Hunter v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board

952 N.E.2d 456, 80 Mass. App. Ct. 257, 2011 Mass. App. LEXIS 1142
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedAugust 29, 2011
DocketNo. 10-P-359
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 952 N.E.2d 456 (Hunter v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hunter v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board, 952 N.E.2d 456, 80 Mass. App. Ct. 257, 2011 Mass. App. LEXIS 1142 (Mass. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Rapoza, CJ.

The plaintiff, William Hunter, Sr., appeals from a judgment entered in the Superior Court in favor of the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board (CRAB), which determined that Hunter was correctly classified for retirement purposes pursuant to G. L. c. 32, § 3(2)(g), as a Group 2 employee. On [258]*258appeal, Hunter argues that CRAB should have classified him in Group 4 because he regularly performed duties of a correction officer and the term “correction officerQ” is explicitly included in the statute relating to Group 4 membership. He also argues that because the Essex County retirement board (county board) at one point classified him in Group 4, the State Board of Retirement (State board) was precluded by G. L. c. 34B, § 14(a), from reclassifying him in Group 2. For the reasons discussed below, we discern no error and affirm.

Facts. On September 30, 2003, Hunter, an employee of the Essex County sheriff’s department (department), retired under the department’s early retirement incentive program. The State board classified him, based on his position as “Maintenance Personnel,” in Group 2 for retirement purposes. He retired without appealing the State board’s decision even though the county board had previously classified him, prior to the State takeover of the Essex County retirement system, as being in Group 4. Not until December 26, 2006, did Hunter write to the State board to request a change in his classification to Group 4. The State board determined that Hunter was correctly classified in Group 2 based on its interpretation of G. L. c. 32, § 3(2)(g), and Hunter appealed to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA). After a hearing, an administrative magistrate for DALA concluded that Hunter was properly classified in Group 2.

The administrative magistrate found the following facts, all of which CRAB subsequently incorporated by reference into its decision. Hunter joined the Essex County retirement system in 1996, and at that time listed his title as “janitor.” On May 9, 1997, he requested that the county board reclassify him from Group 2 to Group 4 on the grounds that his duties involved working with and supervising inmates. The department supported Hunter’s request, stating that “[sjince part of his duty is supervising inmates ... we feel that he should be reclassified to Group 4.” The county board granted the request.

In 1999, Essex County government was abolished and its employees, including Hunter, were transferred to the State retirement system. On August 14, 2003, on a group classification questionnaire, Hunter listed his job title and employing agency as “Tool Room Attendant/Janitor/Essex County Sheriff’s Department.” Thereafter, the State board classified him in Group 2.

[259]*259Hunter’s job description included a provision stating that he “[m]ust be able to supervise and direct inmates.” The first responsibility in his job description was to “[djirectly supervise inmates on a shift, assuring that they complete their assignments and provide [unjinterrupted services for the facility.” The administrative magistrate for DALA also found “[t]he petitioner wore a uniform to work every day and he was given a number of keys with which to navigate his way about the facility and lead inmates to job assignments. He also took inmates outside of the facility to maintain the grounds.”

The administrative magistrate concluded, based on Gaw v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 4 Mass. App. Ct. 250, 254 (1976), that Hunter did not qualify for Group 4 because his position as “Tool Room Attendant” does not appear among the job titles listed in Group 4. Rather, according to the administrative magistrate, Hunter was correctly classified in Group 2 under the category of employees “whose regular and major duties require them to have the care, custody, instruction or other supervision of prisoners.”

Hunter subsequently appealed to CRAB, which affirmed the decision of the administrative magistrate “for the reasons stated in the DALA magistrate’s [cjonclusion.” Pursuant to G. L. c. 30A, § 14, Hunter appealed to the Superior Court, which affirmed the decision of CRAB.

Discussion. 1. Standard of review. Judicial review under G. L. c. 30A, § 14, is limited to determining whether the agency’s decision was unsupported by substantial evidence, arbitrary and capricious, or otherwise based on an error of law. See Retirement Bd. of Brookline v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 33 Mass. App. Ct. 478, 480 (1992); Flanagan v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 51 Mass. App. Ct. 862, 864 (2001). In reviewing a CRAB decision, courts must “give due weight to the experience, technical competence, and specialized knowledge of the agency, as well as to the discretionary authority conferred upon it.” Dube v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 50 Mass. App. Ct. 21, 23 (2000), quoting from G. L. c. 30A, § 14(7). See Rockett v. State Bd. of Retirement, 77 Mass. App. Ct. 434, 438 (2010).

On appeal, we review whether a CRAB decision was unsup[260]*260ported by substantial evidence; however, we review CRAB’s legal conclusions de novo and give no special weight to the Superior Court’s decision. See Flanagan, supra at 864; Damiano v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 72 Mass. App. Ct. 259, 261 (2008). Although we are thus charged with the duty of statutory interpretation, “[w]here an agency’s interpretation of a statute is reasonable, the court should not supplant it with its own judgment.” Boston Retirement Bd. v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 441 Mass. 78, 82 (2004), quoting from Flemings v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd., 431 Mass. 374, 375 (2000).

2. Classification pursuant to G. L. c. 32, § 3(2)(g). The applicable portion of G. L. c. 32, § 3(2)(g), amended by St. 1979, c. 485, § 1, defines Group 2 members as “employees of the commonwealth or of any county, regardless of any official classification, except the sheriff, superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant deputy superintendent and correction officers of county correctional facilities, whose regular and major duties require them to have the care, custody, instruction or other supervision of prisoners.” Group 4 membership, in turn, includes “the sheriff, superintendent, assistant superintendent, assistant deputy superintendent and correction officers of county correctional facilities.” G. L. c. 32, § 3(2)(g), amended by St. 1979, c. 485, § 2.

We have not had prior occasion to determine whether an employee who performs duties of a correction officer, but does not have that job title, should be classified in Group 2 or Group 4. In the circumstances presented, however, we see no reason to depart from our analysis in Gaw, supra at 254. In that case, we reviewed G. L. c. 32, § 3(2)(g), to determine whether an employee of a municipal electric power plant should have been classified in Group 1 or Group 4.2 Ibid. We concluded that the statute classifies employees in “Group 4 by naming their posi[261]*261tions or titles rather than ... the type of work they perform.” Ibid.

The same is true for classification in Group 2, with two exceptions, one of which is relevant here. Ibid.

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952 N.E.2d 456, 80 Mass. App. Ct. 257, 2011 Mass. App. LEXIS 1142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunter-v-contributory-retirement-appeal-board-massappct-2011.