Abraham v. PALMETTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST.
| Citation | 538 S.E.2d 656,343 S.C. 36 |
| Decision Date | 11 September 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 3239.,3239. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of South Carolina |
| Parties | Geraldine ABRAHAM; Marie Brice Adams; James R. Archie; Diane N. Austin; Jeannete P. Austin; Thurston Bagnal; Ellen S. Bailey; Shelley B. Baker; Alice G. Balot; Dedra Baskin; Horace M. Bass; Helen P. Becote; James Cal Bell; Othella R. Bernard; Johnnie T. Bias; John Bodie; Richard L. Boland; Katherina W. Bolden; Jewell B. Bounds; Frank A. Boxx; Patricia Bradley; Linda M.W. Bratton; Ann T. Bridges; Robert C. Brown; Rosalind Patton Brown; Burke Brown; Heyward Brunson; Warren A. Burch; Pamela B. Burnett; Mary H. Cawthon; Clarence A. Clark, Jr.; James F. Clark; Rance C. Cobb; Gary G. Cook; Dr. Sandra C. Cook; Jeannie Bates Croxton; Bernetha L. Culbreath; Robert W. Danforth; Ron M. Davis; Sylvia D. Deal; Wadonna Wilson Dedmondt; Loretta A. Demko; Randolph H. Dillingham; Rex M. Divine; John W. Dodge; William K. Dreyer; John B. Eddings; Eileen L. Englert; Darlene English-Davis; Jacqueline D. Farr; Johnny Floyd; Kathy Freeman; Dr. Ruth Fritts; Cecil B. Gainey, Jr.; Juanita Rose Gilbert; Otis Allen Givens, Jr.; Nancy B. Glenn; John W. Glover; Roger W. Goodman; Alfonzo Greene; James L. Hall; Lucius D. Hand; Mary Gene Hayes; Arnold Brooks Henderson, Jr.; Troy Henegan; Jeffrey M. Holbrooks; Toni S. Hopper; Michael S. Houck; Mary M. Hudson; Patricia Hudson; Sandra M. Hummel; James Leonard Jeffcoat; Grayson P. Jefferies, Jr.; Linda D. Johnson; Etta Jane Jones; Elois Chappell Jones; Arnold E. Karr; Bobby L. Kinard; Deloris LaBrew; Mary C. Lowder; Thomas E. Malik; William Terry Marinko; Andrew E. Marshall; Myrtle J. Marshall; Willie M. McKay; John Richard McLeod; Harry W. Medlin; Grace M. Mitchum; Robert W. Mobley; Thomas E. Moore; Johnny L. Murdaugh; Theron Mark Phillips; Adaline J. Pyatt; Charlotte M. Ramsey; Max Dean Randolph; Alma L. Reid; Steve Scott Rexrode; Gerald B. Ritchie; Charles E. Roache; Nathan Robinson; Helen D. Rogers; Leonard P. Rogers; Eunice Rowell; Rose M.B. Ruger; Hoyt Ray Sharpe; Henry J. Siegfried; Maurie M. Singletary; Carolyn McIver Smith; Luther E. Smith; Mary Starks; Boyd S. Stokes; William A. Strickland; Howard J. Teufel; David A. Theodore; Donald C. Thomas; Beverly Thompson; Jacqueline L. Venning; W. Daniel Vinson, III; Charles L. Williams; Maggie L. Williams; Loretta R. Wilson; Yvonne Williams Wilson; Paula L. Woodlief; Carol R. Wright; James Byron Zuver, Sr., Appellants, v. PALMETTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 and South Carolina Department of Corrections, Respondents. |
W. Allen Nickles, III, of Gergel, Nickles & Solomon, of Columbia, for appellants.
Michael H. Montgomery, of Montgomery, Potts, Pickren & Novak, of Columbia, for respondents.
In this schoolteacher wage dispute, the trial court granted summary judgment to defendants Palmetto Unified School District No. 1 and South Carolina Department of Corrections ("Employers"). Geraldine Abraham, et al. (collectively "Employees") appeal. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.
In 1981, the General Assembly established a "special statewide unified school district" within the Department of Corrections known as Palmetto Unified School District No. 1. See S.C.Code Ann. § 24-25-10 (1989). The District, designed to "enhance the quality and scope" of inmate education with an eye toward reintegrating offenders into the community, operates under the control of a Board of Trustees supervised by the Department of Corrections. Id. at § 24-25-20; see S.C.Code Ann. § 24-25-40 (1989 & Supp.1999). In establishing the District, the Legislature specifically provided for a "twelve-month school program [with] teachers' pay schedule based on the state and average school supplement pay scales." S.C.Code Ann. § 24-25-70(7) (1989 & Supp.1999). The Legislature further required that teachers hired to work in the District "be employed, supervised, and terminated" according to the policies and procedures of the Department of Corrections. S.C.Code Ann. § 24-25-90 (1989).
