KRISTY BOWSER VS. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, POLICE AND FIREMEN'S RETIREMENT SYSTEM (POLICE AND FIREMEN'S RETIREMENT SYSTEM)

188 A.3d 375, 455 N.J. Super. 165

• Court: New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
• Decided: June 13, 2018
• Docket: A-0568-16T4
• Status: Published

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-0568-16T4

KRISTY BOWSER,

Petitioner-Appellant, APPROVED FOR PUBLICATION

v. June 13, 2018

APPELLATE DIVISION BOARD OF TRUSTEES, POLICE AND FIREMEN'S RETIREMENT SYSTEM,

Respondent-Respondent. __________________________________

Argued May 14, 2018 – Decided June 13, 2018

Before Judges Sabatino, Ostrer and Rose.

On appeal from the Board of Trustees of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System, Department of the Treasury, PFRS No. 3-10- 050623.

Samuel M. Gaylord argued the cause for appellant (Gaylord Popp, LLC, attorneys; Samuel M. Gaylord, on the brief).

Robert E. Kelly, Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent (Gurbir S. Grewal, Attorney General, attorney; Melissa H. Raksa, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel; George E. Loeser, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

The opinion of the court was delivered by

OSTRER, J.A.D.

The Police and Firemen's Retirement System Board of

Trustees denied Kristy Bowser an accidental disability pension. Without dispute, she was "permanently and totally disabled as a

direct result of a traumatic event" at the Mercer County

Correctional Center (MCCC), where she was a correctional

officer. See N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(1). She suffered her disabling

injury by falling on an icy patch near the MCCC's parking lot.

The sole question in Bowser's appeal is whether the Board erred

in finding that her fall did not "occur[] during and as a result

of the performance of [her] regular or assigned duties . . . ."

Ibid.

Bowser fell while retrieving feminine hygiene products from

her car. She needed them while, unexpectedly, serving a second

consecutive shift. We conclude she suffered her injury during

the equivalent of a restroom break "within the confines of the

workday at the work location." Kasper v. Bd. of Trs. of the

Teachers' Pension & Annuity Fund, 164 N.J. 564, 586 n.7 (2000).

The Supreme Court stated such restroom breaks are included

within "the performance of an employee's actual duties . . . ."

Id. at 585-86. We therefore reverse.

I.

Bowser was the sole witness in the hearing before the

Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). Her testimony was undisputed.

Bowser was a fourteen-year veteran of the Mercer County

Corrections department when the accident occurred. On the day

2 A-0568-16T4 of the accident, she had worked her assigned 11:00 p.m. to 7:00

a.m. shift overseeing inmates in a housing unit. During that

shift, her commander told her she had to work another eight-hour

shift on a detention floor, starting at 7:00 a.m., because

another officer "called out." At about 7:30 a.m., Bowser asked

a fellow officer on the detention floor to cover for her, as she

would if she had to use the restroom. Bowser needed to run to

her car to retrieve feminine hygiene products because she was

menstruating. As with a bathroom break, Bowser did not "clock

out" when she went to her car, and was paid for the break time.

Her car was parked on the MCCC grounds, in an area reserved

for corrections officers. On the way to her car, while walking

near an internal service road on MCCC grounds, she slipped on

black ice and fell. She was about fifteen to twenty feet from

the jail. Another officer who happened to be arriving helped

her get up. She continued to her car, then returned to the

building, went to the restroom, and "got [herself] back

together." Fifteen or twenty minutes later, her commander

relieved her for the day, as someone arrived to perform the

shift.

The Board stipulated that Bowser was totally and

permanently disabled from performing her regular and assigned

job duties. It also stipulated that her disability directly

3 A-0568-16T4 resulted from her fall, and her fall did not result from her

willful negligence. In his proposed decision, the ALJ found

that Bowser's injury was undesigned and unexpected, and it

occurred "during and as a result of the performance of [her]

regular or assigned duties." See N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(1). In so

doing, the ALJ rejected the Board's initial position to the

contrary on both points.

In sum, the ALJ found that Bowser met the five requirements

for receiving an accidental disability pension, which the Court

identified in Richardson v. Board of Trustees, Police and

Firemen's Retirement System, 192 N.J. 189, 212-13 (2007):

1. that [s]he is permanently and totally disabled;

2. as a direct result of a traumatic event that is a. identifiable as to time and place, b. undesigned and unexpected, and c. caused by a circumstance external to the member (not the result of pre-existing disease that is aggravated or accelerated by the work);

3. that the traumatic event occurred during and as a result of the member's regular or assigned duties;

4. that the disability was not the result of the member's willful negligence; and

5. that the member is mentally or physically incapacitated from performing his [or her] usual or any other duty.

4 A-0568-16T4 In its final decision denying Bowser an accidental

disability pension, the Board agreed that her injury was

undesigned and unexpected, but adhered to its view that the

injury did not arise "during and as a result of the performance

of [her] regular or assigned duties." N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(1).

