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337 So. 2d 756

Ellison v. Abbott

Grover L. ELLISON and Arnold Brent Ellison v. Rudy ABBOTT et al.

Supreme Court of Alabama

SC 1979.

Decided September 24, 1976.

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1976-09-24

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[t]hat the State of Alabama shall never be made a defendant in any court of law or equity.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Ex Parte Jacksonville State University, 484 So. 2d 426 - Sarradett v. University of South Alabama Medical Center

“is an instrumentality of the State of Alabama, and is therefore immune from suit.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Ex Parte Jacksonville State University

Relies on Hutchinson v. Board of Trustees of University of Alabama · Cox v. Board of Trustees of University of Alabama · Denson v. Alabama Polytechnic Institute

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1976-09-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently March 2016

2 federal appellate · 5 state decisions

3019761980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1J. Richard Carr, Gadsden, for appellants.

¶2Merrill, Porch, Doster & Dillon, Anniston, for appellees.

¶3MADDOX, Justice.

¶4The sole issue: Is Jacksonville State University a state instrumentality and therefore immune from suit?

¶5Plaintiff, Arnold Brent Ellison, signed a pre-enrollment application for a grant-in-aid *757 baseball scholarship with Jacksonville State, and was awarded a scholarship; however, the scholarship was withdrawn because Ellison's application was filed late in the Commissioner's office. Ellison sued Jacksonville State, and agents for Jacksonville State, for breach of contract. Jacksonville State filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming immunity from suit under Section 14 of the Constitution of Alabama, 1901. The court granted the motion. We affirm.

¶6Section 14 of the Constitution provides "That the State of Alabama shall never be made a defendant in any court of law or equity." One of the early cases applying this section to state universities is Cox v. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, 161 Ala. 639, 49 So. 814 (1909). It referred to two previous decisions of the Supreme Court and stated:

"The cases above referred to settle the law in this state that public institutions created by the state purely for charitable or educational purposes are a part of the state, or a mere agency of the state; that the property of such corporations is really and in fact the property of the state, and that they are not subject to suit under section 14 of the Constitution of 1901, which prohibits the state from being made a party defendant in any court of law or equity, although the charters and acts of the Legislature incorporating such institutions expressly provide that they may sue and be sued as an individual.. . ."

¶7Another case on the same point is Denson v. Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 220 Ala. 433, 126 So. 133 (1930). In that decision the court cited the Cox case and said:

". . . Such state institutions are a part of the state, and their property is in fact the property of the state. They are held to be immune from suits under the terms of our Constitution prohibiting suits against the state, though the charter may expressly provide otherwise.. . ."

¶8The most recent case dealing with governmental immunity of a state institution is Hutchinson v. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, 288 Ala. 20, 256 So.2d 281 (1972).

¶9We conclude that Jacksonville State University is an instrumentality of the State of Alabama, and is therefore immune from suit.

¶10AFFIRMED.

¶11HEFLIN, C. J., and BLOODWORTH, FAULKNER, ALMON, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur.

¶12EMBRY, J., concurs in the result.

¶13JONES, J., dissents.

¶14JONES, Justice (dissenting).

¶15I cannot agree to extend the State's constitutional immunity to Jacksonville State University. It is a public or quasi-public corporation created by the legislature and derives a portion of its financial support from the State. But this does not equate Jacksonville State University with the State of Alabama for purposes of immunity.

¶16I respectfully dissent.

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