Employees are all current or former educators working as teachers in the South Carolina correctional system. On September 25, 1995, Employees filed a complaint, amended on October 12, alleging Employers failed to compensate them as provided by law.1 Employees subsequently moved for summary judgment on December 11, 1996; the trial court denied the motion on February 24, 1998. Thereafter, on March 20, Employers filed a motion for summary judgment. Following a hearing, the trial court granted their motion, finding Employees "can prove no set of facts that would entitle them to any relief." Pursuant to Rule 59(e), SCRCP, Employees filed a timely motion to reconsider. On March 17, 1999, the trial court issued an amended order confirming summary judgment to Employers. This appeal followed.
A motion for summary judgment should be granted when it is clear there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c), SCRCP; Adamson v. Richland County Sch. Dist. One, 332 S.C. 121, 503 S.E.2d 752 (Ct.App.1998). In particular, summary judgment is appropriate where the facts of the case are undisputed. See Trico Surveying, Inc. v. Godley Auction Co., 314 S.C. 542, 544, 431 S.E.2d 565, 566 (1993)
() (quoting Byerly v. Connor, 307 S.C. 441, 445, 415 S.E.2d 796, 799 (1992)); Staubes v. City of Folly Beach, 331 S.C. 192, 500 S.E.2d 160 (Ct.App.1998). The parties herein concede no issues of material fact exist. Accordingly, the questions presented for this Court's determination involve the purely legal concern of whether Employees are in fact paid according to law.
Employees first argue they are not paid as required by law because Employers have failed to compensate them for their twelve-month work schedule. Employees, who by the terms of their employment agree to teach five days a week year-round, claim Employers are improperly deducting holidays and annual leave from the number of work days for which they must account. We disagree.
The total number of days available for Employees to work in any given year is 261 (365 total days per year minus 104 weekend days each year). Employers calculate Employee pay based on the fact that, of this total, Employees must be present physically on the job for 235 days each year (261 work days minus 15 days of annual leave plus 11 official state holidays). Employees contend this method of determining compensation means they are not getting paid for 26 days of "work" time that must be accounted for (either by annual leave or an official holiday). Employees' argument, however, misapprehends the nature of their base pay determination.
When the District initially was formed, the 235-day figure was used to compute Employees' annual compensation because "[i]t was the ratio of Palmetto Unified School District's accountable years and work days to the ratio of the geographic district teachers' work year and work days within that work year." In other words, the ratio of days actually worked by Employees (235 out of a possible 261 days available in a 52week work year) is exactly the same as that for public school teachers (190 days out of 210 available in a 42-week work year). Regarding the comparison to public school teachers, Employers' expert Carl Garris noted:
I'm saying that there's three ways you can look at it. But in any event, you've got ... your measuring rod has to be the same. You've got to compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges. If you want to talk about ... base it on work days, the ratio is 190 to 235. If you want to talk about the total period of time in which they are required to carry out their work, then the comparison is 210 days to 26[1] days. If you want to base it on weeks, it's 42 weeks versus 52 weeks, and under all three scenarios, the ratio comes out to be 124 percent.
Another expert, Dr. Jesse Teel, reached a similar conclusion:
Department of Corrections teachers work 235 days per year, which is 124 percent of the 190 day work year that South Carolina public school teachers perform. Additionally, Department ... teachers[`] base pay is approximately 124 percent of base pay for ... public school teachers with the same credentials and experience. Further, both Department... teachers and public school teachers are not required to work on holidays when their respective schools are closed ... and neither group's pay is reduced for not working these holidays as would be the case with hourly workers.... Last, Department ... teachers receive 15 days of vacation time each year, and their pay is not reduced for not working these days. In fact, Department... teachers can accrue up to 45 vacation days and be paid for these days if they leave the Department of Corrections. This obviously implies that they already receive pay for their vacation days.
(Teel Aff. at 3-4). Finally, Sam O'Kelley, Deputy Director of Administration for the Department of Corrections, confirmed the testimony of both experts:
[I]t was a way of generating the pay schedule. In effect, what we did is we took the State [public school teacher] minimum, which was based on 190 days, got the daily rate of pay, and then simply multiplied that figure by 235 and that would have given us the annualized equivalent ....
Without question, Employees are paid semi-monthly (twenty-four times a year) on an annual, salaried basis. (Coleman Dep. at 69.) In other words, Employees agree to "perform a job with certain responsibilities for a specified dollar amount over a period of time," in this case one year. (Garris Dep. at 30.) Accordingly, they are paid the same amount each pay period regardless of whether they have taken...
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