Shah v. Howard County
| Decision Date | 01 September 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 54,54 |
| Citation | 337 Md. 248,653 A.2d 425 |
| Parties | Nancy D. SHAH v. HOWARD COUNTY. , |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Tony Heper (Law Office of Dennis E. Cuomo, on brief), Baltimore, for appellant.
Keri F. Kretschmann, Theodore B. Cornblatt (Smith, Somerville & Case, on brief), Baltimore, for appellee.
Argued before MURPHY, C.J. and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, KARWACKI, BELL and RAKER, JJ.
This case presents the issue of whether a deputy sheriff of Howard County meets the definition of "public safety employee" so as to qualify for an increased workers' compensation award under Maryland Code (1991, 1994 Cum.Supp.), § 9-628 of the Labor and Employment Article (hereinafter the "Workers' Compensation Act" or the "Act"). That statute provides, in pertinent part:
Section 9-629 of the Act calls for "weekly compensation that equals two-thirds of the average weekly wage of the covered employee but does not exceed one-third of the State average weekly wage."
On December 30, 1988, the appellant, Nancy Shah, injured her right foot in the course of her employment as a Howard County deputy sheriff. As a result of that injury she sustained a ten percent permanent partial disability. While the parties were able to agree on the percentage of the disability, they disagree on the rate of compensation for the disability. The appellant insists that she should be compensated as a public safety employee at a higher compensation rate as provided in §§ 9-628(f) and 9-629 of the Workers' Compensation Act. 1 The appellee-employer argues that the appellant should be compensated at the regular rate as provided in Md.Code (1991, 1994 Cum.Supp.), § 9-628(c) of the Act. 2
The matter was brought before the Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission) which ordered that Shah be compensated at the lower rate of $82.50 per week, prescribed by § 9-628(c), for a period of 25 weeks. Appellant appealed that order to the Circuit Court for Howard County, alleging that she was entitled to the higher weekly rate prescribed by § 9-628(f). The circuit court granted appellee's motion for summary judgment on the issue of whether Shah was a public safety employee within the meaning of § 9-628(a). Shah appealed that judgment to the Court of Special Appeals, but before the case was considered by the intermediate appellate court, we issued our writ of certiorari to consider whether the Commissioner and the circuit court erred in finding that a Howard County deputy sheriff is not a public safety employee, so as to preclude compensation under § 9-628(f) of the Act. We shall hold that the decisions below were correct as a matter of law.
In Soper v. Montgomery County, 294 Md. 331, 449 A.2d 1158 (1982), a Montgomery County deputy sheriff who suffered from heart disease filed a claim for compensation with the Commission. He attempted to assert a presumption that his condition was compensable pursuant to Md.Code (1957, 1979 Repl.Vol.), Art. 101, § 64A 3 (now recodified as § 9-503(b) of the Labor and Employment Article) on the ground that a Montgomery County deputy sheriff was a police officer entitled to the presumption under the statute. In affirming the summary judgment granted to Montgomery County by the circuit court, we observed that the functions of deputy sheriffs vary widely among the counties, Soper, 294 Md. at 338, 449 A.2d at 1161-62, but in counties that have established police departments, "the establishment of a police department results in a dichotomy between the daily functioning of police officers and deputy sheriffs." Id. at 339, 449 A.2d at 1162. We further reasoned that:
"[b]ecause in counties that have established police departments, the functions ordinarily performed by deputy sheriffs as a primary part of their daily activities are dissimilar from those primarily performed by police officers and do not involve unusual hazards, stresses, and strains, deputy sheriffs in such counties are not encompassed in the term 'police officer' contained in Art. 101, § 64A(a) ... To hold otherwise would be to stretch statutory language and legislative intent beyond the fair implication of the words and purpose of Art. 101, § 64A(a)."
Id. at 345, 449 A.2d at 1165 (emphasis added).
In Soper we specifically noted that Howard County was one of the counties in Maryland that had established a police department. Id. at 339 & n. 5, 449 A.2d at 1162 & n. 5 (citing Howard County Charter, Art. XI, § 1109(a) (1982)). We looked at evidence of the dichotomy between the daily functions of police officers and deputy sheriffs in counties with police departments and specifically cited certain provisions from Howard County 4:
Id. at 344 n. 6, 449 A.2d at 1164 n. 6.
