Stachowski v. Sysco

• Decision Date: 11 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 18, Sept. Term, 2007.,18, Sept. Term, 2007.
• Citation: Stachowski v. Sysco, 937 A.2d 195, 402 Md. 506 (Md. App. 2007)
• Parties: Michael D. STACHOWSKI v. SYSCO FOOD SERVICES OF BALTIMORE, INC., et al.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

937 A.2d 195

402 Md. 506

Michael D. STACHOWSKI v. SYSCO FOOD SERVICES OF BALTIMORE, INC., et al.

No. 18, Sept. Term, 2007.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

December 11, 2007.

William O.B. Finch, Jr., Westminster, for petitioner.

David A. Skomba (Maija B. Jackson, Franklin & Prokopik, P.C., Baltimore), on brief, for respondents.

Argued before BELL, C.J., RAKER, HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ALAN M. WILNER (Retired, specially assigned), and DALE R. CATHELL (Retired, specially assigned), JJ.

RAKER, J.

We are called upon in this case to interpret a provision of the Workers' Compensation Act, Maryland Code (1991, 1999 Repl.Vol., 2006 Cum.Supp.), §§ 9-101 to -1201 of the Labor and Employment Article.¹ We must decide whether a claimant who filed for modification of an award under § 9-736(b) met the statutory requirement of filing within five years of the "last compensation payment." We shall hold that petitioner's application to modify his award is timely because we find that the term "last compensation payment" is based on the date when the last payment by check was received by the claimant, either directly or by the claimant's attorney or the claimant's authorized agent.

I.

Petitioner, Michael Stachowski, sustained a work-related injury while employed with Sysco Food Services of Baltimore, Inc., in November 1988. He filed a timely workers' compensation claim with the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission (the "Commission") and was awarded compensation in an order dated October 12, 1998. The last payments pursuant to the award were in the form of checks from Sysco's insurer,² one payable to Stachowski in the amount of $310.50 for additional lost wages, and the second payable to Stachowski's counsel, Goldstein & Byrne, in the amount of $34.50 for attorney fees. Both checks were mailed on October 21, 1998, to Terrence Byrne at the office of Goldstein & Byrne, and were received the next day, on October 22, 1998. Mr. Byrne then forwarded Stachowski's check to him on October 26, and bank records indicate that the check cleared on November 2, 1998.

No further action occurred in relation to the claim until October 22, 2003, when Mr. Stachowski filed for a modification of the original workers' compensation award. He requested reimbursement for medical bills and additional temporary disability benefits covering June 23, 2003 to September 21, 2003, as a result of a surgery arising out of his original injury. The claim was filed exactly five years and one day from the date the last compensation check was mailed, and five years exactly from the date Stachowski's counsel received the check.

The Commission held a hearing on July 12, 2004, and determined that Sysco should reimburse Stachowski for the medical expenses of the surgery, but that Stachowski's request for modification of the compensation award was time-barred by the limitations set forth in § 9-736(b). Stachowski's rehearing request was denied. On September 9, 2004, Sysco appealed the part of the Commission's decision that ordered payment of medical expenses. On September 15, 2004, Stachowski appealed the Commission's denial of benefits. Both parties cross-petitioned for partial summary judgment on the benefits issue in the Circuit Court for Howard County.³ The Circuit Court granted Sysco's motion and denied Stachowski's cross-motion on August 16, 2005. The Circuit Court granted a joint motion to revise and issued an order certifying the rulings on the partial summary judgment motions as final judgments pursuant to Md. Rule 2-602(b), which allows a court to enter a final judgment as to fewer than all claims where there is no just reason for delay. Stachowski noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unreported decision filed on January 18, 2007, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the Circuit Court's grant of partial summary judgment in favor of Sysco based on the limitations provision of § 9-736(b). We granted certiorari to decide whether the "last compensation payment" is the date when the check is mailed or when it is received.

II.

