[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED
________________________ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 08-10855 FEBRUARY 10, 2009
________________________ THOMAS K. KAHN
CLERK
D. C. Docket No. 05-02503-CV-5-CLS
KURT BOWDEN,
father of Dianna Bowden, a minor, deceased,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
LINCOLN COUNTY HEALTH SYSTEM,
a Corporation d.b.a. Lincoln Medical Center,
LINCOLN MEDICAL CENTER EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES,
CHARLES EAKES,
an individual,
Defendants-Appellants.
________________________
Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Alabama
_________________________
(February 10, 2009)
Before MARCUS, KRAVITCH and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Appellants Lincoln County Health System and Charles Eakes (collectively
“Defendants”) appeal the district court’s order finding that neither the Alabama nor
the Tennessee statutory cap on a governmental entity’s liability applied where an
Alabama plaintiff sued a Tennessee county entity and its employee in federal
district court in Alabama.
This wrongful death action, based upon the substantive law of the State of
Alabama, arose out of a collision between an automobile driven by Dianna
Bowden, a citizen of Alabama, and an ambulance driven by Defendant Charles
Eakes, an employee of Defendant Lincoln County Health System, a Tennessee
county governmental entity. The collision occurred in Madison County, Alabama.
Plaintiff Kurt Bowden — the father and personal representative of Dianna Bowden
— brought suit against the county entity and the driver. At the conclusion of a trial
in the district court for the Northern District of Alabama, a jury found Defendants
liable and awarded Plaintiff $3.1 million dollars.
Defendants filed a post-judgment motion, asking the court inter alia to
reduce the jury award to $100,000 in accordance with the statutory damage
limitations contained in Alabama Code § 11-93-2 or, in the alternative, to $250,000
in accordance with Tennessee Code § 29-20-403. Both the Alabama and
Tennessee statutes limit the damages available against a county governmental
2
entity. The district court found that Lincoln County Health System is a county
governmental entity; however, it held that it was not entitled to the benefit of either
statute because (1) the Alabama statutory cap was not intended to apply to a
Tennessee governmental entity and (2) the principles of comity should not apply to
give effect to a Tennessee statute that would limit the damages awarded by the jury
in this case. Accordingly, the court denied the motion and affirmed the jury award.
Defendants appeal.1
We review a lower court’s legal determinations de novo, Estate of Shelfer v.
Commissioner,
86 F.3d 1045, 1046 (11th Cir. 1996), and its decisions regarding an
exercise of comity under an abuse of discretion standard. Belize Telecom, Ltd. v.
Gov’t of Belize,
528 F.3d 1298, 1303 (11th Cir. 2008) (citing Daewoo Motor Am.,
Inc. v. General Motors Corp.,
459 F.3d 1249, 1256 (11th Cir. 2006)).
After a thorough review of the record and the parties’ briefs and having
received the benefit of oral argument, we conclude that the district court did not
err. Accordingly we AFFIRM for the reasons stated in the district court’s thorough
and well reasoned opinion.
AFFIRMED.
1
Defendants argue for the first time on appeal that the Full Faith and Credit Clause, as
well as the principles of comity, requires the application of the Tennessee statutory cap on
damages. Because this argument was not raised before the district court, we do not consider it.
Hurley v. Moore,
233 F.3d 1295, 1297 (11th Cir. 2000) (“Arguments raised for the first time on
appeal are not properly before this Court.”).
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ANDERSON, Circuit Judge, concurring specially:
I concur in the result reached by the opinion for our court.
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