## Facts

- Multiple plaintiffs (injured persons, guardians, and insurers) brought tort actions in Delaware Superior Court arising from two separate accidents involving buses operated by the Delaware Authority for Regional Transit (DART).
- Defendants included DART, bus drivers, and in one action an estate administrator.
- The State had purchased commercial liability insurance covering DART bus operations pursuant to § 68 of the 1989 Bond and Capital Improvements Act.
- Superior Court pretrial rulings held that any waiver of sovereign immunity for these claims was limited by § 68 and the applicable insurance coverage limits.
- Plaintiffs sought interlocutory review, arguing (among other points) that § 68 was unconstitutional under Delaware’s single-subject and title requirements and that sovereign immunity should not constrain recovery as the Superior Court ruled.

## Issues

1. Whether § 68 of the 1989 Bond and Capital Improvements Act violated Delaware’s constitutional single-subject and title requirements.
2. Whether, under § 68 and the State’s purchase of commercial liability insurance, the State waived sovereign immunity beyond the scope and limits of the insurance coverage.
3. Whether the court should consider a single-subject/title constitutional challenge raised for the first time on interlocutory appeal.

## Decision

- The Delaware Supreme Court addressed the constitutional challenge despite it being raised for the first time on appeal, treating it as a fully briefed pure question of law with broad public importance.
- The court upheld § 68 as constitutional, rejecting the claims that the Bond Act violated the single-subject rule or that the Act’s title failed to provide constitutionally sufficient notice.
- The court held that the State’s waiver of sovereign immunity, when authorized through § 68 and implemented by purchasing insurance, extends only to the amount and scope of the insurance coverage authorized and actually purchased.
- The court affirmed the Superior Court’s pretrial rulings limiting recovery against the State-related entity to applicable insurance limits and remanded for further proceedings consistent with that legal framework.

## Legal Principles

- Sovereign immunity in Delaware persists unless waived by the General Assembly through clear legislative action.
- When legislation authorizes purchase of liability insurance and links waiver to that purchase, sovereign immunity is waived only to the extent of the coverage purchased; recovery against the State cannot exceed those limits.
- Delaware’s single-subject requirement is satisfied when provisions are germane or reasonably related to a single general purpose, even if the act contains many detailed components.
- A legislative title satisfies Delaware’s title requirement if it gives reasonable notice of the act’s general subject; it need not enumerate every specific provision.
- Although issues not raised below are generally forfeited, an appellate court may consider a late-raised constitutional question presented as a pure question of law with substantial statewide consequences.

## Conclusion

The Delaware Supreme Court sustained the validity of § 68 of the 1989 Bond and Capital Improvements Act and confirmed that any waiver of sovereign immunity for DART bus-accident claims was limited to the scope and limits of liability insurance authorized and purchased under that statute, thereby capping potential recovery against the State-related entity at the insurance limits.


Turnbull v. Fink, 668 A.2d 1370 (Del. 1995)