No immunity for WVU-Parkersburg in wage payment case

The first employment opinion of the Fall term of the West Virginia Supreme Court was issued yesterday.  In Beichler v. West Va. Univ. at Parkersburg, No. 35435 (September 16, 2010) a terminated professor sued the university for unpaid wages.  The circuit court dismissed the complaint for failure to exhaust available administrative remedies and also based on sovereign immunity.  The state supreme court reversed and remanded on both grounds.  Here are the new syllabus points:

3. Pursuant to W.Va. Code, 21-5-12(a) (1975), a person whose wages have not been paid in accord with the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act may initiate a claim for the unpaid wages either through the administrative remedies provided under the Act or by filing a complaint for the unpaid wages directly in circuit court.

5. Article VI, § 35, of the Constitution of West Virginia, concerning this State’s sovereign immunity, does not bar the claim of a State employee for unpaid wages asserted under the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act, W.Va. Code, 21-5-1 (1987), et seq., whether the claim is initiated through the administrative remedies provided under the Wage Payment and Collection Act or initiated by filing a complaint for the unpaid wages directly in circuit court.

Nothing too surprising in this decision.