Stachowski argues that the term "last compensation payment" in § 9-736(b) of the Workers' Compensation Act should be the date when the check is received by a claimant, either individually or through his attorney. He argues no deference should be given to the Commission's construction, which bases the five-year statute of limitations on the date of mailing, because it is contrary to the plain language of the statute. Stachowski relies on the common sense understanding of the term payment, standard usage of the term in the commercial law context, select cases from our jurisprudence, and the definition of the term "payment" from Black's Law Dictionary to conclude that payment is generally regarded as when the check is received.⁴

Respondent argues that the interpretation of the "last compensation payment" as the date when the check is mailed is appropriate and that the Commission's construction should be given deference. Sysco relates how the liberal construction generally afforded to the Workers' Compensation Act does not apply to the limitations provision and contends, in any case, that the statute is unambiguous in its plain language. In so doing, Sysco relies on an interpretation of select case law that contradicts petitioner's interpretation. In addition, respondent analogizes to Md. Rule 1-321(a)⁵ and one of the Commission's promulgated regulations, COMAR 14.09.01.04, to demonstrate that the definition of payment as the date of mailing is not novel or inconsistent with the purpose of the limitations clause.

Ultimately at issue in this case is whether § 9-736(b) limits the modification of a prior workers' compensation award where the petition to modify is filed five years exactly from the date when the check was received. Section 9-736(b) provides as follows:

"(b)(1) The Commission has continuing powers and jurisdiction over each claim under this title.

"(2) Subject to paragraph (3) of this subsection, the Commission may modify any finding or order as the Commission considers justified.

"(3) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, the Commission may not modify an award unless the modification is applied for within 5 years after the latter of:

(i) the date of the accident;

(ii) the date of disablement; or

(iii) the last compensation payment."

Petitioner and respondent agree that subsection (b)(3)(iii), "the last compensation payment," controls in this case.

III.

The Workers' Compensation Act (the "Act") was enacted in 1914. 1914 Md. Laws, Chap. 800 (codified at Md.Code (1914), Art. 101 §§ 1-64). We have summarized the purpose of the Workers' Compensation Act as follows:

"[T]he overall purpose of the Act ... is to protect workers and their families from hardships inflicted by work-related injuries by providing workers with compensation for loss of earning capacity resulting from accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment."

Howard Co. Ass'n for Retard. Cit. v. Walls, 288 Md. 526, 531, 418 A.2d 1210, 1214 (1980). In light of this purpose, we have often repeated that the statute "should be construed as liberally in favor of injured employees as its provisions will permit in order to effectuate its benevolent purposes. Any uncertainty in the law should be resolved in favor of the claimant." Design Kitchen v. Lagos, 388 Md. 718, 724, 882 A.2d 817, 821 (2005) (quoting Harris v. Board of Education, 375 Md. 21, 57, 825 A.2d 365, 387 (2003)). This Court has long recognized, however, that "[t]he general rule of liberal construction of the Workers' Compensation Act is not applicable to the limitations provision of § 9-736." Stevens v. Rite-Aid, 340 Md. 555, 568, 667 A.2d 642, 649 (1995).

In the original act, the Commission's power to modify an award was unrestricted:

"Section 54 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, prior to the passage of chapter 342 of the Acts of 1931, provided that: `The powers and jurisdiction of the Commission over each case shall be continuing and it may from time to time make such modifications or change with respect to former findings or orders with respect thereto as in its opinion may be justified.' Under the law as it then stood there was no stated limitation upon the time within which the commission might reopen a case for the purpose of modifying an award."

Ireland v. Shipley, 165 Md. 90, 96, 166 A. 593, 596 (1933) (internal citation omitted). See also Md.Code (1914), Art. 101 § 54.

In 1931, the Act was amended to provide a time limit for reopening a final award. As explained by Judge Offutt, writing for this Court:

"[C]hapter 342 of the Acts of 1931 repealed and re-enacted section 54, amending it by adding these words `provided, however, that no modification or change of any final award of compensation shall be made by the Commission unless application therefor shall be made to the Commission within one year next following the final award of compensation.'"

Ireland v. Shipley, 165 Md. at 96, 166 A. at 596. Thus the original language of the statute limited the time for modifying an award to one year from "the final award of compensation." 1931 Md. Laws, Chap. 342. The date of the final award of compensation was the date of the Commission's order granting a final award. Ireland v. Shipley, 165 Md. at 100-01, 166 A. at 598.

In 1935, the time limit was increased from one to three years, and the limitation for modification was extended to apply to non-final awards as well. The provision then limited modification to "within three years next following the last final award of compensation" for final awards, and "within three years next following the last payment of compensation" for awards not designated final. 1935 Md. Laws, Chap. 236 (codified as amended at Md.Code (1924, 1935 Cum.Supp.), Art. 101 § 54) (emphasis added).

In 1957, the provision was recodified as § 40(c), the predecessor to § 7-936(b). 1957 Md. Laws, Chap. 814 (codified...