The Board premised its analysis on the Court's statement in

Kasper that an employee "must be engaged in his or her

employment duties on property owned or controlled by the

employer in order to qualify for an accidental disability

pension." Kasper, 164 N.J. at 581. The Board relied on two

unpublished decisions in which our court upheld the denial of

accidental disability pensions to public employees who suffered

disabling injuries in parking lots. Recognizing those decisions

involved employees coming to, or going from work, the Board

nonetheless concluded that an employee parking lot "is not

considered the employer's premises under Kasper." Therefore,

Bowser's injury on the way to the parking lot did not occur

"during and as a result of her regular or assigned duty."

This appeal followed.

II.

We will sustain an administrative agency's quasi-judicial

decision, as the Board made here, "unless there is a clear

showing that it is arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable, or

5 A-0568-16T4 that it lacks fair support in the record." Russo v. Bd. of

Trs., Police & Firemen's Ret. Sys., 206 N.J. 14, 27 (2011). The

"search for arbitrary or unreasonable agency action" may involve

the question "whether the agency's action violates express or

implied legislative policies, that is, did the agency follow the

law . . . ." Mazza v. Bd. of Trs., 143 N.J. 22, 25 (1995).

As the facts are undisputed, whether Bowser's injury

occurred "during and a result of her regular or assigned duties"

is a legal question of statutory interpretation, which we review

de novo. See Saccone v. Bd. of Trs. of Police and Firemen's

Retirement Sys., 219 N.J. 369, 380 (2014). We may give

"substantial deference to an agency's interpretation of a

statute that the agency is charged with enforcing," Richardson,

192 N.J. at 196, particularly when its interpretation involves a

permissible construction of an ambiguous provision, Kasper, 164

N.J. at 581-82, or the exercise of expertise, In re Alleged

Improper Practice, 194 N.J. 314, 332 (2008); A.Z. v. Higher

Educ. Student Assistance Auth., 427 N.J. Super. 389, 394 (App.

Div. 2012). However, we are "in no way bound by the agency's

interpretation of a statute or its determination of a strictly

legal issue." Mayflower Sec. Co. v. Bureau of Sec., 64 N.J. 85,

93 (1973).

6 A-0568-16T4 In this case in particular, we owe no deference to the

Board's decision, as the Board does not purport to interpret

anew the statute governing accidental disability pensions,

specifically, the provision requiring that disabling accidents

occur "during and as a result of the performance of [an

employee's] regular or assigned duties . . . ." N.J.S.A.

43:16A-7(1). Rather, the Board attempts to interpret the

Supreme Court's binding precedent in Kasper, and our court's

unpublished decisions, which do not bind us. An agency is

required to follow judicial precedent interpreting the statute

it implements. Twp. of Franklin v. Franklin Twp. PBA Local 154,

424 N.J. Super. 369, 378 (App. Div. 2012).

We owe no deference to an administrative agency's

interpretation of judicial precedent. "[A]gencies have no

special qualifications of legitimacy in interpreting Court

opinions. There is therefore no reason for courts – the

supposed experts in analyzing judicial decisions – to defer to

agency interpretations of the Court's opinions." Akins v. FEC,

101 F.3d 731, 741 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (en banc), vacated on other

grounds, 524 U.S. 11 (1998). See also Miklin Enters., Inc. v.

N.L.R.B., 861 F.3d 812, 823 (8th Cir. 2017) (noting that

"[n]umerous prior court of appeals decisions have held that the

Board's interpretation of judicial precedent 'is not entitled to

7 A-0568-16T4 judicial deference'") (citation omitted); Maine Pub. Serv. Co.

v. Fed. Power Comm., 579 F.2d 659, 665 (1st Cir. 1978) (stating

"a court may pass judgment independently" upon an agency's

interpretation of judicial precedent); cf. Mount v. Bd. of Trs.,

Police and Firemen's Ret. Sys., ___ N.J. ___, ___ (2018) (slip

op. at 21) (stating that Court "reviews de novo the Board's

interpretation of N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(1) and our case law").

In this case, the Board misinterpreted the Court's decision

in Kasper to preclude categorically accidents occurring in a

public employer's parking lot.1 The Court concluded that the

current statutory language was "intended to reestablish the

integrity of the premises rule and eliminate the judicially

created exceptions to the going and coming rule." Kasper, 164

N.J. at 580. In order for an accident to be eligible, it must

have occurred "on premises owned or controlled by the employer,

and not during activities encompassed within the myriad of

coming and going exceptions that ha[ve] sprung up." Ibid.

Thus, "commuting accidents" in parking lots would not be

eligible. Ibid. However, an accident occurring "during or as a

1 We acknowledge that unpublished decisions of our court have not taken a uniform approach to accidents in parking lots and other areas outside a building where a public employee generally performs assigned duties. However, those decisions are not binding. R. 1:36-3. We look to Kasper to guide our resolution of this case.

8 A-0568-16T4 result of the actual performance of [an employee's] duties, or

in an activity preparatory but essential to the actual duty" on

the employer's premises would be eligible. See id. at 585.

