Linderman v. Illinois Civil Service Commission

544 N.E.2d 1095, 188 Ill. App. 3d 554, 136 Ill. Dec. 320, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1367
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 8, 1989
DocketNo. 1-88-1955
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 544 N.E.2d 1095 (Linderman v. Illinois Civil Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Linderman v. Illinois Civil Service Commission, 544 N.E.2d 1095, 188 Ill. App. 3d 554, 136 Ill. Dec. 320, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1367 (Ill. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

JUSTICE PINCHAM

delivered the opinion of the court;

Plaintiff, Abe M. Linderman, filed with the Illinois Civil Service Commission (the Commission) for administrative review of the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s (IDES’) decision to terminate his employment. The Commission upheld his termination. Plaintiff then filed a complaint in the circuit court of Cook County naming as defendants the Commission, IDES, and the Illinois Central Management Services (ICMS). The trial court affirmed the Commission’s ruling which upheld plaintiff’s employment termination with IDES. Plaintiff appeals. We affirm.

Plaintiff was employed by IDES as a hearing supervisor. In 1986, a budgetary crisis occurred in IDES (which ultimately resulted in the layoff of hundreds of IDES employees). As a result of this fiscal crisis, a layoff plan was mandated and approved by ICMS, and a series of layoff warnings were given IDES employees. On April 15, 1986, plaintiff was first advised of his proposed layoff, which was to be effective at the close of the business day on May 15, 1986. At various points thereafter, on April 30 and also on May 15, 1986, plaintiff was again informed by various supervisors that he would be laid off. Each date came and went without plaintiff’s layoff being implemented. On May 30, 1986, Linderman again received notice of his layoff, in the mail, effective that day.

Linderman appealed his layoff to the Commission. The Commission requested additional information from him. In his response, Linderman asserted that IDES violated section 302.540 of the Illinois Personnel Rules by imposing a layoff only two days after approval by ICMS. Section 302.540 of the Illinois Administrative Code (80 Ill. Adm. Code §302.540 (1985)) provides that “unless extraordinary operating conditions or events are specified in the proposed layoff plan, no indeterminate layoff shall be effective until ten days after” the director’s approval of the plan.

The Commission acknowledged that 10 working days did not elapse between the approval of the layoff plan by ICMS and the effective date of plaintiff’s layoff. The Commission, however, concluded that the layoff plan specified “extraordinary operating conditions or events,” and that, therefore, the ten-day ICMS approval of the layoff plan was not required, and upheld plaintiff’s termination.

Plaintiff filed a complaint in the trial court to review the Commission’s decision. The trial court upheld the decision of the Commission.

On this appeal, we consider plaintiff’s assertion that he was laid off without proper notice, as required by Illinois Personnel Rules. The other issues presented by the plaintiff were not urged before the trial court and are deemed waived before this court. Smith v. Ashley (1975), 29 Ill. App. 3d 932, 332 N.E.2d 143.

In Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities v. Civil Service Comm’n (1981), 85 Ill. 2d 547, 426 N.E.2d 885, the supreme court mandated a two-step process for a reviewing court in reviewing an administrative agency’s (the Commission’s) decision to discharge an employee: (1) to determine whether the agency’s findings of fact are contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence; and (2) to determine whether the findings of fact provide a sufficient basis for the conclusion that cause for discharge does or does not exist. The latter is not tested by the manifest weight of the evidence, but rather whether the decision is arbitrary, unreasonable, or unrelated to the requirements of the service. Sutton v. Civil Service Comm’n (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 404, 438 N.E.2d 147; Secretary of State v. Kunz (1983), 116 Ill. App. 3d 736, 739, 452 N.E.2d 387, 389; Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities v. Civil Service Comm’n (1982), 103 Ill. App. 3d 954, 431 N.E.2d 1330.

In the case at bar, the facts are undisputed and thus the findings are not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence and there is compliance with the first step. Hence, the second step, whether the Commission’s decision is arbitrary and unreasonable, is the determinative issue before us.

Section 302.540 of Title 80 of the Illinois Administrative Code provides:

“Unless extraordinary operating conditions or events are specified in the proposed layoff plan, no indeterminate layoff shall be effective until ten working days after the Director’s approval of the layoff plan.” (80 Ill. Adm. Code §302.540 (1985).)

The issue before this court is whether the Commission properly found that “extraordinary operating conditions” existed at the time of Linderman’s layoff.

On May 19, 1986, the director of IDES submitted her layoff plan to ICMS for approval. In the layoff plan, the director explained the loss of Federal funding which necessitated the reduction of 300 positions in the workforce. The director further detailed the steps taken by IDES to notify its employees of the funding crisis and its efforts to place IDES employees with other State agencies. At the conclusion of the layoff plan, the director requested a waiver of the 10-day notice rule based on “the severe budgetary crisis in which the agency finds itself.” On May 28, 1986, ICMS approved the waiver of the 10-day notice “based on the reason for the layoff and prior employee notification.”

On the foregoing facts, the Commission found and ruled that IDES and ICMS had not violated section 302.540. The Commission based its finding on the “extraordinary operating conditions or events” specified in the proposed layoff plan and the notices provided to employees prior to the layoff.

The language of an administrative regulation is to be given its ordinary meaning. (Kern v. Uregas Service of West Frankfort, Inc. (1980), 90 Ill. App. 3d 182, 412 N.E.2d 1037.) “Extraordinary” is defined as “not of the ordinary order or pattern.” (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 807 (1971).) The Commission validly concluded that a crisis which necessitated the layoff of 300 employees was an extraordinary operating condition. The Commission’s decision that IDES and ICMS did not violate section 302.540 by waiving the notice requirement is neither arbitrary nor unreasonable.

Plaintiff asserts that this budgetary crisis was not extraordinary because it was foreseeable. However, there is no language in section 302.540 which defines extraordinary in terms of foreseeability. Section 302.540 was promulgated by ICMS under the authority of the Personnel Code. (80 Ill. Adm. Code §302 (1985); Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 127, par. 63b108.) An agency’s interpretation of its own rule is entitled to deference on administrative review. (Buchanan v. Lenz (1983), 115 Ill. App. 3d 722, 728, 450 N.E.2d 1298.) Therefore, ICMS’s interpretation of extraordinary as encompassing IDES’s fiscal crisis was properly credited by the Commission and the trial court.

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Bluebook (online)
544 N.E.2d 1095, 188 Ill. App. 3d 554, 136 Ill. Dec. 320, 1989 Ill. App. LEXIS 1367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/linderman-v-illinois-civil-service-commission-illappct-1989.