Potomac Abatement, Inc. v. Sanchez

• Decision Date: 21 February 2012
• Docket Number: 2011.,Sept. Term,No. 56,56
• Citation: 37 A.3d 972,424 Md. 701
• Parties: POTOMAC ABATEMENT, INC., et al. v. Edy SANCHEZ.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

37 A.3d 972

424 Md. 701

POTOMAC ABATEMENT, INC., et al.

v.Edy SANCHEZ.

No. 56

Sept. Term

2011.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Feb. 21, 2012.

Richard W. Scheiner (Julie D. Murray of Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for petitioners.

Harvey Greenberg (Law Offices of Harvey Greenberg, Towson, MD), on brief, for respondent.

George A. Nilson, Herbert Burgunder, Jr., Baltimore, MD, for Amicus Curiae

Anne Arundel County Government, Maryland Association of Boards of Education Workers' Compensation Group Self Insurance Fund, Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, Maryland Self-Insurers' and Employers' Compensation Association.Robert J. Zarbin, The Jaklitsch Law Group, Upper Marlboro, MD, for Amicus Curiae brief of Maryland Association for Justice.

Argued before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ADKINS, BARBERA, RAYMOND, G. THIEME, JR. (Retired, Specially Assigned) JJ.

ADKINS, J.

In this workers' compensation case, we encounter a particularly vexing statutory construction problem involving the question of when the Workers' Compensation Commission (“Commission”) will lose jurisdiction to decide a worker's additional requests for relief while a previous order is being appealed. On two separate occasions, Respondent Edy Sanchez filed for benefits with the Commission while previous orders, in the same claim, were pending on appeal in the courts. The Commission decided that it lacked jurisdiction to consider his new requests because of the pending appeals. The Circuit Court for Baltimore County agreed, holding that the Commission did not retain jurisdiction pending an appeal because the issues raised in the new filings did not fit within the jurisdictional provisions of Md.Code (2000, 2008 Repl.Vol.) Section 9–742 of the Labor and Employment Article.¹ The Court of Special Appeals (“CSA”) reversed, holding that the Commission had jurisdiction over Respondent's new issues under Section 9–736(b). Sanchez v. Potomac Abatement, Inc., 198 Md.App. 436, 451, 18 A.3d 100, 109 (2011).

We granted certiorari² to answer the following question:

In light of the language and legislative history of Section 9–742, may the Workers' Compensation Commission retain jurisdiction, under Section 9–736(b), while a prior Order is pending on appeal? ³

We shall affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals. Under Section 9–736(b), the Commission retains jurisdiction to hear new issues while other issues in the same claim are pending on appeal, so long as no evidence was taken or decision made on the new issues in the hearing from which the appeal was taken. Section 9–742 was not intended to reduce the Commission's ongoing jurisdiction to grant relief, notwithstanding the appeal.

FACTS AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

On September 22, 1998, Respondent sustained a serious injury working for Petitioner Potomac Abatement, Inc. In his words: “I was cutting out a piece of the ceiling and the ceiling fell in on me and I fell about 7 feet.” He injured his back, pelvis, and leg, and for years suffered lower back pain, leg pain, sciatica, and depression. His ability to work was reduced.

As a result of his injury, Respondent filed a claim with the Commission on or about May 5, 1999. During the next six years, he made a number of filings unrelated to this appeal. Then, between 2006 and 2009, Respondent filed three new sets of issues with the Commission under his original claim, No. B464869. Following the Commission's rulings, he appealed each set of issues to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County,⁴ and again to the Court of Special Appeals. Because the sets of issues were filed and appealed at different times, they became three different cases in the Circuit Court. We shall refer to the three cases chronologically, as Sanchez I,⁵ Sanchez II,⁶ and Sanchez III.⁷

Respondent filed Sanchez I with the Commission on May 10, 2006. He requested permanent partial disability benefits (“PPD”) ⁸ and temporary total disability benefits (“TTD”) ⁹ for several discrete periods. After a hearing, the Commission issued its decision on August 3, 2006, awarding some of the benefits he had requested. Respondent appealed that decision to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County and filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. The motion argued that

the Commission erred as a matter of law in determining the amount of the weekly compensation during the 150 week period for which permanent, partial disability was awarded. The error of law pertains to an interpretation of the Worker's Compensation Act and particularly, whether the cap or maximum amount of weekly benefits is based on the Maryland Statewide Average Weekly Wage at the time of the accident or during the period for which the permanent partial disability compensation was awarded. The above captioned issue is a legal issue and there are no material facts in dispute.

