Briscoe v. Prince George's County Health Dept.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1989
• Docket Number: No. 82,82
• Citation: 593 A.2d 1109,323 Md. 439
• Parties: C. Elaine BRISCOE et al. v. PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT et al. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 439

323 Md. 439

593 A.2d 1109

C. Elaine BRISCOE et al. v. PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT et al.

No. 82, Sept. Term, 1989.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 20, 1991.

Stephen M. Nassau (Statland, Nerenberg, Nassau & Buckley, on brief), Washington, D.C., for petitioners.

Paula I. Mell and Lawrence H. Mirel of The Greater Washington Soc. for Clinical Social Work, Inc., amicus curiae.

Carmen M. Shepard, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Judith K. Sykes, Asst. Atty. Gen., on brief), Baltimore, for respondents.

Argued before ELDRIDGE, COLE ^*, RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, ADKINS ^**, HOWARD S. CHASANOW (Specially Assigned), CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., (retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.

ELDRIDGE, Judge.

The petitioners are clinical social workers employed by the State of Maryland. The principal issues in the case are whether the State violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or Maryland Code (1957, 1988 Repl.Vol., 1990 Cum.Supp.), Art. 64A, § 27, ¹ by paying the petitioners less than psychiatric nurses employed at the same facilities.

I.

The original claimants were twelve clinical social workers employed by the State of Maryland at Community Mental Health Centers administered by the Prince George's County Health Department. These claimants filed an administrative grievance against the County Health Department and the State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, alleging that the clinical social workers had the same responsibilities and performed essentially the same duties as psychiatric nurses at the Community Mental Health Clinics but were paid at a lower grade than the nurses. ² They argued that under equal protection and due process principles, as well as under the State Merit System Law (Art. 64A), persons in positions involving comparable duties, experience, responsibilities and authority must be paid comparable salaries. The claimants requested that their salaries be upgraded to a level equivalent to that of the nurses and that they be awarded back pay.

After unsuccessfully pursuing their grievance through the initial steps of the State Employee Grievance Procedure Art. 64A, §§ 52-57, the claimants appealed to the Department of Personnel. At a hearing before the Department of Personnel hearing officer, there was testimony from clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, and other personnel at the Prince George's County Community Health Clinics. There was also testimony from other State-employed witnesses. Following the hearing, the Department of Personnel hearing officer issued her decision denying the grievance.

The hearing officer found that, at the Prince George's County Community Mental Health Clinics, a clinical social worker "functions basically the same as the psychiatric nurses." The hearing officer pointed to testimony that "cases are randomly assigned based on the availability of the therapist, who could be a psychiatric nurse, social worker or psychologist." The hearing officer also referred to testimony that a psychiatric nurse at the Prince George's County facilities spends only one percent of her time administering medication. The hearing officer, however, indicated that this situation was limited to Prince George's County facilities and did not exist elsewhere in the State.

As part of her findings of fact, the hearing officer quoted extensively from a study commissioned in 1986 by the Appropriations Committee of the House of Delegates and conducted by the Department of Personnel's Division of Salary Administration and Position Classification. The study focused on multi-disciplinary teams in use at Department of Health and Mental Hygiene facilities in order "to determine whether a single classification of Clinical Mental Health Therapist was appropriate for all persons performing clinical mental health therapy." The study concluded that at facilities across the State, other than the Prince George's County Mental Health Centers and the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Rockville, Maryland, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, and psychologists "function[ed] within the boundaries of their discipline." The hearing officer further quoted from the study " 'To the extent, then, that there is a commonality of function of the professionals in the mode of operation in the outpatient clinic and Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents, it is reflective of psychologists and nurses performing duties related to social services rather than reflection of social workers performing duties of nurses or psychologists, or reflective of functions (such as psychotherapy) which have been common to all these professionals.

" 'Under this circumstance, we do not recommend creating a single classification of Clinical Mental Health Therapist spanning all three professions. A new Clinical Social Worker classification may however be helpful in securing an applicant with background particularly relevant for clinical work as described above.' " ³

The Hearing Officer also noted: "In the expert opinion of the classification analysts, the social workers were not being overutilized or undercompensated; the psychologists and nurses were being underutilized and overcompensated." The hearing officer stated that the Classification Study "in no way supports an additional salary adjustment for the" claimants.

