Tidwell v. City of Memphis

• Decision Date: 19 May 2006
• Citation: 193 S.W.3d 555
• Parties: Roy L. TIDWELL and Richard Coggins, et al. v. CITY OF MEMPHIS.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 555

193 S.W.3d 555

Roy L. TIDWELL and Richard Coggins, et al. v. CITY OF MEMPHIS.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Jackson.

November 10, 2005 Session.

May 19, 2006.

John Ford Canale, III, Donald A. Donati, William B. Ryan, and Timothy Taylor, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellants, Roy L. Tidwell and Richard Coggins, et al.

Sam L. Crain, Jr., and Sara Hall, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellee, City of Memphis. Thomas A. Woodley, Washington DC, for the amicus curiae, International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO.

OPINION

ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which WILLIAM M. BARKER, C.J., E. RILEY ANDERSON, JANICE M. HOLDER, and CORNELIA A. CLARK, JJ., joined.

This case involves an appeal filed by thirteen firefighters and one police officer currently or previously employed by the City of Memphis. Each of the employees was diagnosed with an illness or condition claimed to be work-related. After the City of Memphis denied the employees' claims for benefits stemming from their work-related conditions, the employees appealed to the Chancery Court of Shelby County. The chancery court consolidated the cases, reversed the City's denial of benefits, and awarded benefits to each of the employees. The chancery court's decision was based upon its determination that the cases should have proceeded under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act "UAPA" rather than an alternative process adopted by the City to handle such claims. The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the City was not required to comply with the UAPA in resolving claims for work-related benefits. After careful consideration of the record and applicable law, we conclude that the chancery court correctly determined that the employees' cases were subject to the contested case procedures set forth in the UAPA. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed. We also reverse the trial court's judgment to the extent that it awards benefits to the employees. The case is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings pursuant to this opinion.

Factual and Procedural Background

The plaintiffs in this case are thirteen firefighters and one police officer currently or previously employed by the City of Memphis ("City"). During the course of their employment with the City, each employee was diagnosed with hypertension, post-traumatic stress disorder, heart disease, or stroke, which they contended was causally related to their employment. Each employee filed a claim for benefits with the City pursuant to the City's "On the Job Injury Program." The purpose of this program was to administer payment of medical expenses and compensation for employees who suffer injury, death, or occupational disease occurring during the performance of their job duties.

The City elected to not be subject to the state's workers' compensation statutes. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 50-6-106(6)(2005) ("The Workers' Compensation Law ... shall not apply to ... [t]he state of Tennessee, counties thereof and municipal corporations" unless the state or political subdivision elects to opt into the workers' compensation system.). Instead, the City established its own administrative procedure to handle benefit applications for work-related injuries. Under the City's program, applications for benefits filed by police officers and firefighters are reviewed by the City's Risk Manager, who compiles the employee's medical history, results of any pre-employment physical examination, and a copy of the employee's job description. These records are then forwarded to a panel of three physicians selected by the City to determine the cause of the employee's illness or injury. One of these physicians performs a physical examination of the employee. The results of the physical examination are shared with the other two physicians. The physicians then submit their written findings to the City's Risk Manager, who decides whether to approve or deny the application for benefits. In the present case the City's Risk Manager denied each employee's application for benefits.

A decision by the City's Risk Manager to deny benefits is reviewable by the City's "On the Job Injury Appeals Panel" ("OJI Panel"). The OJI Panel consists of the City's Risk Manager, the City's Director of Finance, and the City Attorney, or their designees. Each of the employees in the present case filed an appeal with the OJI Panel to contest the denial of benefits by the Risk Manager. The employees were not permitted to be represented by an attorney at their hearings before the OJI Panel. The OJI Panel affirmed the Risk Manager's denial of benefits to each employee.

The employees subsequently filed petitions for writs of certiorari with the Chancery Court of Shelby County seeking review of the OJI Panel's decision in their respective cases. The employees' petitions were filed under both the common law writ of certiorari pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 27-8-101 (2000)¹ and the statutory writ of certiorari pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 27-8-102 (2000).² The parties now agree that the statutory writ embodied in section 27-8-102 is inapplicable to this case.

