Director of Finance for Baltimore County v. Myers
| Decision Date | 01 July 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 337,337 |
| Citation | 192 A.2d 278,232 Md. 213 |
| Parties | DIRECTOR OF FINANCE FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY v. Jerome F. MYERS. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Walter R. Haile, Towson (E. Scott Moore, Towson, and Harry S. Shapiro, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.
Marvin Ellin, Baltimore, for appellee.
Before BRUNE, C. J., and HENDERSON, PRESCOTT, MARBURY and SYBERT, JJ.
In this mandamus case the appeal is from an order of court directing the appellant, Norman W. Wood, Director of Finance for Baltimore County, to pay Jerome F. Myers, appellee, a former county firefighter, holiday pay retroactively for six holidays worked by him from July 4, 1959, to and including November 26, 1959.
Appellee was a Baltimore County Fireman from September 1954 until October 1960, at which time he was discharged because of physical disability due to a heart condition.
When Baltimore County adopted the charter form of government in 1956, the charter contained, in Article VIII, a provision for the passage of a County Personnel Act, which would set up a merit system of employment for county workers. Article VIII provided for a breakdown of classified and exempt workers, and specified those types of jobs that were to be exempt from the merit system. The only Fire Bureau employee listed as exempt was the head of the bureau. The County Council subsequently adopted this Personnel Act in 1958 as Section 353 of the Baltimore County Code. As amended at the time this action was instituted, Section 353, Rule 25--Holidays, provided for double pay for any classified employee if he had to work on enumerated holidays; i. e. New Year's Day, Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's Birthday, Good Friday, Maryland Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Defenders' Day, Columbus Day, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas.
Also in 1958, the council adopted Section 354 of the County Code, to apply only to policemen and firemen. Special Regulation 1.01 of Section 354 stated that any provisions not covered by the Special Rules and Regulations in Section 354 would be governed by Section 353, supra. Special Regulation 6.02 of Section 354 provided that all orders, regulations and directives of the Police and Fire Bureaus in existence at the time of the adoption of Section 354, or prescribed in the future, should have full force and effect. Section 354 did not make mention of any compensatory scheme for worked holidays, as such, but Special Regulation 1.01 did state that those special rules and regulations would apply to Police and Fire Bureau employees '* * * relating to employment, promotion, suspension and dismissal * * *.' We think that the comprehensive term 'employment' included the very important phase of employment which pertains to compensation. Since employment was to be governed by Fire Department regulations, we think it was not intended to be separated from other matters of employment and made subject to Section 353 by virtue of the catch-all provision of Regulation 1.01 of Section 354.
On December 1, 1958, the Chief of the Fire Bureau issued a directive relating to vacations. This directive, although not as clear as it could be, provided specifically for an annual vacation of two weeks for firemen. In addition to the two weeks, the directive provided that a fireman might earn ten additional days of vacation, making twenty-four days total vacation, which was computed on the basis of two days earned for each month worked, but did not set forth the reason for the extra ten days.
By Article VIII of the Charter, § 802, it was provided that the County Personnel Law shall provide for the following:
'* * * (d) Authority in the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board to set up and revise a job classification plan, a compensation plan, and to establish rules and regulations for examinations, certifications and other necessary details of personnel administration.
* * *
* * *
'(1) Special rules and regulations, to be first approved by the Director of Public Safety, and relating to the employment, promotion, suspension and dismissal of employees of the Fire Bureau and the Police Bureau.'
The County Council, in 1961, passed an amendment to the Personnel Act which, among other things, contained Special Regulation 12.02, providing for a regular rate of pay to Fire and Police Bureau personnel for holidays worked by these employees. In its preamble, the amendatory Act undertook to state the legislative intent in enacting Section 354 in 1958 so as to exclude employees of the Police and Fire Bureaus from Rule 25 of Section 353.
On January 17, 1961, appellee filed his petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the appellant to pay him double pay for holidays worked by him in 1959, specifically Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Election Day, Veterans' Day, and Thanksgiving. Appellant demurred to the petition on the grounds, inter alia, that Regulations 25.01 and 25.02 of Rule 25 do not apply to members of the Fire Bureau. On April 28, 1961, Judge Berry filed an opinion overruling the demurrer with leave to answer. On May 22, 1961, appellant filed an answer and the case came on for trial before Judge Turnbull on August 6, 1962, when the case was heard on its merits and testimony was taken. After the filing of memoranda by both parties on December 10, 1962, Judge Turnbull, following the holding of Judge Berry in his ruling on the demurrer and finding that the allegations of the petition had been proven, issued the order...
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Montgomery Cnty. Pub. Sch. v. Donlon, 571, Sept. Term, 2016.
...of Appeals has explained that a later amendment "is not controlling as to the meaning of the prior law." Dir. of Fin. for Baltimore Cnty. v. Myers, 232 Md. 213, 218, 192 A.2d 278 (1963) (citing A. G. Crunkleton Elec. Co. v. Barkdoll, 227 Md. 364, 369, 177 A.2d 252 (1962) ). Although we ulti......
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Green v. Nassif
...do not place much weight upon what the Legislature, in 1977, said was intended in a 1974 statute.”); Dir. of Fin. for Balt. County v. Myers, 232 Md. 213, 218, 192 A.2d 278, 280 (1963) (holding that an “amendment ... is not controlling as to the meaning of the prior law”).29 We are left, the......
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Adoption No. 9979, In re
...Md. 12, 18, 506 A.2d 1171, 1174 (1986); Collier v. Connolley, 285 Md. 123, 125-126, 400 A.2d 1107, 1108 (1979); Director v. Myers, 232 Md. 213, 218, 192 A.2d 278, 280 (1963); A.G. Crunkleton v. Barkdoll, 227 Md. 364, 369, 177 A.2d 252, 255 (1962). If subsequent statements by the Legislature......
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Collier v. Connolley
...Appeals, we do not place much weight upon what the Legislature, in 1977, said was intended in a 1974 statute. Cf. Director v. Myers, 232 Md. 213, 218, 192 A.2d 278 (1963); A. G. Crunkleton v. Barkdoll, 227 Md. 364, 369, 177 A.2d 252 (1962); Annapolis v. Arundeland, Inc., 205 Md. 170, 177, 1......