Amplifying this concept, the Court held, "Common sense

dictates that the performance of an employee's actual duties

incorporates all activities engaged in by the employee in

connection with his or her work, on the employer's premises,

from the formal beginning to the formal end of the workday."

Id. at 585-86. In that regard, the Court made an observation of

particular relevance to this case: "Included are on-premises

lunch and restroom breaks that are necessary concomitants of an

employee's performance of his or her regularly assigned tasks,

so long as they occur within the confines of the workday at the

work location." Id. at 586 n.7.

Although Kasper did not involve a lunch or bathroom break

accident, the Court's statement is controlling. "Appellate and

trial courts consider themselves bound by [the] Court's

pronouncements, whether classified as dicta or not." State v.

Dabas, 215 N.J. 114, 136-37 (2013); see also State v. Sorensen,

439 N.J. Super. 471, 488 (App. Div. 2015) (stating that we, as

an intermediate appellate court, are "bound by carefully

considered dictum from the Supreme Court"). Notably, at oral

9 A-0568-16T4 argument, the Board abandoned its previous position that the

Court's statement was non-binding dictum.

The Court held that Helen Kasper, a media specialist for

the Newark Board of Education, was entitled to an accidental

disability pension after she was injured outside her school

before the official start of the work day. The Court found she

had already arrived at her work location when she was injured –

notwithstanding that she had only reached her school's front

steps. Although she arrived early, she did so with a

supervisor's approval, to distribute materials to classrooms for

use at the start of the school day. Thus, "she was engaged in

conduct that was, in every sense, preliminary but necessary to

her early workday media distribution." Id. at 588.

The Court distinguished Kasper's incident from

administrative decisions in which pension boards denied

accidental disability pensions to employees who suffered

injuries while still on the way to work. One involved a teacher

who "slipped and fell on ice while walking across [a] school

parking lot towards school [who] was 'on his way to work and was

not yet in the performance of his duties at the time of the

incident.'" Id. at 581-82 (quoting Estate of Matza v. Bd. of

Trs., TPAF, 96 N.J.A.R.2d 224 (Div. of Pensions)). Another case

involved an employee who was in an automobile collision after

10 A-0568-16T4 she drove through the front gate of her employer's facility, but

"had not yet reached her normal work location, had not signed

in, and had not begun her usual work duties." Id. at 581

(citing Lewis-Miles v. Bd. of Trs., PERS, TYP 8932-96, initial

decision (July 16, 1998), adopted (Aug. 20, 1998),

http://njlaw.rutgers.edu/collections/oal/final/typ8932-96.pdf).

Kasper does not support the Board's blanket position that a

parking lot always lies outside a public employer's premises for

purposes of determining eligibility for an accidental disability

pension. Kasper construed the statute to exclude commuting

accidents, including those that occur in the parking lot. Id.

at 580. In other words, a parking lot lies outside the work

location if it is still part of the journey to or from work.

Consistently, we held today in Mattia v. Board of Trustees,

Police & Firemen's Retirement System, ___ N.J. Super. ___, ___

(App. Div. 2018) (slip op. at 7-9), that a corrections officer

was ineligible for an accidental disability pension when he

suffered his disabling injury while traversing a parking lot on

his way to check in for work, having not yet begun performing

his regular or assigned duties.

Depending on an employee's regular or assigned duties, the

work location may well include the employer's parking lot. A

public employee injured as a result of a traumatic event while

11 A-0568-16T4 shoveling an employer's parking lot as part of his or her

maintenance job satisfies the requirement to show the injury

occurred "during and as a result of the performance of his [or

her] regular or assigned duties." N.J.S.A. 43:16A-7(1).

Likewise, a physical education teacher, injured as a result of a

traumatic event while running into the parking lot to retrieve

an errant soccer ball during a gym class would satisfy the

statute. The result depends on the employee's use of the

parking lot. We do not presume that every post-commute parking

lot accident is covered. Nor shall we attempt to formulate a

rule for cases not before us.

Here, Bowser suffered a disabling accidental injury during

her workday, at the work location. We recognize that Bowser did

not leave the jail on her way to the parking lot in order to

perform assigned duties. She does not contend she performed

security, or inmate supervision in the parking lot. However,

she entered the parking and road area within the confines of the

MCCC property to retrieve necessary feminine hygiene products

from her car because she was, unexpectedly, working a second

eight-hour shift.

Just as restroom breaks at the work location during the

workday "are necessary concomitants of an employee's performance

of his or her regularly assigned tasks," Kasper, 164 N.J. at 586

12 A-0568-16T4 n.7, so was Bowser's break to retrieve those necessary products.

She remained on the MCCC premises, and had no intention of

leaving. She obtained relief from a fellow officer so she could

briefly leave her post, as she would if she had headed straight

to the restroom. And, she was "on the clock," as she would be

during a restroom break. Consequently, her accident occurred

"during and as a result of the performance of [her] regular or

assigned duties." N.J.S.A. 47:16A-7(1). As the Board conceded

she satisfied the remaining Richardson factors, the Board erred

in denying Bowser an accidental disability pension.

Reversed.

13 A-0568-16T4