After a trial in which he received an award, Respondent filed an appeal from the Circuit Court's denial of the motion, seeking a ruling of law on the issue of “whether the Maryland Statewide Average Weekly Wage index [SAWW] used to calculate and establish the maximum or cap of weekly compensation ... is that index on the date of the accident or on the date the right to such compensation commences.” ¹⁰ With this issue pending in the Court of Special Appeals, Respondent filed Sanchez II with the Commission on July 31, 2008, requesting TTD for a new period, from January 9, 2008, to June 11, 2008.

Citing Section 9–742, the Commission decided that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the issue because Sanchez I was pending on appeal. Respondent appealed this decision to the Circuit Court and the parties filed motions for summary judgment. The Circuit Court affirmed the Commission's ruling, and Respondent appealed. While that appeal was pending before the Court of Special Appeals, we granted certiorari in Sanchez I on June 17, 2009. Sanchez v. Potomac Abatement, 409 Md. 47, 972 A.2d 861 (2009). Thus, while Sanchez I was pending in this Court and Sanchez II was pending in the CSA,¹¹ Respondent filed Sanchez III on August 19, 2009, claiming that he was entitled to vocational rehabilitation ¹² in light of a doctor's prescription dated May 5, 2009.

In Sanchez III, the Commission again decided that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the issue, citing Section 9–742, because the other two cases were pending on appeal. Respondent appealed to the Circuit Court, and the parties filed motions for summary judgment on that issue. The Circuit Court affirmed the Commission's ruling, reasoning that the Commission lacked jurisdiction because of the cases pending on appeal. Respondent appealed that decision on May 21, 2010. Because Sanchez II was still pending in the CSA on the same issue, the court consolidated Sanchez II and Sanchez III. Sanchez v. Potomac Abatement, Inc., 198 Md.App. 436, 443, 18 A.3d 100, 104 (2011).

Mootness

While Sanchez II and Sanchez III were pending in the CSA, we decided Sanchez I, holding that “the SAWW of the year of the accidental injury controls the amount of a PPD award.” Sanchez v. Potomac Abatement, Inc., 417 Md. 76, 82–84, 8 A.3d 737, 740–41 (2010). The CSA then held that Sanchez II and Sanchez III had become moot because the obstacle to the Commission's jurisdiction (the pending appeal) had been removed. Sanchez, 198 Md.App. at 444, 18 A.3d at 105. Nevertheless, the CSA reached the issue of the Commission's jurisdiction pending an appeal. As Judge Zarnoch wrote:

[T]his case implicates the “public interest” offshoot to the mootness doctrine. [Respondent] raises significant issues involving the proper interpretation of important social legislation that bears not only on future claimants' rights to prompt compensation for their injuries, but also on the efficient operation of both the Commission and the courts. Thus, we believe the public interest would be served by an expression of our views for the guidance of courts, litigants, and the Commission.

Id. at 444–45, 18 A.3d at 105 (citing Cottman v. State, 395 Md. 729, 745, 912 A.2d 620, 629 (2006)). The Court then held that the Commission had jurisdiction over Respondent's new issues under Section 9–736(b), even though other issues were pending on appeal in this Court and the CSA. Id. at 451, 18 A.3d at 109. The Petitioners sought certiorari, which we granted on August 12, 2011. See Potomac Abatement, Inc. v. Sanchez, 421 Md. 192, 25 A.3d 1025 (2011).

We agree with the CSA that this case became moot when we decided Sanchez I. See Sanchez, 198 Md.App. at 444, 18 A.3d at 105. A case is moot when it does not present “a controversy between the parties for which, by way of resolution, the court can fashion an effective remedy.” Adkins v. State, 324 Md. 641, 646, 598 A.2d 194, 197 (1991). As the Court of Special Appeals observed, “[t]he only effective remedy this Court could fashion—ordering the Commission to consider [Respondent's] post-PPD claims—is one [he] now has an unfettered right to pursue.” Sanchez, 198 Md.App. at 444, 18 A.3d at 105. This is because, after we decided Sanchez I, there was no longer a case pending on appeal, and thus Respondent had no obstacle to raising his new issues before the Commission.

Nevertheless, “[t]his Court ... is willing to decide moot questions where [i]t appears ... that there are important issues of public interest raised which merit an expression of our views for the guidance of courts and litigants in the future.” Robinson v. Lee, 317 Md. 371, 376, 564 A.2d 395, 397 (1989). Yet “only where the urgency of establishing a rule of future conduct in matters of important public concern is imperative and manifest” will we make such a “departure from the general rule and practice of not deciding academic questions.” Lloyd v. Bd. of Supervisors, 206 Md. 36, 43, 111 A.2d 379, 382 (1954).

We agree with the Court of Special Appeals that this case presents a question worthy of our guidance, despite its mootness. See Sanchez, 198 Md.App. at 444 n. 5, 18 A.3d...