity”). In either case, it appears that the
residual immunity would serve to extend sovereign immunity beyond
its preratification scope.
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Opinion of the Court

No. 04–13308DD (CA11), p. 13 (distinguishing Vierling in
part because it dealt with the question of Eleventh
Amendment immunity); see also Brief for Respondent 8
(implicitly conceding that respondent is not an arm of the
State under our Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence).
Moreover, the question on which we granted certiorari is
premised on the conclusion that the County is not “an ‘arm
of the State’ for Eleventh Amendment purposes,” 546 U. S.
___ (2005), and we presume that to be the case. Accord
ingly, the County’s concession and the presumption un-
derlying the question on which we granted review are
dispositive.
As an alternative ground for affirmance, the County
asks the Court to recognize a distinct sovereign immunity
against in personam admiralty suits that bars cases aris
ing from a county’s exercise of core state functions with
regard to navigable waters. Recognition of a distinct
immunity in admiralty cases cannot be reconciled with our
precedents. Immunity in admiralty, like other sovereign
immunity, is simply an application of “the fundamental
rule” that “the entire judicial power granted by the Consti
tution does not embrace authority to entertain a suit
brought by private parties against a State without consent
given.” Ex parte New York, 256 U. S. 490, 497–500 (1921).
Accordingly, this Court has resolved sovereign immunity
questions in admiralty by relying upon principles set out
in this Court’s sovereign immunity cases, rather than by
examining the history or jurisprudence specific to suits in
admiralty. See Federal Maritime Comm’n v. South Caro
lina Ports Authority, supra, at 754–769 (an admiralty suit
relying heavily on Alden, supra (plaintiff raised a Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938 claim), and Seminole Tribe of
Fla. v. Florida, 517 U. S. 44 (1996) (plaintiff alleged viola
tion of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act)). Indeed, the
Court applied the general principle that sovereign immu
nity does not bar a suit against a city to an admiralty suit
6 NORTHERN INS. CO. OF N. Y. v. CHATHAM COUNTY

Opinion of the Court

as early as Workman v. New York City, 179 U. S. 552,
which held that such immunity “afforded no reason for
denying redress in a court of admiralty for the wrong
which . . . [had] been committed” by the city of New York,
id., at 570.
The County nonetheless contends—and the Eleventh
Circuit, in reliance upon the Fifth Circuit’s analysis in
Wickman, held—that the reach of Workman is limited, and
that this Court’s decision in Ex parte New York, supra,
demonstrates that Workman does not govern the instant
case. See Wickman, 195 F. 2d, at 615. We disagree. Ex
parte New York extended sovereign immunity beyond cases
“in law or equity” to cases in admiralty. As the County
points out, Ex parte New York concluded that Workman
involved only the substantive law of admiralty, and not the
power of the Court to exercise jurisdiction over a particular
defendant. Ex parte New York, supra, at 498. But Work
man dealt only with the substantive law of admiralty pre
cisely because the Workman Court held that admiralty
courts have jurisdiction over municipal corporations. See
179 U. S., at 565 (“[A]s a general rule, municipal corpora
tions, like individuals, may be sued; in other words . . . they
are amenable to judicial process for the purpose of compel
ling performance of their obligations”). The Workman
Court accordingly distinguished between the question
before it—whether courts of admiralty may, notwithstand
ing state law, “redress a wrong committed by one over
whom such courts have adequate jurisdiction,” id., at 566,
such as a municipal corporation—and the question not
before it, but before the Court in Ex parte New York—
whether courts of admiralty may “give redress in a case
where jurisdiction over the person or property cannot be
exerted,” 179 U. S., at 566. In the former circumstance, the
court should apply general admiralty principles, while in
the latter the court lacks the power to do so. See id., at 570;
Ex parte New York, supra, at 499–500, 502–503. Because
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Opinion of the Court

here, as in Workman and in contrast to Ex parte New York,
the defendant was an entity generally within the jurisdic
tion of the District Court, Ex parte New York is inapposite,
and Workman compels the conclusion that the County is
unprotected by sovereign immunity.
* * *
Because the County has failed to demonstrate that it
was acting as an arm of the State when it operated the
Causton Bluff Bridge, the County is not entitled to immu
nity from Northern’s suit. Accordingly, the judgment of
the Court of Appeals is reversed.
It is so ordered.