Additional evidence of the differences between the positions of police officer and deputy sheriff in Howard County is contained in the record in this case. The job descriptions for those positions provide:
Shah argues that the permissible scope of her responsibilities, as defined by statute and personnel policies, are similar to those of a police officer, and that, as a deputy sheriff, she retains the powers that sheriffs possessed at common law, which encompass the same duties as those of a police officer. See Soper, 294 Md. at 336-37, 449 A.2d at 1161. While this may be true, we need only determine which of those responsibilities and retained common law powers Howard County deputy sheriffs do, in fact, exercise as a primary part of their daily activities. See Id. at 337, 449 A.2d at 1161.
When the appellant answered the appellee's interrogatories, she indicated that, in over ten years with the Howard County Sheriff's Department, she had made approximately one hundred car stops for various traffic violations, and had made approximately ninety arrests for various criminal violations. That is an average of less than ten car stops and less than nine arrests a year. On the other hand, appellant, during that same time period, served approximately 10,000 summonses and other papers "with an average of approximately one thousand per year."
We find no material difference in the facts in Soper and those before us in this case. In each case the facts reveal the dichotomy between the daily activities of police officers and deputy sheriffs in counties with established police departments. We hold, therefore, that Soper is dispositive--Howard County deputy sheriffs are not police officers within the meaning of § 9-628 of the Workers' Compensation Act.
Moreover, we conclude that the General Assembly did not intend to include Howard County deputy sheriffs under § 9-628(a) of the Act based upon the express language of the statute and the legislative history. "The cardinal rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and effectuate the actual intent of the Legislature." Soper, 294 Md. at 335, 449 A.2d at 1160; accord, e.g., Jones v. State, 311 Md. 398, 405, 535 A.2d 471, 474 (1988). A "public safety employee" under § 9-628(a) includes certain fire fighters, fire fighting instructors, paramedics and police officers. Deputy sheriffs are not expressly included. Shah seeks to be included under the term "police officer." 5 In Soper, we held that a deputy sheriff of a county with an established police department is not considered as a police officer under § 9-503(b) of the Workers' Compensation Act. As originally proposed, § 9-628(a) did include certain deputy sheriffs under the definition of public safety employee; however, that language was deleted from the section prior to passage. See Bill File of Department of Legislative Reference on Ch. 591 of the Acts of 1987 (H.B. 239). As that action was taken years after our decision in Soper, the Legislature must have intended to exclude deputy sheriffs, in counties with established police departments, from the definition of "public safety employee" found in § 9-628(a).
When the Legislature has wanted to treat deputy sheriffs as law...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Plein v. Dept. of Labor
...See also Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258, 92 S.Ct. 2099, 32 L.Ed.2d 728 (1972). To the same effect, see, e.g., Shah v. Howard County, 337 Md. 248, 256, 653 A.2d 425, 429 (1995); Workers' Compensation Comm'n v. Driver and Parker, 336 Md. 105, 120, 647 A.2d 96, 104 (1994); Harris v. State, 331 Md......
-
W.M. Schlosser Co v. Fund
...construction:In interpreting a statute, the overarching objective is to ascertain the legislative intent. Shah v. Howard County, 337 Md. 248, 254, 653 A.2d 425, 427 (1995). The primary source from which to determine legislative intent is the plain meaning of the statutory Pelican Nat. Bank ......
-
Balt. Cnty. v. Quinlan
...a statute, our overarching objective is to "ascertain and effectuate" the legislative intent underlying it. Shah v. Howard Cty. , 337 Md. 248, 254, 653 A.2d 425 (1995) (citation omitted). "The primary source from which to determine legislative intent is the plain meaning of the statutory la......
-
Bowen v. Smith, 61
...The cardinal rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and effectuate the intent of the legislature. Shah v. Howard County, 337 Md. 248, 254, 653 A.2d 425, 427 (1995); Soper v. Montgomery County, 294 Md. 331, 335, 449 A.2d 1158 (1982). The primary source from which to determine the int......