Hulsman v. Town of Marblehead

1984 Mass. App. Div. 15, 1984 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 29
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedJanuary 26, 1984
StatusPublished

This text of 1984 Mass. App. Div. 15 (Hulsman v. Town of Marblehead) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hulsman v. Town of Marblehead, 1984 Mass. App. Div. 15, 1984 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 29 (Mass. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

Cowdry, P. J.

This is an action to recover unpaid vacation benefits allegedly owed to the plaintiff by the defendant, Town of Marblehead, under G. L. c. 41, § 11 IE.

The plaintiff was employed by the defendant as a full time police officer from 1963 until his retirement on January 23, 1980 due to involuntary accidental disability. The plaintiff sustained those injuries which led to his disability retirement while performing his duties as a police officer on January 14,1978. As a result of these injuries, the plaintiff never returned to active duty.

The plaintiff received his regular salary from January 14,1978 through the date of his retirement on January 23,1980. The plaintiff received, however, no vacation pay from the defendant for the years 1978,1979 and 1980. Vacation benefits for these three years would have totaled $3,099.79.

[16]*16Chapter 43A of the By-Laws of the Town of Marblehead, which specifies certain “Employees Benefits,” provides as follows in Sections 1 and 2:

Section 1 — Vacations.
Section III of Chapter 41 of the General Laws which governs vacation reads in part as follows:
‘In any city or town which has accepted Chapter 217 of the Acts of 1914, every permanent civil service employee as well as every person classified as a common laborer, skilled laborer, mechanic or craftsman, shall be granted a vacation of not less than two weeks without loss of pay in each calendar year if he has actually worked for such city or town for thirty weeks in the aggregate during the twelve months preceding the first day of June in such year.’
Sectioh 2 — Vacations.
Three (3) weeks vacation shall be granted without loss of pay to Town employees and members of the regular and permanent Fire and Police forces of the Town who have served the Town ten (10) years and four (4) weeks vacation shall be granted without loss of pay to Town employees and members of the regular and permanent Fire and Police Forces of the Town who have served the Town fifteen (15) years. Adopted at Town Meeting March 8, 1965. Article II.

On the basis of these By-Law provisions, the trial court entered subsidiary findings in the defendant’s favor which included the following:

Although I find that the defendant has accepted provisions of G.L.c.
41, § 111 as set forth in the above by-law, I find that the defendant has not accepted §§111A, HID or 111G of Chapter 41 of the General Laws. Further, I find that the defendant has not adopted a by-law that provides vacation pay in accordance with §§111A, HID or 111G, nor has the defendant provided for payment pursuant to G.L.C. 41, §111E.
The defendant’s by-law states clearly that the plaintiff would only be entitled to vacation pay if he ‘actually worked’ for the defendant for the designated period of time during the designated period. The plaintiffs own testimony shows that he did not actually work for the defendant from the time of his unfortunate injury until he retired due to involuntary accidental disability.
For these reasons, I find that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover vacation pay for the years 1978, 1979, and 1980. I find for the defendant.

The plaintiff thereafter requested a report to this Division, claiming to be aggrieved by the trial court’s disposition of his requested rulings numbers 2, 4 and 8 as follows:

2. There is no evidence to warrant a finding for the defendant. DENIED.
3d. The plaintiff accrued vacation payfor the years 1978,1979,and 1980 under the provisions of G. L. Chap. 41, § 111E.
DENIED, AS A FINDING OF FACT.
4. The plaintiff is entitled to vacation pay as a retired police officer under the provisions of G. L. Chap. 41, § 111E.
DENIED. PLEASE SEE MY FINDINGS.
8. The plaintiff is entitled to accrued vacation pay for the years 1978, 1979, and 1980.
DENIED. PLEASE SEE MY FINDINGS.

[17]*171. The plaintiffs initial contention on this appeal is that, contrary to the ruling of the trial court, the provisions of G. L. c. 41, § 111 as accepted by the defendant Town of Marblehead in Chapter 43A, Section 1 of its By-Laws are inapplicable to the plaintiff as a former police officer. We agree.

The enactment of § 111A in its original form in 1929 and in its amended form in 1934 indicated a legislative attempt to establish, a separate law to regulate the vacations of members of regular and permanent police and fire forces .... Section 111A embodies a separate and independent law governing police and firemen as such. The inclusion of ‘all permanent civil service employees’ within the sweep of § 111 by the amendment was not. . . intended by the Legislature to render the two sections inconsistent, and the quoted phrase as so used was intended to be read as not including within its meaning the regular and permanent police and fire forces for whom special provision had already been made in the separate enactments embodied in.section 111A [emphasis supplied].

12 Op. Att’y Gen. 16, 17 (1948). Thus the G. L. c.41, § 111 phrase “all permanent civil service employees” is not to be construed as including policemen and firefighters. As a former police officer, the plaintiffs entitlement to vacation benefits herein was not restricted to years in which he “actually worked” under Chapter 43A, § 1 of the defendant’s By-Laws.

Our analysis of By-Law Chapter 43A, § 1 in light of the above quoted 1948 Opinion of the Attorney General is not altered by the fact that the defendant, Town of Marblehead, has not accepted the provisions of G. L. c 41, § 111A which expressly governs the vacation benefits to be accorded municipal police and firefighters. Although Marblehead has not adopted § 111A, it has promulgated a separate and distinct By-Law to cover vacations for its regular and permanent fire and police forces; namely, Chapter 43A, § 2. Thus the principle employed in the Attorney General’s statutory construction is applicable herein. As the Town Selectmen have chosen to enact both a general provision for employee vacation benefits and a subsequent, specific provision for police and firefighter vacation benefits, logic requires the determination that police officer vacations are controlled exclusively in Marblehead by the subsequently enacted, specific By-Law. See generally, Pereira v. New England LNG Co., 364 Mass. 109, 118-119 (1973); First Nat’l Bk. of Boston v. Judge Baker Guidance Ctr., 13 Mass. App. Ct. 144, 153 (1982). If the defendant-Town had intended portions of Chapter 43A, § 1 to pertain to § 2, or had not intended these sections to be separate and exclusive, the Town could have, and should have, expressly so provided.

2. Our ruling that the plaintiffs vacation benefits are governed by By-Law. Chapter 43A, § 2 does not,- however, compel a reversal of the trial court’s-finding for the defendant herein. The plaintiff sought in :his complaint and, requested rulings a determination by the trial court that he was entitled to compensation in lieu of accrued vacation pursuant to G. L.,c. 41, § 11 IE.

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Bluebook (online)
1984 Mass. App. Div. 15, 1984 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hulsman-v-town-of-marblehead-massdistctapp-1984.