Inagawa v. Fayette County

732 S.E.2d 421, 291 Ga. 715, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3148, 2012 WL 4857000, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 779
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 15, 2012
DocketS12A0849, S12X0850
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 732 S.E.2d 421 (Inagawa v. Fayette County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Inagawa v. Fayette County, 732 S.E.2d 421, 291 Ga. 715, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3148, 2012 WL 4857000, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 779 (Ga. 2012).

Opinion

Hunstein, Chief Justice.

Jamie Inagawa, the Solicitor-General of Fayette County, filed a mandamus action against Fayette County and its Commissioners in their official capacities (collectively, “the County”), asserting that since July 1, 2007 his compensation has been incorrectly calculated. The trial court granted partial summary judgment to Inagawa and partial summary judgment to the County, and each party appeals. We conclude that the trial court correctly held that Inagawa was improperly compensated beginning in July 2007. We disagree, however, with the trial court’s conclusion that the County has properly compensated Inagawa as of January 1, 2009 in accordance with an amended local law, because we find that amendment invalid. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

On appeal from a grant of summary judgment, we conduct a de novo review of the evidence to determine whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, warrant judgment as a matter of law. Giles v. Swimmer, 290 Ga. 650 (1) (725 SE2d 220) (2012). So viewed, the evidence establishes as follows.

Inagawa took office in January 2005 and was re-elected to a second term beginning in January 2009. As of the beginning of Inagawa’s first term, the local law governing the Fayette County Solicitor-General’s compensation, known as House Bill 94-1668 (hereinafter, “the 1994Act”), fixed that compensation at “an amount equal to 75 percent of the salary of the judge in the State Court of Fayette County.” Ga. L. 1994, pp. 4980, 4987, § 21.1 The State Court judge’s salary, in turn, was set at “an amount equal to 85 percent of the base salary of a judge in the superior courts in the State of Georgia.” Id. at pp. 4986-4987, § 17.

[716]*716Also as of the beginning of Inagawa’s first term, Fayette County was paying the solicitor-general and the State Court judge each a $5,000 annual supplement. Beginning in 2007, the County substantially increased the annual supplement paid to the State Court judge: for the year beginning on July 1,2007, the State Court judge received a supplement in the amount of $38,237; from June 1, 2008 to the present, the State Court judge has received an annual supplement of $32,400. The solicitor-general, however, has continued to receive the $5,000 supplement.

In 2008, the 1994 Act was amended by House Bill 08-1416 (hereinafter, “the 2008 Act”). Ga. L. 2008, p. 3834. Prompted by a resolution passed by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners, Section 2 of the 2008 Act fixed the solicitor-general’s compensation at “an amount equal to 68 percent of the base salary of a judge of the superior courts for the State of Georgia.” Id. at pp. 3834-3835, § 2. Section 1 of the 2008 Act set the State Court judge’s compensation at “an amount equal to 90 percent of the base salary of a judge of the superior courts in the State of Georgia plus 90 percent of the supplement paid to superior court judges in the Griffin Judicial Circuit.” Id. at p. 3834, § 1. Section 3 of the 2008 Act made the amendment effective “upon its approval by the Governor,” id. at p. 3835, § 3, which occurred on May 13, 2008.

After the implementation of the 2008 Act, Inagawa filed his mandamus petition, contending that he had been receiving insufficient compensation in violation of the 1994 Act since July 1, 2007, when the County increased the supplement paid to the State Court judge without increasing the solicitor-general’s compensation.2 Inagawa asserted further that, had he been receiving the correct compensation under the 1994 Act at the time the 2008 Act went into effect, the 2008 Act would have had the effect of decreasing his compensation during his term of office in violation of OCGA § 15-18-67 (b) (“no solicitor-general’s compensation or supplement shall be decreased during his or her term of office”). Because of this conflict with state law, Inagawa posited, the 2008 Act was void at its inception and the original 1994 Act remained intact, requiring the County to have paid him annual compensation equal to 75 percent of the State Court judge’s salary plus supplement.

In its order on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court agreed with Inagawa’s construction of the 1994 Act [717]*717and. thus found that Inagawa had received insufficient compensation under the 1994 Act beginning on July 1,2007. The court noted that the 1994 Act fixes the salary for the State Court judge as a percentage of the “base salary” of the superior court judges while the description of the salary for the solicitor-general excludes the word “base.” The court thus ruled that Inagawa should have received 75 percent of the total compensation — base salary plus supplement — of the State Court judge. Furthermore, the court found that the 2008 Act, if applied to Inagawa as of its effective date, would violate OCGA § 15-18-67 (b) by reducing his compensation during his term of office. Rather than declaring the 2008 Act invalid, the court determined that the 2008 Act did not become effective as to Inagawa until the beginning of his second term. Therefore, the court held, Inagawa had been appropriately compensated since that time. The net effect of the trial court’s ruling was to leave the 2008 Act intact and award Inagawa backpay for the period between July 1, 2007 and January 1, 2009.

1. We first address the issue raised in the County’s cross-appeal, because its disposition affects our analysis of the issue raised in the main appeal. The question is whether, under the 1994 Act, the solicitor-general’s compensation is to be calculated as a percentage of the State Court judge’s (a) salary only or (b) salary plus supplement. Our well established rules of statutory interpretation require courts to ascertain the legislature’s intent in enacting the law in question. OCGA § 1-3-1 (a). In so doing, we are required to give all words in the enactment due weight and meaning and are forbidden from disregarding any legislative language “unless the failure to do so would lead to an absurdity manifestly not intended by the legislature.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Labovitz v. Hopkinson, 271 Ga. 330, 336 (3) (519 SE2d 672) (1999).

The 1994 Act requires the solicitor-general’s compensation to be calculated as a percentage of the State Court judge’s “salary,” while requiring the State Court judge’s compensation to be calculated as a percentage of the Superior Court judge’s “base salary.” Ga. L. 1994, pp. 4986-4987, §§ 17,21. Neither “salary” nor “base salary” is defined in the legislation. “[Wjhere a qualifying word or phrase is found in one provision and not in some other provision, the presumption is that the other provision was not intended to have such qualification.” Thompson v. Talmadge, 201 Ga. 867, 883 (2) (41 SE2d 883) (1947). Thus, we must presume that the legislature intended some distinction between these two terms. In the absence of explicit definitions or any alternative explanation by the County, we must distinguish these two terms by concluding that “base salary” was intended to mean salary only and that “salary” was intended to mean salary plus supplement. This construction accords with a longstanding recognition that county

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Bluebook (online)
732 S.E.2d 421, 291 Ga. 715, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3148, 2012 WL 4857000, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 779, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inagawa-v-fayette-county-ga-2012.