The hearing officer concluded that "the grievants had the burden of proving that management violated a law or regulation or acted arbitrarily in denying a ... salary adjustment for the [claimants] to establish equity with the ... Nurse series," and that the claimants had failed to meet their burden. The hearing officer also indicated that, to the extent that the claimants' request for a salary adjustment might involve an amendment to the State Pay Plan under Art. 64A, § 27, such an amendment would relate to an entire class and must be approved by the Governor. ⁴

The claimants then filed this action in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County to obtain judicial review of the Department of Personnel's decision. Shortly thereafter, seven clinical social workers employed at the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Rockville moved to intervene as additional plaintiffs, asserting that they were situated similarly to the original twelve plaintiffs. Over the objection of the defendants, the circuit court granted the motion to intervene.

The circuit court, after a hearing, reversed the Department of Personnel's decision. The court ordered the Secretary of Personnel to reclassify the plaintiffs either to an existing or a new classification equivalent in salary to that of the psychiatric nurses. In addition, it was ordered that the plaintiffs be paid salaries equivalent to those of the Community Health Nurse IV classification, that the Secretary of Personnel consider awarding back pay, and that the defendants pay the plaintiffs' attorney's fees. The circuit court issued no written opinion, and the remarks of the circuit judge at the hearing do not make the basis for his ruling entirely clear. It would appear from his remarks that the circuit judge agreed with the plaintiffs' equal protection argument.

The Prince George's County Department of Health and the State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene filed an appeal, and the Court of Special Appeals reversed. Prince George's County v. Briscoe, 79 Md.App. 325, 556 A.2d 742 (1989). In response to petitioners' constitutional arguments, the intermediate appellate court held that the difference in pay scale between the social workers and the nurses had a rational basis and, therefore, did not constitute a denial of equal protection or of due process. With regard to the plaintiffs' reliance upon the provision of Art. 64A, § 27(a)(1)(i), stating that "all positions in the service involving comparable skills, knowledge, effort, responsibility, and working conditions shall be paid comparable salaries," the Court of Special Appeals initially indicated that this provision is part of the section relating to the State Pay Plan. The appellate court then held that the Pay Plan related to statewide classes and not individual positions, that any changes in the Pay Plan must be approved by the Governor, and that the hearing officer had no power to effect a modification in the Pay Plan. As to the plaintiffs' reliance upon Art. 64A, § 16(b), which authorizes the Secretary of Personnel to take corrective action when a position is inappropriately classified, the Court of Special Appeals held that plaintiffs had failed to argue at the administrative level that they were entitled to reclassification under § 16(b). ⁵ The appellate court alternatively held that the plaintiffs had not shown at the administrative hearing that they had been misclassified or that they should be reclassified. Lastly, the Court of Special Appeals held that permitting the intervention of the Rockville social workers had been improper because they had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies, and that the award of attorney's fees to the plaintiffs had been erroneous.

Thereafter, we granted the plaintiffs' petition for a writ of certiorari.

II.

The plaintiffs' principal argument in this Court is that the State's classification scheme which pays clinical social workers such as the plaintiffs less than psychiatric nurses constitutes a denial of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ⁶

In a case such as this, the standard of review for equal protection analysis is the rational basis test. See, e.g., Hargrove v. Board of Trustees, 310 Md. 406, 416-422, 529 A.2d 1372, 1377-1380 (1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1027, 108 S.Ct. 753, 98 L.Ed.2d 766 (1988); Broadwater v. State, 306 Md. 597, 604-608, 510 A.2d 583, 586-588 (1986); Ennis v. State, 306 Md. 579, 595, 510 A.2d 573, 581 (1986); Attorney-- General v. Waldron, 289 Md. 683, 706-707, 426 A.2d 929, 942 (1981); Board v. Goodsell, 284 Md. 279, 286, ...