McNeil v. Charlevoix County

• Decision Date: 21 July 2009
• Docket Number: Calendar No. 9.,Docket No. 134437.
• Citation: 484 Mich. 69,772 N.W.2d 18
• Parties: Kent A. McNEIL, Franklin E. Fisher, and Roger Griffin, Plaintiffs, and Scott Way and Jeff Legato, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CHARLEVOIX COUNTY and Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

772 N.W.2d 18

484 Mich. 69

Kent A. McNEIL, Franklin E. Fisher, and Roger Griffin, Plaintiffs, and Scott Way and Jeff Legato, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CHARLEVOIX COUNTY and Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 134437.

Calendar No. 9.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Argued January 22, 2009.

Decided July 21, 2009.

Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith, P.C. (by Samuel J. Frederick), Lansing, for plaintiffs Scott Way and Jeff Legato.

Young, Graham, Elsenheimer & Wendling, P.C. (by James G. Young, Dennis M. LaBelle, and James G. Young), Bellaire, for defendant Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency.

Cohl, Stoker, Toskey & McGlinchey, P.C. (by Peter A. Cohl and Richard D. McNulty), Lansing, for amici curiae the Michigan Association of Counties and the Michigan Association for Local Public Health.

Bauckham, Sparks, Lohrstorfer, Thall & Seeber, P.C. (by John H. Bauckham and Robert E. Thall), Kalamazoo, for amici curiae the Michigan Townships Association.

Opinion

WEAVER, J.

At issue in this case is whether MCL 333.2441(1) authorizes a local health department to create, and a county board of commissioners to approve, regulations that control smoking in the workplace. Additionally at issue is whether such a regulation providing employees with a private cause of action to seek its enforcement, interferes with Michigan's at-will employment doctrine.

I. THE COURT OF APPEALS DECISION

The Court of Appeals concluded that the regulation at issue is authorized by statute and was promulgated in a manner consistent with the statutory requirements. Furthermore, the Court of Appeals concluded that the private cause of action created by the regulation fits within public policy exceptions to Michigan's at-will employment doctrine. We agree with the Court of Appeals' conclusions. In affirming, we adopt as our own the Court of Appeals' opinion, McNeil v. Charlevoix Co., 275 Mich.App. 686, 741 N.W.2d 27 (2007)¹:

In this action for declaratory relief, plaintiffs appeal as of right the trial court's order denying their motion for summary disposition. We affirm.

I. BASIC FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant Northwest Michigan Community Health Agency (NMCHA) is a multicounty district health department organized by Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet, and Otsego counties under Part 24 of the Public Health Code (PHC), MCL 333.2401 et seq.¹ In purported furtherance of its duty to protect the public health and welfare in its district, the NMCHA promulgated what it entitled the Public Health Indoor Air Regulation of 2005 (the regulation). In addition to prohibiting smoking in all public places, the regulation requires employers who do not wholly prohibit smoking at an enclosed place of employment to designate an NMCHA-approved smoking room which is required by the regulation to be "a separate enclosed area that is independently ventilated so that smoke does not enter other non-smoking areas of the worksite." The regulation additionally prohibits an employer from discharging, refusing to hire, or otherwise retaliating against an employee for exercising his or her right to the smoke-free environment afforded by the regulation.

After the regulation was approved by each of the four counties, plaintiffs, each of whom resides or operates a business within defendant Charlevoix County, brought this action to invalidate the regulation by judicial declaration that the NMCHA was without authority to promulgate such a regulation and that the regulation itself was preempted by Part 126 of the PHC, MCL 333.12601 et seq., which prohibits smoking in buildings used by the public except in designated areas. In seeking summary disposition on these grounds, plaintiffs argued that nothing in Part 126 of the PHC, which is also known as the Michigan Clean Indoor Air Act (MCIAA),² authorizes a local health department to enforce or augment the smoking restrictions set by the MCIAA. Plaintiffs further argued that § 12605 of the MCIAA, MCL 333.12605, grants owners and operators of public places the discretion to choose whether to maintain a smoking section or remain smoke-free, and that this discretion to permit smoking in public places constitutes a statutorily conferred right that a local health department cannot annul by regulation. Moreover, plaintiffs argued, where the owner or operator of a public place chooses to have a designated smoking area, § 12605 requires only that existing physical barriers and ventilation be used to minimize the toxic effects of smoking. Thus, insofar as the NMCHA regulation requires that smoking be restricted to a separate, enclosed area with independent ventilation, it conflicts with the MCIAA and must be found to be invalid.

