Newell v. Runnels

• Decision Date: 13 March 2009
• Docket Number: No. 48, September Term, 2008.,48, September Term, 2008.
• Citation: 967 A.2d 729,407 Md. 578
• Parties: Jonathan G. NEWELL, et al. v. Susan RUNNELS, et al.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

967 A.2d 729

407 Md. 578

Jonathan G. NEWELL, et al. v. Susan RUNNELS, et al.

No. 48, September Term, 2008.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

March 13, 2009.

William F. Brockman, Deputy Solicitor Gen. (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen., Baltimore), on brief, Linda S. Woolf (K. Nichole Nesbitt, Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP, Baltimore), on brief for Petitioners/Cross-Respondents.

Jonathan Hodgson, County Atty., Julie T. Sweeney, Senior Asst. County Atty., Annapolis, Robert S. McCord, County Atty., Karen J. Kruger, Senior Asst. County Bel Air, John E. Beverungen, County Atty., Paul Mayhew, Asst. County Atty., Towson, George A. Nilson, City Solicitor, Sabrina Willis, Asst. Solicitor, Baltimore, Kimberly A. Millender, County Atty. for Carroll County, Westminster, John Bloxom, County Atty. for Worcester County, Snow Hill, Brief of Amici Curiae for Petitioners/Cross-Respondents—Counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, Carroll, Worcester and Baltimore City.

Scott G. Patterson, President, Maryland State's Attorneys' Association, Brief of Amicus Curiae, Maryland State's Attorneys' Association, in Support of Appellants.

Thomas X. Glancy, Jr. (Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC, Baltimore; Deborah A. Jeon, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Maryland, Inc., Baltimore), on brief for Respondents/Cross-Petitioners.

C. Matthew Hill, Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., Appellate Advocacy Fellow, Brief of Public Justice Center and Maryland Employment Lawyers Association as Amici Curiae for Respondents/Cross-Petitioners.

Argued Before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, MURPHY and JOHN C. ELDRIDGE (Retired, Specially Assigned) and ALAN M. WILNER (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.

HARRELL, Judge.

Concerning the Secretaries of Princes

The choice of servants is of no little importance to a prince, and they are good or not according to the discrimination of the prince. And the first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise one cannot form a good opinion of him, for the prime error which he made was in choosing them.

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, THE PRINCE 103 (W.K. Marriott trans., Borders Classics 2006) (1532).

The words of Machiavelli, a government servant who, following a regime change in his city, found himself placed on the rack because the new administration suspected he supported the outgoing administration, seem apt to the present occasion, more than a half of a millennium after they were written: is the populace's faith in a public official often determined by the successes and failures of those who formulate and implement policy on behalf of the official? Springing from the 2002 election of Jonathan G. Newell to the office of State's Attorney for Caroline County, Maryland, the present case bears on the rub which occurs when government employees, after throwing their support behind an incumbent public official who ultimately is ousted by the electorate, seek to retain their positions under the new administration. We here consider what has changed since Machiavelli's time.

In January 2000, Robert Greenleaf was appointed ad interim State's Attorney, following the retirement of Christopher J. Jensen, who served as the elected State's Attorney from 1986 to 2000. Greenleaf decided to run for the position in the 2002 election and secured the Democratic nomination; however, his Republican challenger, Newell, defeated him in the General Election.

Five weeks after his victory, Newell held a meeting with three of the ten existing employees of the State's Attorney's Office (the "SAO"), at which he informed them that their employment would be terminated when he took office. Newell kept his word, firing all three upon assuming office in January 2003. Two of the discharged employees, Susan Runnels and Marjorie Cooper (collectively the "Plaintiffs"),¹ brought suit in the Circuit Court for Worcester County² against Newell and the State of Maryland (collectively the "State Defendants"), as well as the County Commissioners for Caroline County (the "County"), alleging that their firings were unconstitutional because they were based on the employees having campaigned on behalf of Greenleaf in his unsuccessful bid for office. They sought reinstatement and back pay. They also asked for back pay for overtime hours for which they claimed they were not properly compensated before the firings.

