Department of Transportation & Development v. PNL Asset Management Co.
Department of Transportation & Development v. PNL Asset Management Co.
Opinion of the Court
ORDER ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
(Opinion September 15, 1997, 5th Cir., 1997, 123 F.3d 241)
It is ORDERED that the petitions for rehearing filed in the above case are DENIED. We revise the last paragraph of Section III and the first paragraph of Section IV to read as follows:
It is well-established that the Eleventh Amendment does not bar the United States government from filing suit in federal court against a state. United States v. Mississippi 380 U.S. 128, 140, 85 S.Ct. 808, 815, 13 L.Ed.2d 717 (1965) (noting that “nothing in the [Eleventh Amendment] or any other provision of the Constitution prevents or has ever been seriously supposed to prevent a State’s being sued by the United States.”); United States v. Texas, 143 U.S. 621, 641-46, 12 S.Ct. 488, 492-94, 36 L.Ed. 285 (1892). It is, however, a great leap to suggest that granting continuing federal jurisdiction in tandem with 12 U.S.C. § 1819(b)(1) and 28 U.S.C. § 1345 permit private successors to the FDIC to avoid the Eleventh Amendment by slipping into the shoes of the United States. While a state’s consent to being sued by the United States is deemed to be given when admitted into the Union, the same cannot be said with respect to a private party stepping into the shoes of an agency of the federal government which may be seen to lie “outside the structure of the [original] Union.” See Monaco v. Mississippi, 292 U.S. 313, 322-23, 330, 54 S.Ct. 745, 748, 751, 78 L.Ed. 1282 (1934) (stating that states possess immunity from unconsented suit except
IV.
We hold that Section 106(a) of the Bankruptcy Code is unconstitutional. Congress cannot locate the authority claimed here to abrogate sovereign immunity in either the Bankruptcy Clause or in Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nor does extending federal jurisdiction to private successors to the FDIC avoid the reach of the Eleventh Amendment.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In the Matter of Julian E. FERNANDEZ, Estate of, Debtor, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT, State of Louisiana v. PNL ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANY LLC Jean O. Turner, Appellees In the Matter of Julian E. FERNANDEZ, Debtor, STATE OF LOUISIANA, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT v. Jean O. TURNER, trustee PNL Asset Management Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published