Citing this Court's decision in Michigan Restaurant Ass'n v. City of Marquette, 245 Mich.App. 63, 626 N.W.2d 418 (2001), plaintiffs further asserted that smoking is an issue better suited to regulation on a statewide basis, and that local regulation must therefore yield to the preemptive provisions of the MCIAA. Plaintiffs additionally argued that, to the extent the regulation impinges on the common-law right of an employer to discharge an employee at will, the regulation violates public policy and is void. The trial court, however, disagreed and denied plaintiffs' motion. This appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

Plaintiffs assert that the trial court erred in denying their motion for summary disposition. In doing so, plaintiffs again argue that the NMCHA lacked the authority to promulgate regulations restricting smoking and that local regulation was, in any event, preempted by the MCIAA. We disagree.

A. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Resolution of the questions presented on appeal requires the interpretation of statutes, which is a question of law that this Court reviews de novo. See Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners v. Ferndale, 256 Mich.App. 401, 405, 662 N.W.2d 864 (2003). When interpreting a statute, this Court's goal is to ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature by applying the plain language of the statute. Gladych v. New Family Homes, Inc., 468 Mich. 594, 597, 664 N.W.2d 705 (2003).

B. OVERVIEW OF THE MICHIGAN CLEAN INDOOR AIR ACT

The MCIAA, enacted in 1986 as Part 126 of the PHC,³ prohibits smoking "in a public place or at a meeting of a public body, except in a designated smoking area." MCL 333.12603. Although seemingly broad in scope, "public place," as defined by the MCIAA, renders the act inapplicable to most private-sector workplaces and public areas that are not themselves enclosed. See MCL 333.12601(m).⁴ Also exempt from the requirements of the act are food service establishments,⁵ MCL 333.12603(3), private educational facilities "after regularly scheduled school hours," MCL 333.12603(4), and enclosed private rooms or offices occupied exclusively by a smoker, "even if the room or enclosed office may be visited by a nonsmoker," MCL 333.12601(2). Further, the MCIAA expressly does not apply to "a room, hall, or building used for a private function if the seating arrangements are under the control of the sponsor of the function and not under the control of the state or local government agency or the person who owns or operates the room, hall, or building." MCL 333.12603(2).

In all other public places in which smoking is not "prohibited by law," the MCIAA permits a "person who owns or operates a public place" to designate a smoking area. MCL 333.12605(1).⁶ In those public places in which an owner or operator elects to designate a smoking area, the act requires that "existing physical barriers and ventilation systems shall be used to minimize the toxic effect of smoke in both smoking and adjacent nonsmoking areas." MCL 333.12605(1).⁷ The act further requires that seating within the public place be arranged "to provide, as nearly as practicable, a smoke-free area," MCL 333.12607(b), and that the owner or operator develop, implement, and enforce "a written policy for the separation of smokers and nonsmokers which provides, at a minimum," for a procedure to receive, investigate, and take action on complaints, and that ensures that nonsmokers will be located closest to the source of fresh air and that special consideration will be given to individuals with a hypersensitivity to tobacco smoke, MCL 333.12605(3); see also MCL 333.12607(c).

C. AUTHORITY OF THE NMCHA TO PROMULGATE SMOKING REGULATIONS

In challenging the validity of the regulation promulgated by the NMCHA, plaintiffs assert that nothing in Part 126 of the PHC authorizes a local health department to enforce or augment the smoking restrictions set by the MCIAA.⁸ Plaintiffs argue that, pursuant to MCL 333.12613, implementation and enforcement of the act and rules promulgated thereunder is a power within the exclusive province of the Michigan Department of Community Health. Plaintiffs' argument in this regard, however, is not sustained by the plain language of § 12613(2) of Part 126 which expressly provides that "the department may authorize a local health department to enforce this part and the rules promulgated under this part." MCL 333.12613(2).

Moreover, even if the responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of the restrictions established by Part 126 had been exclusively granted to the Department of Community Health, that would not, by itself, deny a local health department the authority to promulgate, implement, and enforce similar regulations of its own making. As previously noted, Part 24 of the PHC authorizes the creation of local health departments such as the NMCHA. See MCL 333.2415 and 333.2421. Pursuant to § 2433 of Part 24, such departments are charged with the duty to

"continually and diligently endeavor to prevent disease, prolong life, and promote the public health through organized programs, including prevention and control of environmental health hazards; prevention and control of diseases; prevention and control of health problems of particularly vulnerable...