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Heinlein Beeler
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Order | Filed: May 14, 2024 | Entered: May 14, 2024 Brown v. Leslie et al
Civil Rights: Other | Massachusetts
Order of Remand to State Court
District Judge Julia E. Kobick: ORDER OF REMAND as to Count IV against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Middlesex Superior Court. (Currie, Haley)
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Order | Filed: May 14, 2024 | Entered: May 14, 2024 Brown v. Leslie et al
Civil Rights: Other | Massachusetts
Order on Motion to Sever Order on Motion to Remand
District Judge Julia E. Kobick: ELECTRONIC ORDER entered.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ unopposed motion to sever and remand or to dismiss 10 is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, subject to the following order. The complaint alleges four counts. Counts I, II, and III are claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against defendants Michael Leslie, Keith Barnes, and Beau Lirette, respectively. Count IV is a negligence claim against the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth argues that the Court should sever and remand or dismiss Count IV under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) for lack of jurisdiction on grounds that the Commonwealth has, and has not waived, the immunity afforded by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. ECF 11, at 2-3.
“As a general matter, ‘states are immune under the Eleventh Amendment from private suit in the federal courts, absent their consent.’” Wojcik v. Massachusetts State Lottery Comm’n, 300 F.3d 92, 99 (1st Cir. 2002) (quoting Greenless v. Almond, 277 F.3d 601, 606 (1st Cir. 2002)). Unless that immunity is waived or abrogated, “neither a State nor its agencies acting under its control may ‘be subject to suit in federal court.’” Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., 506 U.S. 139, 144 (1993) (quoting Welch v. Texas Dep’t of Highways & Public Transp., 483 U.S. 468, 480 (1987)). The Commonwealth has not in this case waived its immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. Although the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, M.G.L. c. 258, §§ 2-3, “does provide a limited waiver of the Commonwealth’s sovereign immunity” for certain allegedly negligent conduct, that waiver “does not apply to suits brought under the statute in federal court,” and instead, “grants exclusive jurisdiction over claims brought under the statute to the Commonwealth’s Superior Courts.” Wolski v. Gardner Police Dep’t, 411 F. Supp. 3d 187, 193 (D. Mass. 2019) (citing Irwin v. Comm’r of Dep’t of Youth Servs., 388 Mass. 810, 818-20 (1983)).
Accordingly, the Eleventh Amendment shields the Commonwealth from federal court jurisdiction over the negligence claim in Count IV. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(c)(2), the claim against the Commonwealth, as set forth in Count IV, is hereby severed from the remaining claims and remanded to the Superior Court. (Currie, Haley)
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Notice | Filed: May 13, 2024 | Entered: May 13, 2024 Reilly v. Town of Lexington et al
Civil Rights: Other | Massachusetts
Notice - Other
NOTICE by Innovative Health of MA, LLC (O'Loughlin, Michael)
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