The chancery court consolidated the cases and entered judgments in favor of the employees. Specifically, the chancellor concluded that (1) Tennessee Code Annotated section 27-9-114 (2000), which governs review of the rulings of civil service boards, applies to decisions rendered by the City's OJI Panel; (2) the proper method of judicial review of decisions rendered by the OJI Panel is neither by common law nor statutory writ of certiorari, but under section 4-5-322 of the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act ("UAPA"); and (3) proceedings before the OJI Panel must be conducted in accordance with the contested case procedures set forth in the UAPA.³ Finding that the proceedings before the OJI Panel were not in compliance with the UAPA, the chancellor reversed the decisions of the OJI Panel and ordered the City to grant the employees the benefits sought in their respective cases.

The Court of Appeals reversed the chancery court's judgment. The intermediate appellate court concluded that the City's OJI Panel was not subject to the provisions of section 27-9-114 because it was not a civil service board. Accordingly, the Court of Appeals held that the chancellor erred in granting benefits to the employees based upon the City's failure to comply with the UAPA. Based upon its determination that the UAPA was not applicable, the Court of Appeals also found that the trial court's standard of review was limited to the common law writ of certiorari rather than the broader standard of review provided for in the UAPA.

We granted discretionary review under Rule 11 of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure and now reverse the Court of Appeals.

Standard of Review

The resolution of this appeal involves the interpretation of a statute, specifically section 27-9-114, which is a question of law. Therefore, the standard of review is de novo without any presumption of correctness given to the legal conclusions of the courts below. See Sanders v. Traver, 109 S.W.3d 282, 284 (Tenn.2003) (citing State v. Walls, 62 S.W.3d 119, 121 (Tenn.2001)). In interpreting statutes, the duty of this Court is to ascertain and give effect to the intent and purpose of the legislature without unduly restricting or expanding a statute's coverage beyond its intended scope. Id. We determine the legislature's intent from the natural and ordinary meaning of the statutory language within the context of the entire statute. See Calaway v. Schucker, 193 S.W.3d 509 (Tenn.2005).

Analysis

At issue in this case is the language of section 27-9-114, which states in relevant part as follows:

Proceedings involving certain public employees. — (a)(1) Contested case hearings by civil service boards of a county or municipality which affect the employment status of a civil service employee shall be conducted in conformity with contested case procedures under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act....

(b)(1) Judicial review of decisions by civil service boards of a county or municipality which affects the employment status of a county or city civil service employee shall be in conformity with the judicial review standards under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act....

Prior to January 1, 1989, section 27-9-114 provided in pertinent part as follows:

No court of record of this state shall entertain any proceeding involving the civil service status of a county or a municipal employee when such proceeding is in the nature of an appeal from a ruling of a city or county official or board which affects the employment status of a county or city employee, except such proceeding be one of common law certiorari.

Thus, section 27-9-114 originally provided that the common law writ of certiorari was the appropriate method of judicial review of administrative determinations affecting the employment status of municipal employees. See Huddleston v. City of Murfreesboro, 635 S.W.2d 694, 695-96 (Tenn.1982) (holding that section 27-9-114 is the "exclusive remedy for judicial review of administrative determinations respecting the employment status of such employees"). Effective January 1, 1989, however, the legislature amended section 27-9-114 by deleting the provision requiring review by common law certiorari and replacing it with the current provision providing for judicial review under the UAPA. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 27-9-114(b)(1). The amendment also mandated that the contested case procedures of the UAPA be applied to those cases falling within the scope of section 27-9-114(a)(1). Id.

In order for section 27-9-114(a)(1) to apply, there must (1) be a proceeding before a "civil service board" and (2) a decision that affects the "employment status" of a civil service employee. In the absence of either of these two prerequisites, the provisions of section 27-9-114 do...