Relevant Factual Background³

Susan Runnels

In 2000, ad interim State's Attorney Greenleaf hired Susan Runnels as a Victim Witness Coordinator ("VWC") in the SAO. Apparently, Runnels excelled in her job; she received a performance bonus from the Caroline County government in 2001 and was named "outstanding employee of the year" for the SAO for 2002. According to the County government's job description for the VWC position, Runnels performed "clerical work" for assistant prosecutors and acted as a liaison between them and the victims and witnesses in the cases they prosecuted. Specifically, she helped prepare criminal informations and witness subpoenas. She also scheduled meetings between the prosecutors and the victims and witnesses, telephoned witnesses to confirm their court attendance and advise them of postponements, and called witnesses into the courtroom for their testimony during trials. As a VWC, Runnels's direct superior, according to the SAO's formal hierarchy, was the Office's Administrative Coordinator; however, her activities in practice were supervised by the assistant prosecutors handling the cases to which she was assigned. She was earning $11.30 per hour at the time of the firing at issue.

Although it was not a formal part of her job duties as a VWC, Runnels volunteered to serve on a "Hot Spots" committee, a crime-prevention coalition in Caroline County. The committee included the Mayor of the Town of Federalsburg, the Deputy State's Attorney, and members of the local law enforcement and social services professions. Runnels was responsible primarily for note-taking during the committee's meetings.

Marjorie Cooper

In 1987, Jensen, then the elected head of the SAO, hired Marjorie Cooper as the SAO's first VWC. During her time in that position, Cooper trained later-hired VWCs, including Runnels. She claimed that she and the Office's prosecutors worked with the State Attorney General's Office and VWCs from other counties to develop the contours of the VWC position at the SAO; she considered her contribution to that effort to be "important." Jensen stated that Cooper worked with the prosecutors and staff in developing "streamlined methods of handling larger volumes of cases." Cooper consistently performed well as a VWC, generally receiving good evaluations from her superiors. Indeed, Jensen recollected that she received an award for her service.

In 2001, ad interim State's Attorney Greenleaf promoted Cooper to the position of Senior District Court Coordinator. In her new position, Cooper's direct superior was the Office's Administrative Coordinator. The Administrative Coordinator reported to the Deputy State's Attorney, who, in turn, reported to the State's Attorney. Cooper's duties as Senior District Court Coordinator included: pulling case files; subpoenaing witnesses; filing; and performing similar clerical tasks to aide assistant prosecutors in handling their cases. She also continued to perform VWC duties for juvenile cases and filled-in for other VWCs when they were absent; however, she had much less contact with victims and witnesses then she did before becoming Senior District Court Coordinator. Cooper was earning $14.58 per hour at the time she was fired.

The Victim Witness Coordinator Position

Throughout this litigation, the nature of the VWC position in the SAO was contested ardently. On one hand, the State Defendants contend that, as a VWC, Runnels held a unique position of trust and confidence, which justified Newell in dismissing her for campaigning on behalf of his General Election opponent. Although Cooper was no longer officially a VWC, she often continued to serve in that capacity, and thus, according to the State Defendants, Newell was justified also in dismissing her for campaigning against his election. The Plaintiffs, on the other hand, assert that their job duties were predominantly clerical and, therefore, did not permit for Newell's actions under the circumstances.

The official job classification for the VWC position with the SAO provides:

This [position] is clerical work at the experienced level. An incumbent in this class, with general supervision from the State's Attorney, coordinates appearances of victims and witnesses at trials and performs certain clerical work as directed. Assignments are stable in nature and are carried out in accordance with established precedents and well-defined policies. An employee in this class is permitted flexibility and the exercising of some independent judgment in carrying out the assigned staff responsibilities. Contact with others is an important part of the job, requiring the employee to be tactful and discreet to obtain cooperation. Work is checked initially on an ongoing basis. Once the employee has been thoroughly trained, work is spot checked to assure compliance with standards.⁴

Applicants for the VWC position supposedly were to possess the minimum attributes of a high school diploma (or GED) and two years of office experience, preferably "with an agency dealing with the administration of justice." Neither Runnels nor Cooper possessed the required office experience when initially hired to work for the SAO.

At his deposition taken in this case, Jensen testified that, during his tenure, the job of a VWC was "to better facilitate the victims' knowledge of the ... day-to-day details of the case...